Ciao, I'm Ana!
Italy is my obsession, my heartbeat, my everything – and I’m here to share that passion with you. Not just the famous sights, but the hidden workshops where masters still carve marble by hand, the family trattorias where recipes haven’t changed in 100 years, and those quiet moments when Florence takes your breath away...
My Love Affair with Florence
It began in 2006 with a single, perfect moment - my first taste of pistachio gelato from Grom, when it was still Florence's best-kept secret. The flavour was so intense, so unforgettable, I carried my cone to Piazza del Duomo just to gaze up at Santa Maria del Fiore while I ate, marvelling at how the marble caught the afternoon light. When I climbed Brunelleschi's dome later that week, my heart raced - not just from the 463 steps, but from seeing Florence unfold below me like a living Renaissance painting.
In Santa Croce, I lost myself in Giotto's frescoes - how was it possible that colours from 1320 could still glow with such vitality? Then in Rome, I stood motionless beneath Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel masterpiece, tears pricking my eyes at the sheer beauty of it.
Italy didn't just charm me - it transformed me. The golden mornings when Florence seemed bathed in honeyed light. The cobblestone alleys where time moved differently. Even the air carried whispers of history - sun-warmed stone, aged wood, centuries of stories waiting to be discovered. Leaving felt like parting with a piece of my soul.
From Excel to Botticelli
Back in my finance job, Florence never left my thoughts. So (after some very un-Italian spreadsheets and planning), I traded my career for sunlit piazzas and created AppyGuide - audio tours narrated by art historians who brought the city's soul to life. I launched it just before COVID, and the journey wasn't easy - but through all the challenges, I persevered.
But the truth? I kept returning for "research." Days became weeks became months... Florence became my open-air classroom, and I its eager student.
In those enchanted years, I met:
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A brilliant art historian whose gloved hands had touched the Mona Lisa's popular panel
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A master artisan who creates Renaissance-style wooden paintings and restores medieval furniture with techniques unchanged for centuries
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A humble sculptor and fresco painter of extraordinary talent—who became a dear friend and taught me to see beauty in every brushstroke
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Scholars who decoded secret rebel messages hidden in frescoes over morning espresso
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Winemakers who taught me to taste sunshine and summer storms in every sip of Brunello
They showed me the real Italy, the real Florence - not the postcard version, but a living masterpiece where beauty isn't locked in museums, but breathed daily in artisan workshops and vineyard lunches that stretch for hours...
The Florence I Want to Share With You
Now when I walk these streets, I see ghosts of genius everywhere! That unassuming workshop? Botticelli might have painted his Primavera there... Piazza Santa Trinita? Where Michelangelo and Leonardo famously clashed about art and life. And that tourist trattoria? Just beyond it, a nonna rolls pasta dough as thin as rose petals, just as her grandmother taught her.
This is the Florence I want to share with you:
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Where every cobblestone has a story to tell
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Where meals become memories and wine tastes like the land itself
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Where art isn't just something you see, but something you feel
Because Florence isn't just a destination. It's an awakening that stays with you forever... And once you've experienced it this way - truly, deeply - you'll never see the world quite the same again...
Your Ana ❤️