In a nutshell

After being focused on anything French from my teenage years and throughout university, I first came to Florence in 2000 to study for six months on a post graduate art history scholarship. After only a few days I thought that the Italians were crazy, the country was beautiful & I had an inexplicable sensation that my soul could be very happy here. Eleven years on I am even more convinced that the Italians are pazzi (so it wasn’t just a case of total lack of communication), the country is molto bello and my soul indeed sta molto bene here. After my initial landing in Florence & learning the language, I went to do an internship at the Peggy Guggenheim museum in Venice , worked at the Venice contemporary Arts Biennale and had a job in an arts & communication studio in Milan, before coming full circle and returning to Florence to work as a tour guide. I have been guiding in the city for eight years now, and my veuve and enthusiasm only increases with time.


Italy is seductive. It is a country that enters the heart, not in that comfy old friend way, but in that adventurous exciting way. It is ancient but spontaneous, it feels eternal like the change of the seasons but in the same way you discover each year just how good ripe strawberries really are, as if for the first time. So, too, Italy seems like it hasn’t changed in centuries, but every time you go back to a place, there is always something new about it.

I remember when working in Milan, an Italian film director said that he makes sure his team is made up of a majority of Anglo-Saxon technicians and a few Italian ones. Everything works very smoothly with an Anglo team on board, they are indispensable for this he said, but if something goes wrong- any type of problem, technical or logistical, the Italians are, at the end of the day, the ones who manage to get the show on the road. They are creative, individualistic, chaotic and industrious. I have never forgotten that, because I agree with him. I think everybody needs a bit of Italy in their life, & my soul agrees with me.