Freaking beautiful. My viewing audience, prepare to read a lot.

When I was 9 years old, I watched a movie called “A Room with a View” starring Helena Bonham Carter, pre-Tim Burton as buttoned up, Victorian Lucy Honeychurch and Julian Sands, pre Warlock/scary Russian roles, as George Emerson, blond haired object of admiration. The story is a simple one. Lucy journeys to Florence with her chaperon Charlotte Bartlett when she turns 18 to see the frescoes of Giotto and generally experience the magic of Florence.

George and his father are on vacation as well. George is on the railroads and his father is a journalist. George broods a lot and doesn’t talk very much. George and Lucy meet at the Pensione Bertolini one night over dinner when Charlotte and Lucy have been arguing. They were promised rooms with a view, but are given rooms with no view. George and his father overhear the argument and offer to change. George’s father utters a great line about his view being from the inside. “Here is where the bird’s sign, here is where the sky is blue,” the elder Emerson says.

And thus begins Lucy and George’s romance. I will not give the rest of the movie away, but Florence plays a huge part in it. I’ll admit that I’d always heard Florence was beautiful and that it was a wonderful place to visit but I thought it would be overrun by tourists and didn’t really want to visit. My real reason for wanting to visit was to retrace the steps of George and Lucy.

A few days ago, my long held dream came to fruition when I visited Florence. The city did not disappoint:

Even the train station is cool. Not as cool as Grand Central, but this kind of a Art Deco wonder. Observe:

OK and in light of the paragraph above, I have to do this. This is my room, with a view:

And well, some more views:

As if the views above weren’t enough, Florence is home to some of the world’s best and best known works of art. OK, I sound like a stupid tour guide. I tried to make these a bit more interesting that your average art photos. At least I hope they are:

Even the non-classical art takes your breath away:

And as if the ridiculous beauty could ever end, we have this:

Here is a piece of advice Florence. Let me tell you, my camera is tired. Really really, really, really tired, so STOP BEING SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL. Come on Italy. Get rid of Santa Croce and put in a WalMart. That would be a wonderful start. Until then, there will be more entries about Florence!