First month of my Autumn visit to Florence completed. Now that the initial high of being here has subsided, I can get on with finding my Italian rhythm: enjoying food shopping and visiting favorite restaurants, catching the latest museum exhibits and city events, as well as visits with friends and family. It’s a good life!
The city was abuzz with bicycle mania. Bicycles everywhere as teams of cyclists from all over the globe came to compete in the 2013 Bicycle World Championships or the Mondiale, as locals referred to it. Most shop windows had innovative bike themed displays:
as well as in other unlikely places:
The city was so well organized that traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular, were kept to a minimum. There was a sense of calm throughout the city, with the exception of the race participants who were intent on breaking records in the time trails and final races!
Congeniality and a genuine sense of well being and community were felt throughout the city. My Florentine neighbor captured the moment when she exclaimed “If only we had the Mondiale all year long!”
The Fort Belvedere exhibit “Soul and Matter” by Zhang Huan was a perfect metaphor for the atmosphere in Florence during these weeks. Huan emphasizes the spiritual commonality of the religious leaders, Buddha, Christ and Confucius. East meets West in harmony. Mutual understanding and common ground not only as experienced in this exhibit but throughout Florence during the Mondiale. Both Florentine residents and guests took the time to enjoy each other and the event. A change of pace for all.
* Huan’s exhibit at Forte di Belvedere ends on Oct. 13. He also has an exhibit currently at the Pace Gallery in New York City.
Now that vacations and city dwellers are getting back to work and school, will the atmosphere of this September, be consumed by traffic and shifting gears?
fondlyfromflorence&beyond 