Hotel Monna Lisa -Florence City Centre

Greetings the Hotel Monna Lisa in Florence. I wasn't able to do anything but check my e-mail one time in Venice. As you know, I left Sunday on a flight to Chicago. After transferring to the international terminal I arrived at the Alitalia desk where one of the 4 persons in line told me that the flight was cancelled. I found out later from a young Italian guy that this happens all the time and word is that the airline is going down the tubes. The booked me on an Air France flight to Paris and ...

I am so excited to be writing about Tuscany. Now that I have shared some of our Roman holiday memories and now that the winter Holidays are coming to end, it's time for me to get back to telling more tales of our journey in Europe. This time it's off to Tuscany and I have so much so share with you! Overall, we were in Florence for 6 days and explored most of the architecture and fine art in the birthplace of the Renaissance; tasted the fine cuisine of course; and were awe-struck with the bre...

Care to journey back with me to the 13th century to study the masters in one of the most famous art collections in the world? To get up close and personal with Giotto, Raphael, Michelangelo, Bernini and Caravaggio? To travel through time from Gothic, to Renaissance, to High Renaissance, to the Baroque with the Medici? Well, read on to see how we spent our first day in the Renaissance City of Florence!

We started out at the Uffizi Gallery at 8:30am, the time of our reservation. What ...

Florence - The EuroTraveler seeks out to discover the art and architecture of the city that gave birth to the Renaissance.

The Art of the Renaissance is everywhere in Florence and lies awaiting discovery and scrutiny by all whose curiosity is piqued by the masters' creative genius. Guided by skillful hands, these gifted artists created masterpieces on canvas, in marble, in writing and in the design of some of the most inspiring architecture in the world. Monuments and buildings desi...

Another profound and wondrous moment in my life was to gaze up at the David, a colossal sculpture of perfection, without question, and beauty! Actually, it's quite humbling to stand before another Michelangelo masterpiece and be moved so spiritually, so intellectually, so artistically. I have waited 18 years since college days of attending art history courses and writing my final paper on this magnificent piece of sculpture, to see David and now, we were just moments away. My heart was pound...

Well, it's time to move out of the city centre for a short break from history and into the sun drenched hills of Tuscany. This is our journey to Fiesole, a town that lies just west of Florence beyond Oltrarno, the other side of the Arno. While still in close proximity to Florence and actually only five kilometers away, Fiesole seems like a world away from the historic city centre. You climb high in hills under the Tuscan sun along narrow winding roads framed by the Cyprus trees that have com...

One can't help feeling humbled and quite frankly, dwarfed as you stand beside Florence's Duomo with Brunelleschi's dome rising boldly to the heavens or next to Giotto's campanile standing alongside since 1333. Imagine for a moment, what life was like before the Duomo when an ancient Christian basilica stood on these grounds in the late 4th century when this colony of Rome, known as Florentia, was bustling with Roman denizens? Come with me to explore this Piazza del Duomo which has been the r...