Welcome to Florence in Winter

Annamaria on Monday 

When I read my Bro Jeff's Saturday post about snow in Greece,  it inspired me to take up this subject.  Greece was not the only white landscape these past weeks.  My beloved NYC has been bearing up under its third snowfall of the season, and one of my neighbors sent an email complaining that the sidewalk outside our building on East 11th Street was a sheet of ice.

If the following sounds like gloating, I apologize.  Actually people often ask me what Florence is like in winter.  Please accept the following as an answer to that question, rather than an exercise in self-satisfaction.

Here is what winter in Florence is like:

I have seen a little bit of snow once in the past five weeks...

 Up in the hills, as seen from the north-facing window of my apartment.   

And there has been some rain and some pretty dense fog...

The barely visible tower of the Palazzo

Vecchio in early morning fog

But for the most part, it has been blue skies, and temps in the 50s during the day.

View from the Ponte Vecchio, when returning home from

the supermarket.

That same photo with the windows of my place 

indicated in red.

One of the great things about being here in winter is that sunrise is later and sunset earlier, so that, every day, one can easily see dawn,,,

...sunset.

And the full moon rise in the evening ...

 

And setting at dawn.

At this time of year, of course, all the beautiful sights are still here...

But, especially this year, with Covid restrictions thinning out the crowds more than usual, one finds access to easier to all the great attractions.

One morning, I fount myself alone in this narrow vincolo and thought it must have looked exactly this way when Dante walked here.

All of this is delightful, of course, but nothing has moved me as much as a complete surprise: the arrival, in Samburu, Kenya on 15 January 2022, of my namesake--Patricia King Lesiamito

What a thrill to welcome her in our World.