Oh! how lucky I feel! to live in a place where spring starts before April!

Look at the blooming roses! This is not standard even here at this time of year; this shrub is in a particularly sunny location.

Along the way Lungarno, the weeping willows are coming to life!

The photos below are of one of my favorite early spring blossoming shrubs: commonly called the flowering quince but beautifully known in Latin as Chaenomeles japonica. I love the bright coral-colored blooms! I grow one in my garden in Denver. It blooms much much later than February in that climate.

Unfortunately for me, these gorgeous shrubs are planted down the meridian of a very busy highway and I couldn’t get any good pix because of the zooming traffic. But, you know I did my best!

I spotted one magnolia bud on a tree in my hood. Somebody needs to get out the pruning shears and shape this tree up! It’s got a lot of old growth that needs chopped off.

One of the avenues in my new neighborhood is graced with tens of mature umbrella pines, perhaps my favorite tree of all. It’s hard to get a good picture of these massive things, but I did my best!

Along this avenue I spotted this sculpture. Know nothing about it…yet.

Found a tabernacle, almost impossible to see, attached to a fairly modern building. The Italian tradition of erecting tabernacles along busy walkways has continued at least until the 1950s.

Closer to my apartment building, I came across this interesting juxtaposition of buildings on a block nearby. From what I am learning, my neighborhood was planned by Giuseppe Poggi, a famous architect who made many decisions about how the city of Florence would be developed in the 2nd half of the 19th century. He designed the famous area known as the Piazzale Michelangelo, for example. The first two buildings seen below from my neighborhood, from left to right, look to be original to the late 19th century. The 3rd one down is obviously 20th century. I like the history and being attached to this historic area.

Life is nothing if not interesting here.