What you can see shinning brightly in the gullies on the steep slopes of the Apuan Alps is not necessarily snow, but probably the ravaneti, the screes of marble debris at the foot of the quarries that were already being worked in Roman times and were frequented by the great scupltors and architects who...

O rosa delle rose, O rosa bella, Per te non dormo nè notte nè giorno, E sempre penso alla tua faccia bella, Alle grazie che hai, faccio ritorno. Faccio ritorno alle grazie che hai: Ch’io ti lasci, amor mio, non creder mai. Florence is like a lily in the midst of a garden gay with wild-flowers;...