Florence (Firenze)
Off the beaten path in Florence
Whenever possible, I choose the less traveled roads as I traverse this fascinating city. Without a car or a bike–or even a Vespa–I walk a lot. Every day. Every place. And, I love it.
Recently I wandered down a street that is less than 5 minutes from the touristic center of Florence, where the streets are well washed and no litter survives a few hours, let alone a day.
And this old street, with its decrepit buildings, spoke to me. Does it speak to you?
Un occasione a praticate il vostro italiano ed guardate la città allo stesso tempo
Via de’ Tornabuoni, Firenze
An occasional window shopping expedition along Florence’s “Rodeo Drive” is fun from time to time.
Valentino objets below:
Ferragamo next:
The Ferragamo shop is housed inside a Renaissance palazzo. The building itself is more interesting to me than the goods for sale.
Graffiti
Abandonment
Bittersweet moments seen in Florence yesterday:
A temporarily abandoned Curious George:
And a poor, little evergreen tree, still dressed up for Christmas, but with no place to go!
Signs in Florence
Walking through the well-worn streets in Florence, I am often entertained by the signs I encounter. I like to walk slowly and take in all the wonderful messages all around me.
For example, the following sign below is very, very clear about their products. It is outside the butcher shop and says, “Fresh meats, cattle, sheep, pork, poultry and game.” Wow, that’s a wide ranging offering!
The lower sign (in picture above) expands the offerings slightly. It reads “Meats for sale, fresh meats, cattle, sheep, pork, poultry and rabbits.”
The bicycle shop below caught my eye for the colors and fonts. I sometimes think of buying a biciclette here, but fear it would be stolen and so I doubt I will buy one.
Horticulture in Florence
It seems like in every season, something wonderful is in bloom in Italy. Right now it is mimosa.
Also beginning to bloom are the camellias
I walked down a wide avenue in western Florence yesterday, where I noticed a long line of street trees that have been severely pruned in the Pollarding method, a pruning system involving the cutting of long branches of a tree, done to promotes a dense head of foliage and branches.
Pollarded trees look brutal against gray winter skies.
Jet stream over Florence
get back, lauretta! 
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