florence and a leaning tower

After a laudable start to blogging we've sort of fallen behind slightly. But that's okay. We rejoin the action in Florence. After Rome it was a pleasure to be able to walk all the way across town in only 10 minutes or so.

One of the major attractions, with its marble facade and enormous dome, is The Duomo. It is quite incredible to see, if only because it looks as though it is constructed entirely from marble.

Being a cathedral, they don't let 21st century punks with singlets in, you must cover yourself in attractive hospital wear if you've forgotten sleeves.

We, of course, had to climb the dome. You climb tiny crumbling stairs and emerge on a ledge a frightening distance above the ground. Feelings of safety are not enhanced by the enormous cracks in the dome.

The through more narrow passageways and stairs to the top for an amazing view over Florence.

We saw a lot of great art in Florence, particularly in the Uffizi - see it if you can. And of course we saw the David but you're not allowed to take photos of most things in Florence so you'll just have to take our word for it.

There were some great nanna markets with jams, cured meats, knitted things and all that. Also truffles! I've never seen them fresh before - who first thought to eat these?!

We were sad to depart Italy after two weeks gallivanting around the place. The Italians are a great bunch, they have great art, great history, amazing food and a pretty country. Pity about the politics.

We stopped briefly at Pisa to take "the" photo (not sure what exactly was happening in our very poor attempt below, needless to say that you get the idea...) and were surprised that the tower is in the middle of a grassed field with some other marble buildings. Much prettier and bigger than we had imagined but the town really spins around tower tourism so is pretty blurg.

James and Beth. xx.