48 hours in Florence

The past 4-5 weeks have been completely overwhelming, mostly due to personal events (loss of family member) and administration. As you can expect, all my time and energy were spent in that direction. Now that most of this is behind, I can return to a normal schedule and, of course, grab the camera, go out and shoot. And I can tell you I felt a great relief doing it. I knew photography was part of my equilibrium, but these recent events brought full proof of it.

Which brings us straight to the topic of this new article titled « 48 Hours In Florence ». But why Florence? Very simple: proximity. Closer than Roma or Venice from home. We needed a break, a little getaway to relax and enjoy ourselves quietly. And we did!!

Driving to Florence is roughly 5 hours, including breaks (nature calls). Having an economic diesel vehicle, refueling is not an issue because it’s almost a 2-way thing or very close. Roma would be too long (7 hours), about the same for Venice (6 hours). And we thought both of them justify more than 48 hours. But I hear you already. And don’t get me wrong: Florence is huge in all aspects and requires more than 2 days to visit. God, there is so much to see there! But for a short getaway, it offers plenty of « wow’s » for anybody.

I’m sharing some pictures with you today and I hope they will make you want to get there and see for yourself. The trip is really worth it and I found the people in « Firenze » really helpful and kind. And yes (yes!) most of them do speak english and some french too. Bravo!

While a longer trip to Florence would allow me to shoot monuments, something obvious there (it’s amazingly beautiful and stunning from an architectural point of view), I wanted to grab « slices of life » in the city. That’s why you will find here picture of people, markets, tools, bike and so on. Once again, the Leica M proved to be the perfect tool for that. How amazing to feel the final image in composition. This camera always amazes me. It’s intuitive, natural, unobtrusive and it has something special I still can’t explain.

I will certainly go back to Florence in the future, but for a longer trip, and I will focus on history and what makes this city such a monument.

See you soon, Firenze!

Good Light!

Norm

© Normand Primeau