Rejoice Florence!

Florence is one of my favourite Italian cities. The only real competitor, in my eyes, is Venice, but Venice isn't really like anywhere on earth so I tend to put it in a category all its own making Florence numero uno! I'd been to Florence once before in my life when I visited Italy on a family holiday back in 2005. To be honest, I wasn't bowled over: it was a cloudy day, but still really muggy; I resented having to walk such a long way; and to be honest when you're 16, Renaissance architecture just doesn't quite float your boat, Valentino Rossi, yes, the Duomo from goodness-knows-when, not really.

We were nearing the end of our third week in Camerino and I'd reached the point where I was bored of visiting churches and quaint Italian towns. I freely admit to hating myself for that, but it didn't change the way I felt about it all.

Saturday was to see us all go on a mass-outing to Florence. We'd done Assisi and Perugia on the first Saturday, we'd done Rome (in a big way) on the second. Finally it was the turn of Florence - home to Dante (before he was exiled), the old Duomo thing, and the bridge with all the shops on. Nice.

We had a really early get up - in fact the sun hadn't quite risen when we left Camerino, but was giving us a spectacular show nonetheless. It was a bit of an arduous journey, but despite my previous encounter, I was really looking forward to going to Florence and making a better fist of it this time around.

We arrived at about 11'o'clock and started walking into the centre of town. The day was much nicer than the one I had been greeted with during my first visit, but there was a beautiful breeze that made the intense heat a little more bearable.

What I noticed very early on was that Florence was very Italian. I know. Well done for stating the obvious, but let me explain. What I love about Italy is the fact that they have never heard of Barratt Homes plc. - they are completely oblivious to the fact that you can create uniform housing estates which are kinder to the eye aesthetically, but how many Japanese tourists do you see taking pictures of housing estates in Surrey?

Italy has real character. The buildings are like people hemmed into a small space - each one is different and no-one seems to care. In between all this chaos you occasionally find a bit of architecture that makes your jaw drop to the floor and pull out the camera.

This is the relationship I have with the Duomo in Florence. From every angle it's magnificent - you can't take a bad picture of it. Don't believe me? I'll let you make up your own mind...

You can tell that I spent a lot of time getting intimately acquainted with this building. I wasn't quite at the stage where I wanted to marry it (like the lady who married the Berlin Wall) but I was in awe of its beauty.

This was just one of the many stops on our journey. As per usual we were having a guided tour so that we could see all the best places in the city and learn a little about them as we went.

The tour (after a break for lunch) went on into the afternoon and ended at the Boboli Gardens on the other side of the city. I can't remember anything of what was said on the tour - no facts, no nuggets of information, but I remember loving it. I was loving just being in Florence, being in such an amazing city. There was nothing about it that I couldn't explain away as character, or charm.

We had a few hours to ourselves before we had to meet for the bus and we decided to wind our way back into town via a bridge that would give us a view of the Ponte Vecchio - the bridge with all the shops on. It is such an iconic image of the city, and it was good to see it again close-up, but this time appreciate it a little more.

The day ended too soon in my opinion and we all piled onto the coach to go back to Camerino. There was, however, one more stop that we had to make before leaving the city. There is a piazza above the city with one of the replica statues of David and an incredible view of Florence down below. The sun had started the day by giving us a stunning sunrise, kept us warm throughout, and gave us a parting gift as I waved goodbye to the city I wouldn't return to for a number of years...

 Florence, Italy, 2009