My jasmine is blooming its little heart out right now and the scent is divine!

As you can see, I’ve got a lot of other blossoms right now too. The nasturtiums both self-seeded and also overwintered and are going strong right now. As soon as the Tuscan summer heat hits my balcony, which it will probably do next month, the nasturtiums will fade away. Do you remember that funny line from the movie “Silver Streak?” Gene Wilder’s character says to his amorous prey that “nasturtiums like it nasty.” In America nasturtiums like all the heat a summer can bring, but I’ve found in Florence they can’t take the heat.

I’ve also got marigolds blooming, which seems incongruous to me in the spring! But these overwintered and are doing just fine right now.

For the entire article, see https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/uffizi-galleries-nfts-caravaggio-botticelli-1234593017/

In an Effort to Recoup Losses, Uffizi Sells Renaissance Masterpieces as NFTs

There’s a newly announced initiative in Italy, seeking to build a trail that will span the entire Italian peninsula and will connect all of Italy’s 25 national parks. You can read all about it here:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20210517-the-sentiero-dei-parchi-a-new-hiking-trail-uniting-italy

We’ve had a week of cool temperatures, cloudy skies, and quite a bit of rain. But, we’re in the Yellow Zone, whoopee!, and you gotta brave the weather!

Florence looks lovely as always, now through a canopy of deciduous tree leaves again!

The reddish/orange blooms below caught my eye. They seemed to be the color of flowering Japanese quince, but I knew it was too late in the spring for those blossoms. I opened by handy dandy plant app to discover what they actually were, and they are the blooms of pomegranate. This shrub, or tree, is still pretty new to me, so I am still learning. What pretty blossoms!

There were some lingering iris blossoms along my favorite path:

But, for me, nothing was more beautiful on that recent day than the stone wall, sprouting with moss and new ferns. How lovely the design!

Happy days are hear again!

Of the Florence iris show!

First place is awarded the Fiorino door, the gold coin.

Did you know that the famous UK ceramics design company, Wedgewood, inspired leather designs in the fashions of the late 1950s and early 1960s. What do you think?

The founder of modern nursing science, scholar of statistics, promoter of social reform: Florence Nightingale was born in Florence on May 12, 1820. Of course, she was named for the city of her birth.

Also known as the “lady with the lamp,” Florence, Italy pays homage to this leader and keeps her memory alive. The Opera di Santa Croce reopened today, coincidentally, after Covid. In the first cloister is a monument and commemorative plaque dedicated to her.