How do you say goodbye to a beautiful place like Florence? A place I've come to love, a place I will look back on only fondly, yet a place of which I can only hope, desperately yet uncertainly, to return.
I left Florence this morning. I walked back to my apartment at 5:45AM. On the way back, I made a few pit stops. Being the only person on these ancient streets, it was easy to see myself at various times this semester, and, cherishing these moments, I realized the exact moments that I will remember forever.
I walked to the middle of the Ponte Vecchio and watched the sun rise.
I walked past Piazza della Repubblica one last time, and I turned behind me and watched it disappear.
As I approached the Duomo, I thought back to a crazy toga band party we played in Piazza della Signora, the Uffizi Square. I thought back on all my crazy friends running around Uffizi Square in togas and I realized that yes, Florence may look exactly the same the next time I return, but it will never be exactly the same. This was a truly unique, once in a lifetime experience.
I turned behind me and watched the Duomo, too, disappear.
I turned the corner. The leather market vendors were setting up for their long days. I thought back on all the nights I'd walk home and feel the spirits of this ancient city. I remembered one night in particular, walking alone down the middle of the Uffizi, surrounded by the statues of older Florentines - Michaelangelo, Machiavelli, Amerigo Vespucci - overwhelmed with the feeling that these people, the most brilliant people of all time - the people who the world won't ever forget - once too walked these same charming streets.
As I looked up at their wise and knowing-looking statued silhouettes it hit me that the world would surely be a much different place today had these people, from this tiny tuscan town, never been born.
I thought back to the excitement I'd feel when I'd turn a street corner and discover something small, yet new. A sign noting Mozart's house where he stayed on his visit to Florence, in particular.
I thought back on all the peaceful walks I'd had in Florence. Those sunset walks on the river, late night walks past the Duomo.
The sky looks bigger in Florence. Maybe it's because the buildings are lower. Who knows? One thing's for sure though: A sunset will never go unnoticed once back in America.
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