With temperatures below zero this morning, I was happy to stay in to keep warm. Yesterday was too cold for me already. At around noon, the snow they’ve been predicting all week began falling. At first, it was light and the sky was filled with floating snowflakes. It was exciting to see the streets and sidewalks turn white. I took a few pictures from the window of our apartment, but I was looking forward to going outside.
A little less than a year ago, it snowed in Florence, but it was much different. It snowed during the night and in the morning I woke up to a city blanketed with snow. This time, I got to watch it happen. I strolled the streets with snow crunching under my boots. When I took photos, I had to balance my umbrella in one hand and my camera in the other. Gentle gusts of wind came up and splattered me with snow, which I had to wipe off my camera lens to continue taking photos.
The streets were initially quite slippery and I glided around a little bit, but then the snow was thicker and softer, like powder. People walked around with snow piled on their heads and shoulders. One man looked like he had a white streak in his hair, but when I looked closer, it was just a pile of snow.
I took pictures around lunch time when I went to Piazza Repubblica to meet up with a girlfriend. Then, around 4pm, and earlier this evening. The snow steadily fell from the sky for the last seven hours. Now, it has virtually stopped. The city outside is quiet. The few cars that do go by are inching along and not whizzing by as usual.
The streets around my apartment are completely white. It is une bellezza unica (unparalleled beauty) to see snow in Florence. I am eager to see what the city will look like in the morning. Hopefully, the sun will come out from behind the light grey clouds, not to melt the snow, but to illuminate the city.
NOTE: A few of the pictures I took today are on my blog's FaceBook page. You don't have to be a fan to view them.
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