Florence

We left the apartment in Geneva for the last time and took a tram to the station where we needed to get our tickets printed.  We bought a roll and a muffin from Subway to take on the train with us.  We had already learned that the food available to purchase on trains was unappetising.  On our way to find the correct train platform, we passed a chocolate shop and it occurred to us that we hadn't eaten nearly enough Swiss chocolate while we had been in Geneva, so we went into the shop and each selected five chocolates.

The journey from Geneva, Switzerland to Florence, Italy was one of our longest so far.  It was four hours from Geneva to Milan, where we had a forty five minute wait for our connecting train to Florence, which was a further two hours.

The apartment we had booked was beautiful. It was built in the 1600s, but was modernised inside and had been recently renovated.  The location was wonderful, right next to a small square, with shops and restaurants, the station, and sightseeing destinations all within walking distance.

In the square there was a market held a few times a week.  I bought a pair of shoes and a top there and Sophie chose a small cast iron horse that the man had made himself.

As we were browsing the market one day, a lady came up to us and said that she wanted to give Miss S a present.  I must have looked wary, because she was quick to assure me that she didn't want anything in return.  She explained that her daughter, who lived in Brazil, had given her hundreds of bead bracelets and every now and then she liked to give some away to people as a gift. So she gave Miss S four pretty bead bracelets and I took a photo of them together.

Miss S seems to attract people everywhere we go, she confidently chats to everyone and people are delighted with her confidence and friendliness.  Another woman on one of our train journeys gave her  a notebook.

Each morning we would walk two minutes to the local bakery and get a ham and cheese ciabatta sandwich for breakfast for a total cost of just 3€.  We would often sit in the square by the fountain and watch the people shopping in the market and the pigeons pecking for crumbs....it was a relaxing start to the day, and the ciabatta was delicious.

From there we would walk to our favourite gelateria for our first gelato of the day, which was also a
total cost of 3€.  It was the best ice-cream we had ever tasted.

Breakfast gelato! Miss S was most impressed.

Mind you, it was actually more like lunchtime by the time we got out, because we had slipped into the habit of staying out late in the evenings, enjoying all the entertainment in the Piazza and going to sleep close to midnight, and subsequently sleeping in till 9 am.

The shutters on all the windows made it easy - the bedroom was pitch black until you opened them and let in the sunlight, when it suited you.  Fabulous invention.

The first day we were in Florence we decided to take a trip to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower.  We
took a train there and spent a lovely couple of hours admiring the town of Pisa, and of course the
tower itself.  We took lots of photos, including the famed staged 'pushing against the tower shots' with
Miss S doing the pushing.

I didn't know until I got there, that the leaning tower is the free-standing bell tower of the Cathedral.    The Cathedral and the Baptistery were also beautiful buildings, but not as popularly known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

We had dinner in Pisa, in a little side street restaurant.  I had the most delicious lasagne there, washed down nicely with a glass of Prosecco.

During our time in Florence, we also went to see Michaelangelo's David sculpture.  We waited in the ticket queue for nearly an hour.  It was nice to see it, but I felt a little like it was just so I could tick a box.  I didn't have an overwhelming desire to see it.

We enjoyed the wealth of excellent busking entertainment in Florence, the friendly, relaxed social
vibe, the food, the ability to walk everywhere; many things.  I can't actually think of anything that we
didn't like about Florence, and I would love to return one day.