An excellent kind of market......

the market you stumble across when doing something unrelated..... 

Coat shopping for Mr L was proving to be harder than we thought. 

We had wandered though back streets, main esplanades and in & out of heaps of shops. 

No luck.

Until we came to this square.

The children & i had discovered it, by accident exploring one day. 

People eating lunch in the cafes lining the square had autumn leaves twirling down on them. 

Gorgeous.

And here we were again.

There was music, crowds and white tents.

Then i saw the sign....

Which insisted we enter...

There were craftsmen, putting together all kinds of creations...

Ah, the rainbow colours, even the variety of shades of brown....

Oh, sorbet, i love you too....

The boy had white.

Guess what colour the girl had.

But, of course....

rainbow boxes....

slabs.....

then the little buttons of colour. 

and finally, little squares...

brown & black...

Yes, it was a chocolate market. 

 There were artisans of many tastes and styles of presenting chocolate.

I was in sensory heaven. 

 There were even shutters....

once the ice creams were done, so were they.

Please stop taking photos, they begged.

Ok, until tomorrow.....

sparkle & twirl*

i see a rainbow of colours.....

everywhere.....

red raspberries, like none I've ever tasted before.

sweet & full of sunshine...mmmmm 

orange glow of a morning sunrise

that takes your breath away....

we missed the fields of sunflowers. the season was over. 

yet in the markets massive bunches burst with their happy yellow faces, smiling up at me. 

it is green here.
even their driest parts are a green you only see in an Australian winter.

old blue walls. 

what makes these people go to the paint shop and choose colour for their external walls?

there is no fear here. even if they get it wrong, with age & the effect of life going on around it, the colour does its own thing.

blue water. 

did you know that water has a thousand different shades of blue?

i have seen a bunch more during this trip. 

and this is not really ever purple but how else would i get this picture into this montage.

Anyway i think it looks good purple, indigo, any shade, really.

i love the detail in a flower. who even notices on an average day?

today, me. & now you.

violet is big here.

they make deserts out of violets. 

they coat them in sugar crystals and put them on cakes, sweets, anything.

I love colour and it is everywhere here. 

These Europeans are not afraid of it. They wear it, decorate with it and eat it.

Everything seems so vibrant and interesting.

My obsession with painted shutters is hardcore. (Post to follow)

 I want to bring home a truck load of these little ceramic cups. 

Although the summer is turning into autumn the flowers are doing their final bloom.

Windowsills, planter boxes and public spaces catch my eye with the assorted floral bursts of colour.

Florence streets are  colourful.

Store windows dazzle with flashes of colour, bags, shoes, scarves & coats.

A kite painted by my little Miss. 

Colours twirling in the breeze, swirling through the park and flashes of a simpler time when running with a kite was so much fun.

When you look hard enough, rainbow colours are everywhere.

This is the seat on the Paris Metro.

So pretty. 

Finding an art store filled with aisles and aisles of different brands of paints, 

for me is is like a child in a candy store..... mmmmmm 

i contained myself. But i will return and do some damage to our bank account... hee hee hee

i see colour everywhere.

a street like this makes my heart skip a beat.

these are a few of the rainbow colours that have made me happy in the last few weeks.

sparkle & twirL*