Florence

I'm so glad I didn't skip Florence. It was one of the most beautiful cities I went to. The light was incredible, the art was amazing, David was huge - much bigger than I'd imagined. Unfortunately I only have my memories in my mind because all my photos are gone... but I'll stop going on now.

I saw the Duomo (another queue) and then went to the bell tower to see the view, as the queue to the cupola was way too long to face. I managed to find myself at the Ponte Vecchio at sunste which was just gorgeous - and the light was amazing!!!

After taking my parents advice about enjoying myself (I'd been living on salami, tomato and cheese sandwiches every day that I prepared from ingedients bought at the supermarket, because Italy was so expensive), I took myself out for a wonderful dinner at a really lovely restaurant full of actual people from Florence. I had Zuppa di Cozze (mussel soup) and the best pasta I had in Italy, made with fresh ricotta.

Finally on the last day I managed the Uffizzi (another 2 hour wait) and David in one day, and went home to pack. I went out to get some dinner, and found myself in the middle of a left wing political rally - Unita. It was food stalls, clothing stalls and an old school political debate, which I didn't really understand, as my Italian is heavily reliant on other people understanding my Spanish. Still I did have a sandwich with buffalo mozzerrella and bought a shirt from a left wing/anarchist group that says the rules were made to be broken in Italian, and enjoyed myself watching the debate for a while.

The best bit was the guy from the communist stall spoke english and explained a bit to me, and then gave me an I didn't vote for Berlesconi sticker!