Florence day and night

After an amazingly long mountain drive, coming from San Marino, we arrived in the nighttime Florence. We had rented a guest room in the apartment of a Spaniard for two nights and planned two things: 1. To visit Florence on the sunny day tomorrow, 2. To complete Anne's very last proofreading for her master's thesis (as the deadline was approaching soon). Since Anne needed more time than the remaining evening of our arrival, I set out the next afternoon to explore the city center on my own - an unfamiliar feeling after 22 weeks of almost constant togetherness. And so, after a short bus ride from the outskirts to the center, I walked through the streets, relying on my instincts and Google Maps. We haven't been making detailed plans for an 'efficient' city visit for a while now. Actually, that is probably not the right approach in Florence, the Renaissance capital with historic and art-historical places at every corner, but after weeks of wandering through old town over and over again, the motivation to study a city map parallels the increase in confidence that we will stumble upon the most significant points on our own. And so, of course, I quickly found myself at the world-famous and spectacular Cathedral of Florence. The highlight of the small sightseeing tour for me was not the huge and richly decorated dome, but the organ music playing simultaneously with my visit... a bombastic sound in this building! =) Other highlights were the Piazza della Signoria with a copy of Michelangelo's David and other very dynamic statues in the adjacent Loggia del Lanzi, as well as the bridges over the Arno River. You have surely seen the pictures.

In the evening, there was a great joy: Anne had diligently completed her master's thesis 'completto' and was now relieved of this burden that had always accompanied us! =) She also came into the city and we looked at the favorites of my city tour together before it eventually got too cold and we preferred to retreat to the warm apartment.