Italy #7: Firenze
From Rome, we took the train to Florence. In Italian, it’s called Firenze. It is the one city whose English name doesn’t sound anything like its native name. (Roma – Rome, Milano – Milan, Genova – Genoa, Napoli – Naples, and then Firenze – Florence. Google gave no answers on the naming contrast, only the same exasperated question by so many others: “Why did the English decide to Anglicize Italian names? Surely they are not too difficult to pronounce?” So let’s leave the name aside. Florence is a small town, with none of the hustle of a big city. Quite, relaxed, peaceful, enjoyable. The city is home to the famous Pont Vecchio bridge (literally Old Bridge) which has many shops on it, esp. a lot of jewellery and gold shops. The city is also home to some of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, from Michelangelo to da Vinci to Botticelli to Donatello and so many more. The list of great artworks was, therefore, never-ending… (The Medicis, the richest family of t...