One year later in Florence

One year has gone by and I am back in tourists' dream city, only to find out that not much seems to have changed.

Hotel is the same, tourists are the same, my lecture is the same, the beautiful golden series "Calla" on Ponte Vecchio still for sale. Even my wallet empty and me in urgent need of an ATM, exactly like last year.

One again, easy to see why Florence has become the jewel so many people dream of. So much art everywhere, so easy to manage, so great that "typically Italian atmosphere" (whatever it is exactly).

And Florence obliged: everyone speaking English, filtered coffee at breakfast, cappuccino after lunch. And once again, like a year ago, beautiful but not my dream. Regardless my teenage memories of the endless queues at the Uffizi, of the shining green of the Boboli gardens and of the beautiful slurpy icecream, forever symbol of sweet abundance.


Nice for shopping though. And there you see that next summer will be quite colourful. Buy red or orange sandals today, never mind the pouring rain outside the shop.

La porti un bacione a Firenze

There you go, I'm in Rome again, after 2,5 days in Florence.
Firenze, a very cute city, absolutely nice for a visit, it did not speak to my heart. Not in the way Rome does and did since the first day many years ago.

Wandering through the narrow streets in the centre without a destination in the sweet sunlight of the late afternoon.

But what is it exactly that Rome has and Florence doesn't?

Rome is bigger, more chaotic, dirtier perhaps, more tiring for sure. Noisy as hell.

I guess it's like being in love, you know it, you feel it and yet you can't point at the single thing which makes a difference. Not that love alone would suffice, yet with no love nothing can even start. Not even picking your residence.