I love Florence, it is a gorgeously compact city and it’s so beautiful. I had a few days here in 2015 on my tour around Italy and it made a big impression. I’m not normally much of a shopper, especially for girly things, but Florence unleashed a beast 🙂 In the department store Rinascente, a lovely salesman had decided I needed an hour long perfume exploration to find just the right scent for me (such an Italian thing to do, walking backwards and forwards through wafts of scent laughing and enjoying the moment), and to this day I still wear the Versace perfume he recommended. I bought beautiful cast bronze earrings from a local jeweler. I discovered the Desigual brand and bought a denim jacket that I still wear and love. Leather bags. Lovely underwear….in fact on that trip I bought so many things in quick succession that I had to take myself for a time out 🙂 About a year after that trip I lost one of the earrings at an outdoor movie night and was gutted! So I tracked down the jeweler online and asked if she had more of them and she did! But paying for them and getting them shipped was tricky, and ultimately too hard. SO….when I was thinking about where next and Florence came up in my search I thought ha I can buy myself another pair! Which, in truth, is the real reason I decided to come here for the new year. The fact I love the city is a wonderful bonus 🙂 My train arrived late afternoon and there were even more people than in Milan, in a much smaller space! Getting to my hotel with a suitcase was like navigating the American Ninja Warrior obstacle course 🙂 but as soon as I was checked in and freshened up, I was out on the hunt for my jeweler. Maps and directions I am completely hopeless with, but my memory of places and navigating is apparently bang on. I knew exactly where I was, and once on the right street it was just a matter of hoping the shop was still there. And open on a Sunday night. And it was! And there was one pair of my earrings there! I picked them off the wall and took them to the counter with a huge smile on my face and launched into a long explanation to the man about my previous visit, the lost earring, my attempts to get another set and finally being here I could replace them. ‘Buona sera signora, prego’, he said (not understanding a word I had said). So I shook his hand and said grazie mille, paid and left. I know from my previous visit that his wife makes the bronze jewelry from wax casts, and that he is an artist, but he could see I was happy, and he was happy that I was happy. I spent the next few hours revisiting some of the places I had loved when I was here last, and they are still the same, nothing much has changed in 5 years. Which is kind of nice. Strange to be so far from home but be in a place that feels so familiar and no need for Google maps. I’m going to love my few days here 🙂 Va bene 🙂
Florence is also still decked out from Christmas 
My jeweler! 
mission accomplished 
Tomato bread soup yumm 
I want I want but 500 euro 
such a happy memory 
scene of my previous spending spree 