I had one day left in Florence, and only then did I realise I had been saving it without quite admitting it to myself. All week, coming and going from the hills, I had left certain streets unwalked and certain…
For When You Are Ready
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Tuscany
Tuscany is the Italy of the imagination made real: rolling hills striped with cypress, honey-stone towns on every ridge, vineyards and olive groves running to a blue horizon, and a light in the late afternoon that has drawn painters and…
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Florence
Florence is the city where the Renaissance was born, a compact, walkable jewel on the Arno where Michelangelo’s David, Botticelli’s Venus and Brunelleschi’s impossible dome sit within a few minutes of one another. It is a city of art and…
The Long Way Round – Tuscany Day 3
I woke before the alarm, although I suspect I would have even if I had forgotten to set one. There are some mornings when the light seems to wake you before the world has the chance. I dressed quietly in…
The City to Myself
I woke early in the villa, before the house had quite decided to be awake, and lay for a while watching the light come up green through the shutters, listening to the particular silence that belongs to places built high…
Under the Roman Sun
I woke before the heat had settled over the city and went out to meet its oldest streets while they were still half asleep. Rome in the early morning feels like another place entirely. The shutters remained mostly closed, cafés…
