This is my first of many blogs from my latest Italian trip.    On May 18th, I travelled to Florence (Firenze) which has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities of the world.  This is easy  to believe given the city's  artistic and architectural heritage.   In 1982, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.   On May 19th,  I met up with a group of photographers for a two week  tour of the region which included a couple of days in this remarkable  city.  I had been to Italy before but never to this region.   My  blogs are all dedicated to the great group of  eight photographers that I travelled with for the two weeks.  The vacation  would not have been so terrific had it not been for everyone of them.  The only downside of the holiday was that  I came home  with over 10,000 photos which kind of overwhelmed me.    So I have been home for about a month now and its taken me this long to post my first blog. 

I had checked into the  hotel by early afternoon on May 18th after a very nice flights from Toronto to Frankfurt and then on  to Florence.  I decided to wander around by myself until meeting the rest of the group for  a welcome reception and dinner.  The hotel was near the River Arno which cuts through the old part of the city.   The 240 (150 mi) river promoted the commerce in the city but at the same time destroyed  it with numerous floods.   This was one of my first views of Florence.  

  I found people sleeping or just relaxing on the wall that runs along the river.     The bridge in the background is the  Ponte Vecchio (old bridge).  

I did get caught for a little while in a downpour so with everyone else I waited under a doorway until the rain stopped.  Then I walked down some of Florence's narrow streets.

As I explored  the streets I saw musicians everywhere.  

As I wandered back to the hotel later on, the weather cleared up and I saw another nice view of the river.  

The next morning our group  started our photographic journey of Florence around 6 AM .    This building with the mafia investigation office  reminded me that I was in Italy just in case I forgot (not likely)! 

This shot was taken at 6.23 AM just as the city and all of us  were waking up.   

I took a lot of shots in this area with each one slightly different in terms of angle of view.  It was difficult to pick my favourite shot so I included a few.  

As the light changed we took more pictures walking around in the same area enjoying seeing and photographing the scenery.  The Arno River is principally used for irrigation with only 32 (2o mi) used for navigation.  The 1966 flood of this river in Florence killed many people and damaged or destroyed millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. 5,000 families were left homeless by the storm and 6000 stores were forced out of business.  Approximately 600,000 tons of mud, rubble and sewage severely damaged or destroyed numerous collections of the written work and fine art for which Florence is famous.   Fortunately with technological progress many of these works of arts have been restored. 

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this cute little car.  These cars are perfect for the narrow streets of Florence.   Also, meet a member from our group, Fred Langer from Colorado.  Fred is a very accomplished photographer and it was a pleasure photographing and travelling with him.

The  Ponte Vecchio  is a Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge noted for having shops built along it as was once common.   Butchers initially occupied the space but now walking along the bridge I saw mostly jewellers, art dealers, and souvenir sellers.  The bridge  is a very popular spot for tourists.

Meet Jed Manwaring, one of the  two photographer leaders on the tour.   Jed excelled at finding interesting and unique subjects  to photograph.   

This was  the  area that Jed was focussing on.  We waited to take the photograph  until the light hit the boat.   It certainly was a picturesque spot and the boat made it perfect.   In the 1950's these buildings all had to be reconstructed due to  the flood damage. 

	Everywhere we went in the morning there were these wonderful colours of buildings and flowers. Walking along the river was a photographer's dream in the early morning light.

 Reflections of the buildings.  

Walking near the Ponte Vecchio.

Florence is an important city in Italian fashion being ranked within the top fifty fashion capitals of the world.   It was always interesting to look in the shop windows to see what "fashions" are in.  For anyone wondering, I did not buy a pair of shoes like this. 

However, wandering around in the city, I did find lots of examples of the latest fashions.  This gentleman was looking very dapper and the women were all dressed up  on their way to a wedding.   Some of the fashion even rubbed off on me as I came home with two Italian scarves thanks to Sam, Gretchen and Megan (photographers in our group).

 This couple were having wedding pictures taken in one of the squares so of course our group got right in there to help!    The next blog will feature some Florence street scenes and a visit to the Florence San Lorenzo Mercato Centrale, or in English, the Central Market.