When I was out this morning, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the Arno. I had seen the Adige in Verona last week and found it quite beautiful, but for me it didn’t have the same charm that the Arno holds. Aesthetically, one would probably choose the Adige over the Arno. The clear, rushing water in the fiume (river) is enchanting. However, the beauty of the Arno lies not in its appearance, but in its personality.

I haven’t had the time to just walk around Florence lately to see what changes have been occurring. Today, with only a half hour before lunch, I decided to walk along the Arno to take in my beloved city. Since autumn is one of my favorite seasons, I wanted to see how it has been progressing in Florence. I hadn’t noticed many leaves on the trees turning color or leaves on the ground, although in the centro (city center) there are so few trees. Across the fiume (river), the trees still look rather green with all their leaves intact.

For my birthday today, we decided to go to Verona for the day. Even though the weather reports for Verona had announced rain, I was determined to go no matter what. In Florence, we had a terrible storm last night, so when we woke up to clear skies, I thought we could get lucky. And we were. When we arrived in Verona, we were greeted with blue skies and a few dark, grey clouds lingering above us. The threat of rain was present, but not a drop fell.

It’s the first of October and fall is certainly in the air. The temperatures have cooled down, the sun is weaker, more clouds float across the sky, and the days end earlier. Nevertheless, I love the fall. Just like I love the spring. For me, these are the two active seasons of the year. It’s probably not by chance that in American English, the two seasons are also verbs.

I realized only this morning why I am slow to start my week when Monday arrives. I’m usually motivated Sunday to get the week going, but I wake up and don’t feel motivated to go out. Besides the hairdressers being closed all day, many of the shops around town are also closed in the morning. It’s as if the city is still slumbering until well after lunch. I thought I was just having Monday blues, but I think now that it has to do with the city not being completely awake yet.

At 9:30am, thousands of people met in Piazza della Signoria for the 8th edition of Corri la Vita. When we began the passeggiata (walk), we were barely moving. I met up with friends, but after ten minutes they left because we were going so slow. It took at least 10 minutes to walk to Ponte Vecchio with the large crowds and people walking with bambini (babies) in passeggini (strollers) and cani (dogs).

This evening as the sun was setting, I ran outside to Ponte alle Grazie to take a few shots of the tramonto (sunset). I wish I had my camera on the first night we returned because the sky was an incredible shade of pink and orange. I was happy to catch tonight’s tramonto because I hadn’t had time since I returned to see it.

Even if the actual center of the city is the Abbondanza statue in Piazza Repubblica, my sense was that the Duomo was more at the center of the city. Today, however, while I was standing on the Ponte Vecchio, I felt that the center might just be this ponte (bridge) because it connects the two halves of the city: the intellectual side with the artistic side.

Alessandro and I flew to Miami last Tuesday. We had enjoyed our trip to Miami Beach so much last year that we returned this year. After enjoying a quiet August in Florence, we took off before everything gets back to normal. We returned this afternoon to a sunny and warm Florence, which surprised me since I read that it had rained. While we were in the taxi coming home, I breathed in my city and stared out at the buildings, and felt joyful to be home.

All my friends know that Sundays are sacred to me. They know that I save my Sundays for my family: my suoceri (in-laws) and my marito (husband). I am lucky to have such a great relationship with my suoceri; I'd never miss a lunch with them. For me, Sundays with my suoceri are much more than just sharing a wonderful lunch, it's also a time for us to connect and talk about the days since we last met up.

While most of my photos of Florence exclude people, my life here certainly does not. On a walk the other day, I stood up at the Piazzale Michelangiolo and looked down on my beloved city. I can certainly appreciate its beauty and try to capture it in a photo, but I can’t share the true feelings I have for the city and its inhabitants. The city is filled with beauty: palazzi (buildings), chiese (churches), piazze, and monuments. I believe that I would still find the city beautiful because of the energy it conveys.

On my walk yesterday, I strolled through Piazza del Carmine and saw that they had just repainted one of my favorite palazzi (buildings). I was disappointed that they had painted it because I loved the pastel-colored cracked paint of the facciata (façade). Every time I found myself in the piazza, I would stop to admire it. I tried to find a picture I had taken of it last year, but I couldn’t find it.

Summer seems to be incredibly long since a few shops are still closed. Because many tour groups are still visiting the main attractions in town, I ventured farther out to take in my city under the clear blue skies and warm, no longer hot, sun. I strolled down a few shady one-way backstreets with narrow sidewalks toward Piazza Santa Trinita.

Today I decided to go take a few photos of my beloved city. I haven’t taken any this week, but felt in the mood to do so today. With clear blue skies and some clouds drifting by, the conditions for me were perfect. Right before lunch, I headed down the Arno away from the Ponte Vecchio. I crossed Ponte alle Grazie and walked past Piazza Demidoff. A few people were heading up to Piazzale Michelangiolo by taking the stairs on the other side of the wall in San Niccolò, but I followed the clouds to Piazza Poggi where I thought I could take a few photos of Florence.

After a quiet week in Florence with many of its residents away on vacation, fewer cars in the streets, shutters tightly shut, empty parking spaces, and many negozi (shops) around town closed. Today many of the negozi reopened and I couldn’t wait to see some of the commercianti (merchants) with whom I’ve become friends. A few of them I haven’t seen in over two weeks.