The last day, with all its rain, was actually by far the best. Ash had been to the Duomo once before but the queue was fairly short in the morning’s warm drizzle and I badgered her into coming along again. We pottered around in the nave, took some photographs and peered upwards into the dome [...]
June 8th, 2008
June 4th, 2008
Florence
—seat of the renaissance; birthplace of Machiavelli and Dante; home to Da Vinci and Michaelangelo—smells very slightly of urine. Admittedly this is intermingled with the wafting aroma of freshly baked bread, pungent salami and Belgian waffles which emanates from countless cafés and gelatarias, but it was the undercurrent of toilet-based perfume which made itself most [...]
July 24th, 2007
If it ain’t baroque, don’t fix it.
I’m typing this on my phone as we sit under the awning of a closed taverna, watching the elegantly weatherbeaten Campo San Giacomo da l’Orio* being further beaten by the current weather: a sudden, relentless downpour dramatically accompanied by rolling thunder and bursts of lightning. It’s about 6pm and trying for an early dinner is [...]