Lady on a red boat with parasol - Firenze, Italy

On the bridge parapet sits a girl who reads 

against a misplaced blue-lagoon background

while the Oltrarno and the Historic Center swap

tourists turned hostages of their own accord.

Twilight over the Arno - Firenze, Italy

Molten gold seeps underground,
late summer vapors taper up,
a glowing bridge paints and repaints
the sky and the river two-tone blue.

The enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie

This is not the first book by Salman Rushdie that I read. He somehow reminds me of Umberto Eco: impressive historical references, wonderful command of the language and astonishing creativity.
The main locations of the novel are Mughal Hindustan and Florence, Italy; many chapters, though, are based in between those two places: Uzbekistan, Persia and the Ottoman Empire above all.

Confessions of a citizen (Egy polgár vallomásai) - Sándor Márai

Some chapters of this book read like an autobiography, others like a travel diary. And yet, the whole work is probably neither. It starts with the author's upbringing in a Magyar hometown, before WWI put an end to the Austro-Hungarian empire. After that Sándor Márai started to travel abroad. This is a summary of those years: a collection of impressions, experiences and encounters of a clever, refined, erudite and restless young man, moving around Europe between the two world wars. Tension is in the air. Excitement, desperation and extravagance as well.