We came in to Florence by train from Bologna on the morning of Sunday 14th June. After getting a pension to keep our bags, we had a look around the town, and went in to see the Statue of David, and then the Uffizzi Museum. The Uffizi wasn’t really worth the pretty hefty entry fee - there were more ‘Madonna con Bambini’ pictures done in the Byzantine gold-backgrounded style than you could poke a paintbrush at, but not many Renaissance works which I was hoping to see more of.

Before lunch we hopped on a train and went to check out Pisa. I was quite surprised at the size of the complex, not knowing then that the Leaning Tower is just part of a much larger cathedral centre. Very interesting, and of course we had to do the obligatory silly photos. A bit later we caught the train back to Florence, where we had dinner in a nice little restaurant near the Palazzo Vecchio. We hit the hay earlish after a big day.

I remember pretty vividly the sounds of the Italian scooters there, which we hadn’t had of course in Venice, and our hotel in Bologna must have been away from any bigger streets - because Bologna is a scooter-pallooza with the universities there. There was also one of those great big recycling bins, the kind that have holes for different kinds of bottle, and the sound of bottles clinking into it will also forever be the sound of Florence. Great day though, and we liked Florence a lot.