My first impressions of Florence were not great. Not only was it the flashpoint of train disruptions for three days in a row, but actually stepping out into the fabled city when we first arrived there on that Tuesday felt a little weird too; it wasn’t exactly hot, but it wasn’t exactly cool either, and the clouds hung low, muting all the colors and making everything look kinda dirty and drab.
And the people. Oh, so many people. It felt like there were way more people here than in Rome, all stuffed into the same few blocks as everyone else. It was a little like stepping out of Kyoto station last summer; both times, I was in a city that I didn’t really think much about, but was told I really had to visit; both times, I very quickly realized that a million other people had been told the exact same thing. And both times, I would soon learn to appreciate what the fuss was about. But not initially. Initially, I just had to get away from all these fucking people. x
I don’t know if those first few hours of weird light and intense crowding affected the kinds of photos I took, but I do get a queasy feeling when I look back at those earlier frames. x
The light would eventually change, and along with it, so did my mood. This sequence is from the end of that first day. x