firenze at dawn
About ten years ago, at the end of a spell working in France, I blew my final month's wages on a trip to Italy. Didn't plan it or anything, just got on the first train I liked the sound of, which was heading for Florence.

Arrived in Florence at about 1.30am, by which time everything was shut and I was faced with a night on the streets (couldn't afford a hotel) so I checked my backpack in at the left luggage desk at the station and just wandered about a bit, trying to avoid the various temptations being put my way by the hookers and drug dealers.

I had never been to Florence before, and purely by chance my wanderings took me down to the River Arno, across the Pontevecchio and up the hill on the other side to the Piazza Michelangelo, which has a fantastic view over the old part of the city, and it was here I decided to stop wandering.

So, my first sight of Florence by daylight was as the sun came up over the city, the spires of the cathedral and the old palace rising through the early morning mist. It was a stunning sight - I was moved almost to tears by the beauty of it, a feeling that was enhanced by that strange sense of everything being not quite real that you get when you haven't slept for 24 hours and are cold and hungry.

An utterly amazing experience.
( smutch, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 15:32, Reply)