Ah, Firenze my love.

*click to enlarge*

2 or 3 Things is another of my absolute favorites. I get the impression it's author is in Florence of all places, and the images she's been posting are tugging at my heart. Actually just about any image of Italy does that, but these of Firenze are especially killing me. I Google-earthed my old address and got this view. Owww.

The bridge top center was "my" bridge, Ponte Trínita. We used to sunbathe and journal on those triangles that stick out on it's sides, and once two of my friends jumped off of them into the Arno below in the middle of the night. If you follow the line of that bridge, you'll be on "my" street, and all the way at the bottom of the image, where the street creates an backwards, upside down "y" is where I lived, Via Maggio 48. At the very end of the road, we'd sometimes get really crispy, thin brick-oven pizza for dinner.

The bridge to the right is the famous Ponte Vecchio, which is lined on both sides by tiny jewelry stores. Looking to the left side of the image, you can see two green square courtyards. Just below that where you can see trees and umbrellas covering outdoor cafe tables is Piazza Santa Spirito. The facade of that side of the building was very plain but beautiful to me. We used to sit at those tables and drink wine after class and talk about how Michaelangelo supposedly dissected cadavers on it's steps.

Finally, if you were walking from the bridge toward my apartment, and took a left down the tiny "y" street at the bottom, you'd find the "Ciao Man", where we bought our groceries, fruits and vegetables for dinner almost nightly. Google Earth told me his store is still there. Go visit him.

Frutta e Verdura
Regoli Renzo
Via Sdrucciolo del Pitti 7
Tel. 211775