So it seems I left Bologna for another tourist-filled town... Florence (Firenze in Italian). I am disappointed in Florence. I realize it is because of my expectations, based solely on the words of others. It seems I have confused Florence with the Tuscan countryside... it is in fact not the countryside; rather, it is a metropolitan town catered to North American and European tourists who flash cameras and maps at every corner. I am surrounded by shops that urge me to buy glass from Murano or various Italian-made leather merchandise. I don't want keychains or posters or clothing... I want rolling green hills, the sun shining down (thankfully, it is) and quiet solitude.

Florence, like Venice, is absolutely beautiful. There are piazzas around every bend in the road and the chiesas (churches) are remarkable in their intricate detailing and in their size... you can feel the weight of history bearing down on you as you glance at the marble facades, the campaniles (bell tower), and of course, the frescoes of the infamous dome of Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (otherwise known as the Duomo). But the impact of all of this is momentarily forgotten under the bright flashes of the tourists' cameras.

It is finally in Florence that I have realized to look within... and not without. That we all romanticize some place, somewhere that is not where we live, where everything is beautiful and idyllic and perfect. For some, it's Paris or Florence or some exotic island off the coast of the Caribbean sea... yet once you arrive at your idolized place, you may realize it is not all that it seems. That if you live in that place, you will soon experience the frustrations and little annoyances of daily life that occur no matter where you live... so I have come to the realization that it is one's approach to life that should change and not where one lives.... that being said, living in Toronto with its grey concrete buildings and its muddy slush that is winter in the city cannot compare with the view of Florence from the cupola of the Duomo or the Dingle Peninsula off the coast of Ireland.

At the end of the day, I suppose I would rather be with the people I love in the muddy slush of Toronto or on the backseat of a fiets (bicycle) in the pouring rain in Amsterdam than alone in Florence or Dingle :)