Via Santo Spirito: Between the Ponte alla Carraia and Ponte Santa Trinita, one block in from the river is this short and elegant street. Some of the technologies we use are necessary for critical functions like security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and to make the site work correctly for browsing and transactions.

This may have been considered quite informative at the time but to a modern audience it feels unnecessary when Wikipedia is so easily accessible. I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did, but each day, I have looked forward to when I had the free time to open it and read a bit more (including during slow hours at work! it appears we achieved the hat trick: we visited my daughter, then living in Florence, in mid to late November last year. D. Salinger, through prescient warnings about the threat posed to the English skyline by office blocks, motorways and concrete lamp-standards, to elegiac paeans to Norman churches and, of course, the gothic majesty of St Pancras station, Lovely Bits of Old England collects the very best of Betjeman s contributions to the Telegraph for the first time. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

As well as being a noted poet Betjeman was well known for his enthusiasm for Victorian architecture and the suburbs of Britain, whose virtues were extolled in the 1973 BBC documentary Metroland. You will find our logo on the external part of the packaging and a note from us within the packaging itself.

Spence himself is considered to be "an architect of imagination and with a sense of detail as well as plan, as his Sea and Ships Pavilion on the South Bank and this cathedral fully testify.

Overall I found this book fascinating, in particular the way that many of the little issues of 50 years still seem relevant.

The times I’ve enjoyed Venice best though have been in the cold, damp, foggy autumns and winters, that sort of cold that seeps right into your bones and leaves your feet numb (always a good excuse to pop into a bacaro at that point to warm up! D. Salinger, through prescient warnings about the threat posed to the English skyline by office blocks, motorways and concrete lamp-standards, to elegiac paeans to Norman churches and, of course, the gothic majesty of St Pancras station, Lovely Bits of Old England collects the very best of Betjeman’s contributions to the Telegraph for the first time.

Now I enjoy walking in Florence in the evening, taking back roads to avoid the crowds, eating my gelato and spotting local places on the way.