about the sun setting over Florence

Isn't it wonderful, going someplace new?  It fills you with the type of energy you simply have to DO something with, you know? That might be my favorite part about traveling.  It always makes my brain and heart feel so full that I've got to pull out some pieces and create something with it all.

This is a tiny love poem.  Well, a love poem of sorts - it is from the voice of Florence to the sunset. One of my favorite days during my vacation to Italy was in that city.  It was Tuesday, (my Dad's birthday) and we had explored and climbed the bell tower and toured the Uffizi and traveled from Rome in the morning, and then we just took a breather and rested at Piazzale Michelangelo, drinking wine, listening to live music, and watching the sun set over the city.  It was astonishingly beautiful.  I kept thinking about how, if I were Florence, I would be head over heels for that sunset.  It crowns the city in the sweetest, golden light.  It makes the whole place royal.

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Florence, to the setting sun

Before the fall of total shadow, 

Love finds me from on high.

She is, by nature, tender -
she blushes humbly against the sky. 

I become mapless in her presence,
I misplace every lesser thing;
in love, I wear her crown of rubies,
in love, every church bell rings.  

I grow uneasy, remembering hidden alleys,

my poor, those wandering the night -

Yet still she drapes colors in every corner,
still she dresses me in better light.