My Summer in Europe: Pictures from lovely Florence, Italy

Florence is a must-see if you're going to Italy. It's just so beautiful. I went there for a day in the winter after I graduated college, and wished I had had more time. This summer we stayed for two days so I got to see more of this charming city. While the weather was much nicer in the summer, in the winter it was a treat because there were very few tourists about. If you can somehow manage to go in the Fall or early Spring that would probably be your best bet.



The famous Ponte Vecchio. The bridge is pedestrian and lined with jewelers.

The architecture in Florence is stunning and an interesting mix...

Piazza della Signoria

From my winter trip

There is an popular open-air sculpture garden in the famous
Piazza della Signoria

Inside the Palazzo Vecchio - the most prominent building in Piazza della Signoria

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is unforgettable



The Baptistery of St. John boasts the famous bronze doors Michelangelo dubbed "The Gates of Paradise"


The beautiful Santa Maria Novella...

Anyone here been to Florence? What did you think?

Here's that list again of all my posts from our travels that I've posted -

Spain
•Introduction to my European backpacking trip and a list of places we visited
• Galicia - Baiona and Isle de Cies
• Galicia - the coast, some charming vineyards, and Pontevedra
• Santiago de Compostela and gorgeous hidden beaches
• Gorgeous mountain lakes of Picos de Europa
• Stunning mountains - Picos de Europa
• Bilbao and San Sebastian
• Beautiful Barcelona
• The amazing Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona
• Art Nouveau dream house by Gaudi in Barcelona

Italy
• Not to miss - the gorgeous rocky coast of Italy's Cinque Terre
• More from my summer traveling Europe - amazing Rome
• From my summer in Europe - amazing Pompeii
• Turquoise ocean and vineyards on cliffs - the amazingly stunning Amalfi coast

Celebrity Home: Sting's Backyard

Today we are visiting Sting and Trudie Styler’s farm in Tuscany, near Florence. A terrace with stunning views of the vineyards and the Chianti hills beyond. The landscape design is by Arabella Lennox-Boyd. How I wish we could see the interiors as well!


Sting and his wife bought the property in 1997.

Typical Tuscan architecture. The 16th-century villa was built as a hunting lodge for the dukes of San Clemente.


Chinese wisteria covers the 118-foot-long oak pergola.


An antique marble fountain rises out of the boxwood parterre.

Clipped boxwood frames beds of lavender, santolina, and white oleander.

An ancient cedar of Lebanon overlooks the parterre, formally known as Il Giardino dei Limoni, or garden of the lemon trees.

Sting came up with the idea for the oversize chessboard.

Lunch on a gravel terrace in the shade of an oak tree.

The pool, installed by a previous owner, overlooks the Valdarno Superiore valley.

Photography by Giancarlo Gardin

Portrait by Jaime Travezan

All images and information from Architectural Digest.

Finally! Pictures from my Europe trip!

I know it's taken me way to long to start posting photos but we have about 7,000 photos to sort through. For those of you who are new to Decorology, this summer my boyfriend Chris and I spent from June 16th to August 25th backpacking around Europe. My boyfriend spent last year teaching English in Spain, and is actually flying back today to complete his second year. I will be staying in Maryland at my parents' farm until January, and will be living with Chris in Segovia, Spain from January through June. I will still be blogging daily from Spain and designing websites on a freelance basis.

Okay, back to the Europe trip. Below is a map I created with our path. Click on the map for a larger view.


The countries we visited include Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. I will have separate posts for each country and then each city within them that we visited.

Below are just a random selection of images from the trip

Our first day -Chris and I on the coast in the beautiful city of Bayona.

The GORGEOUS Cíes Islands near the city of Vigo. An absolutely stunning bird sanctuary.

The beautiful island, Arousa, also in the Galicia region of Spain.

In the Asturias region of Spain, the mountain lakes of Enol and Ercina, in the Picos de Europa.

In the Basque region of Spain, the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

Florence, Italy

Vienna, Austria

Amsterdam, in the Netherlands (Holland region).


The two images above are from the end of our trip in Provence, France. This town is Roussillon.

I will post images from the trip once or twice a week, going in chronological order. What country are you most looking forward to seeing photos from?