FLORENCE

FLORENCE

I have already written at length about Tuscany and how disappointing it was. Florence was much better (though still far too many paintings of the Madonna and Child. I say child because that’s what it says on the tin though to my untrained eye most looked more like the Omen baby than cute and cuddly Jesus.

I think that’s what you get when you put a man’s face on baby’s body). Florence was also much, much better because we saw Ruth and Mark. We all stayed in the only camp site over the river and up the hill not far from the third David – this one a bronze replica of Michael Angelo’s original

The views were spectacular even if the facilities not the best. It was lovely to spend time with Ruth and Mark and to take delivery of the things we had left at home. We had a few days taking in Florence at a leisurely pace – the only disappointment was the Uffizi which was over priced and relying too much on its reputation . For me it was like a dishevelled old man wearing what once had been extremely expensive but now very old clothes which hadn’t been cleaned for a long time.

One major plus for Florence was the fact we managed to find somewhere to get our last Tick Bourne Encephalitis jab. It was a bit earlier than scheduled and took some finding but was cheaper than England and meant that all our inoculations were up to date until we got home.

Leaving Florence we took a short train ride and then cycled a couple of days to Venice. Again we had company, this time my Mum and Dad. Venice was a bonus as we had initially planned to get the ferry from further south. Both my Mum and Bridget’s Mum and suggested that Florence was more impressive than Venice. We arrived with this in mind but were absolutely blown away by its beauty. Yes it was touristy and yes it could be a twee in places but we fell in love with Venice almost immediately. It was our kind of city – one you had to walk round and one you could explore and get lost in. We didn’t spend much time in museums and visited just the one church (after Tuscany we’d had enough of that kind of tourism). We simply wandered around soaking it all in.

It was lovely to see Mum and Dad and to see how comfortable they had become in their camper van. Sadly their travels around Italy were cut short after Lucy (their Golden Retriever) was taken ill and they had to drive back to France to see the vet.

So after what seemed like a long time in Italy (around six weeks), most pretty damn good, some not so good, we boarded a ferry which took us from Venice to Greece. After playing the tourist, we were on the move and looking forward to travelling again.