I’m happy to say that I am just beginning my 5th year of living in Florence! Hip hip! It’s an accomplishment in so many ways! And a pleasure.

This is my 5th (or 6th really, because I spent another December in 2014 here as well) December in Florence and if there is one thing I know, late November and December is the time of rain.

This year is has been extra dreary because of the Covid lockdown. Until 2 days ago, we were in the Red zone, which meant you were not allowed to go out for extraneous activities and you had to carry a document with all the details of your venture out of your house, in case the authorities stopped you.

But 2 days ago we were switched back to the Orange zone, which means we can walk about as desired. Despite the rain, I needed to get out of the house and so I decided to trace the Mugnone torrente, that flows in front of my apartment, to its confluence with the Arno River. It was about a 4 mile walk and it was partly cloudy, terrifically rainy and windy, and finally, sunny. I got wet, my umbrella turned inside out, and I was tired, but it was a great day despite all of that.

My video shows the end of the long, long torrente Mugnone, just before it joins the Arno at the Ponte all’ Indiano.

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The picture above is taken from the bridge you saw in the video. That’s the Mugnone on the left, as it flows into the Arno, at the western most end of the Cascine Park.

And again, a little further backwards.

This being Italy, the street artists were sure to snap up the space of the bridge supports to use for art.

A detail of the right side above.

A detail of the left side above.

Above: Looking down the Arno from the bridge, as it flows off towards Pisa.