Florence second time around

Rick Steves says that visiting a foreign city is like reading a novel – it is more enjoyable the second time. This time, we are travelling with my parents, for whom it is the first visit to Italy. For my wife and me, this is a second visit to Florence, but the first time we were here, we didn’t have our daughter. For her, it is the first time, naturally.

Traveling with two seniors and a child has its specifics. They physically cannot absorb the sights at the rate that I am used to, even considering that I stop at every corner to take pictures (because I never really turn off the “photographer mode.”) I remind myself to adjust my expectations regarding the sightseeing and focus on the interactions with the family, particularly how they unfold in the context of travelling.

In terms of Rick Steves’ analogy, I feel like I am not quite reading a novel for the second time, but flipping it to the pages I liked the best earlier and hope that the others would like them as much as I did.