Florence early in the morning

I'm far from being a morning person. But I've grown more and more fond to experiencing cities early in the morning and escaping the hustle and bustle of busy hours of the day. Cities - especially popular tourist getaways like Florence - can be overwhelming with crowds trying to soak it all in and document every step of the way with their smartphone (which I'm unarguably also guilty of). It's impossible to really feel the city with all that noise.

But in the early hours of the day, cities - like their visitors - sleep. They're slowly waking up with the first bakeries opening up, waiters cleaning windows and setting the tables on their terraces, locals rushing to work.

I started the habit of getting up at 6 am (the earlier the better, but as I said - unfortunately I'm not a morning bird and there is a limited list of things that get me out of bed at such ungodly hours) on my trip to Verona (which is coming on the blog soon, so stay tuned!). Rather than an objective, it was a consequence of being very short on time, so my friend and I decided to use the morning to see as much of Verona as we could. It was soul-filling to say the least and I decided to keep the habit every time I'm in a new city. And boy oh boy was I rewarded in Florence! All the major attractions, all the majestic renaissance creations were there just for me. If you ever visited Florence, you'll spot the difference when looking at the photos of these empty streets...