Helen Graves has just joined our European team as the new UnTours host in Florence, Italy. Here she writes about her enduring love for the city she’s lived in for 30 years.
You could say I’ve done my fair share of travelling. I was born in India, grew up in Scotland, and moved to Sydney, Australia when I was still a teenager. In between times I worked as an au pair in Switzerland and traveled by bus and train over much of South East Asia.
I first visited Florence while on a trip around Europe and was utterly charmed. I decided I would learn Italian and where better than in the city of Dante? So a year later I was back and enrolled in a language school. Alas, despite my good intentions, I gave up lessons after a couple of weeks. It was all the fault of a handsome young Italian called Pasquale. Touring Florence on the back of his scooter may have done nothing to improve my language skills but it was certainly a lot of fun!
That was thirty years ago and I’m still here. I’m happy to say that eventually I did learn Italian and I am just as much in love with the city as I was then. Florence continues to thrill me daily. For this I’m grateful to Pasquale for sharing his enthusiasm for art and history. There’s nothing quite like seeing a city through the eyes of someone who truly knows and loves the place and I really hope to transmit my own affection for Florence to all UnTours visitors.
And Pasquale? I married him. (See below.)
Meet Helen and fall in love with Florence on a Florence Untour.
