Firenze!

Ciao! I am navigating the vagaries of an Italian website to try and post this via email...

Firenze has been an unusual experience. It was an immediate change from the tranquility and beauty of the countryside, as the central station is in the noisiest part of the city. Lucy and I had a lunch break on the lawn at the front of the station to get our bearings and absorb some of the gorgeous sunshine. A woman spied us from at least 100 metres away and sent her sweet and curly haired boy over to beg, but I was more interested in speaking to him in Italian (his name is Peteara and he is four). Bad luck for Mum, but fun for me.

Sadly, this kind of thing has been very common in Florence. Whereas in Pisa people are selling you rubbishy goods for small change, here it is direct requests for money. Lucy had a woman stand directly in the way of a photo in the hopes of getting money out of her. This wasn't something I expected in a European country...

On the positive side, of which there is plenty, the Duomo, the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti have been gorgeous and fun. I enjoyed the Uffizi very much, and was surprised to find myself drawn to the more gruesome paintings, instead of Boticelli's nudes etc. I was amazed how many different ways one can render a headless corpse... Anyway, I spent waaay too much money in the souvenier shop, and have been surviving on pizza and beer ever since.

Yes, it truly is a tough life....

This morning Lucy and I have said goodbye to the nuns and checked out of the convent. We're going to dawdle some more through the piazzas before taking the plane to Palermo in Sicily.