Letters from Florence: Observations on the Inner Art of Travel

Marie-Laure Valandro takes the reader on both an outer and an inner journey of discovery by way of the grand, living museum of Western history and tradition, Florence, Italy. Wandering the streets, cathedrals, and museums of Florence and the surrounding towns of Tuscany, the author gives fresh life to the Florentine painters, philosophers, poets, and architecture of bygone eras, while showing their relevance for our lives today. Letters from Florence is much more than a travelogue; it takes the reader on a personal journey to inner landscapes, ancient and contemporary, through the authors own words and those of philosophers such as Goethe and Rudolf Steiner, the verse of Dante, and seventy of her evocative photographs. Regardless of whether one has visited Florence, the insights that Marie-Laure shares in Letters from Florence offer food for the mind and soul while entertaining the reader with the her observations and encounters, as well as her sometimes humorous critiques of modern Western culture and the spirit of our time.