Written by:
Sophia de Sousa
I spent 14 years as a young adult living in Florence, and Via dei Servi was my local high street. I walked and cycled up and down it all the time. There I frequented my favourite art supply shop, which still houses the best assortment of paper I have found anywhere, a bakery that sold wonderful focaccia, a stationer, a kitchenware shop, my hairdresser (with the evocative name Elisa Paradiso) and in my early days, even a laundrette.
Via dei Servi is the road that connects Piazza della Santissima Annunziata and Piazza del Duomo, two key points on any tourist map but for me, extremely personal markers of my relationship with a city that I love and called home for many years. I lived just around the corner from there, so Via dei Servi was both my local high street and my fastest route into the city centre.
The picture is of my favourite corner on Via dei Servi. I love the way that the magnificent dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, ever-present in and around the city, peeks out over the tops of the buildings. I have collaged into the photo a representation of myself, looking wistful as I think of it.
I have long since returned to my birthplace and current home of London, but a little piece of my heart remains standing on the corner of Via dei Servi and Via M. Bufalini, gazing at the Fabbrica di Cornici and Brunelleschi’s dome.
This series of blogs was inspired by the My Place project led by John Mullin in collaboration with The Academy of Urbanism.