I lived in a palazzo !

It has been a while since I posted. I was in Florence. Actually I planned to write something from there but the events and Renaissance art took over. It was all fantastic. Florence, its art, architecture, food, great company and the place we stayed at. Wow!

One evening  a friend of my niece who I was travelling with, came to visit  us. She lives in Florence and she was amazed that any tourist can live as a place we stayed at. Apparently it was a district for rich people. Rich people do not rent rooms to tourists. But we were lucky and out hostess did. Not only that she did but she is down to earth, great, helpful person, full of energy and fun who even seems to like her guests.  Not some stuck up, unfriendly lady.  I like her very much.

I found the place on AirB&B and the pictures of the place looked promising. The reality delivered all that the pictures promised and more.

                                              

There were old portraits, antique furniture, marble floors, spacious room and the view! I was looking forward to see Brunelleschi copula of the Duomo, I had read about it and I thought that it was going to be the biggest attraction of Florence for me. I looked through the window, the view was wonderful and there was a church with an attractive copula. Would it be IT? It did not seem to be in a right place though, and I was confused. Will I be able to wake up each morning, open my window, look at the church and shout – Thank you Brunelleschi! I read a story that one the citizens of Florence who had a view on the famous Duomo church followed her morning ritual of opening her window and shouting “Thank you Brunelleschi!” every day. I thought that if this was the right church I would not have a choice but to disturb everybody around by loudly expressing my gratitude for the creator of the famous dome. To keep the tradition.

To my disappointment but lucky for my niece and other people living in the apartment, it turned out to be San Frediano in Cestello. Not a Brunelleschi’s master piece but still very beautiful to look at. I felt impressed and grateful for my lesser experience of beauty but beauty nevertheless. 

This is the view from our window

My Florence adventure started very nicely. I might write more about it especially that without planning I seem to write about my sightseeing impressions. Somebody said that it would make a tourist guide. Hmm... This is not my intention but I have been lucky lately to explore beautiful European sites and they were the strongest impressions and observation I have made lately. So I write about it.

The last day of my stay in Florence our hostess booked a taxi for me and she said “a taxi will come at 11 sharp and it will wait for you in front of the palazzo”.  It was all official then, it was a palazzo I lived two weeks in. Lucky me.

And this what our palazzo looks like. We did not stay on the real palatial floor, I must confess