firenze

so this is where the great renaissance started roughly 700 years ago. one wonders, really, what florence must have been like before all those basilicas have been built and those frescoes, painted, to have ushered enlightenment and a new age at such a grand scale. what a beauty and inspiration it must have been to have spawned artists, scientists, writers, and philosophers of the likes of michaelangelo, botticelli, donatello, brunelleschi, da vinci, galileo, machiavelli, and alighieri (whose divine comedy i'm still struggling to read past page 30, still stuck in inferno after all these years :P). the city itself is not as grand as rome nor as romantic as venice, but its simplicity (and food) left a huge mark in my heart. i marvel at the experience of walking through small alleys, quaint bookstores, family-run leather shops, grand pantheons and even grander basilicas or looking at art and finally meeting my david face to face. and having rubbed the nose of the porcellino, my return to florence has been guaranteed. the only questions that remains now are when, and with whom? ^^

Basilica di Santa Croce

Fontana del Porcellino

Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral and Ponte Vecchio at night

Mercato de San Lorenzo ^^

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