Florence...Tuscany! The country. The Love.

Florence, the capital city of the region of Tuscany, symbolizes everything I write about in this travel blog; Art, wine, and love. The country of Italy has a romantic presence the entire world is aware of. The food is world known as divine. The wines are celebrated internationally. The art is historically relevant and taught as the epitome of brilliance. All the renown great artists are Italian. Everything spectacular about Italy presented itself to me in the intimate city of Florence.

I love Tuscany so much more than I thought I would, or even intended.  Truth be told, I wasn't even planning on going to Florence. I built this years annual birthday trip around a marathon in Rome. Then, everyone I shared my plans with, proceeded to ask if I was going to Florence. That I absolutely had to visit the Tuscany area and the city of Florence. So, I built it into my trip.
It should have been my entire trip.
The entire area which has been represented in films is even more amazingly beautiful in person. The rolling hills and small chateaus showed like cinematic fantasy as I rode through the countryside on a bus full of international tourists, strangers seeking the same glimpse of fulfillment.

Beautiful Tuscany

I heard the voices of the people who kept telling me, "you have to go to Florence". I had no idea the truth to their words. People tell you all the time, "this is so good", "you have to try that", "it's the best", and it's not - usually it's garbage, but I am willing to try. This was the exception, by far.
I felt the energy. I visited the Duoma, and the museums. I ate the food and drank the wine. I watched the people glide through the streets in the clothes. Geez, people are not kidding about the fashion sense of the Italians. They got it. The end. The word fabulous was invented and intended for Italian women.
All I could think of when I saw women effortlessly breeze around, was the scene from Sex and the City where Carrie's Italian friend sees her on the streets of NYC, and she says, "Carrie, Ciao" *kiss kiss* and she is just fucking fabulous. It made me want to start wearing dresses again and up my game. These are women. Confident, sexy, un-bothered women living life to the fullest.

I immersed myself in the countryside, and I got lost. I mean really lost. Every day I was lost. All day.  Everyday. Happily lost in a foreign country for hours at a time. I got so lost, but in the best way. I wandered back streets. I got scared. I back tracked. I walked and walked and walked, and in the end I found my way, but those lost hours were only lost in the American concept that I had somewhere to be, but I didn't. I needed to be right where I was, at every moment in Tuscany, embracing my short life, wandering the streets of Italy, soaking up the sun, looking for the meaning of life in the perfect month of my 49th year of life.
It was in all sense of the phrase, "all good".


Youtube Tuscany with SherriB0mb

These are just a few moments I captured while wandering the streets of Florence and touring Tuscany. I met artists, shared fine meals and even bought a few Italian dresses. This is probably one of the cities I know I will return and enjoy as much, if not more than the first time. There will never be the same beautiful moments captured in any given hour of time.