Our hotel in Florence was the Orto de Medici, which translates to Medici’s Garden. The current building was constructed in the early 19th century as a country palace and is built on the site of sculpture school founded by Lorenzo the Magnificent in the late 16th century. This school became one of the premiere art academies in Europe – one of it’s students went on to have a pretty good career. His name was Michelangelo.

We had a large room (ironically room #40) on the top floor with this amazing terrace. Though we did not have a view of the historic district – the hotel is in a residential neighborhood a short walk north of the district – the view from our room was spellbinding and took our breaths away when we were on the terrace, or just in the room looking out at the Florence rooftops.

This was our private terrace, which we tried to spend as much time here as we could. Each morning I would sit at the table, drink coffee and write in my journal. I never wanted to leave this place.