What a horrible day ... Woke up with a cold, my head felt like mush and and an irritating cough. Had to pack and leave Florence by train. We had bought another suitcase at Pisa yesterday coz weve bought too much stuff.

Got a taxi to campo Di Marte station for an 11:30am train to Verona. We were over an hour early and the 10:30 train left ok then all other trains were cancelled only we didn't know because all the announcements were in italian. We waited until 12:00 and we had no train so went to ask the guy at the ticket booth who told us to get the train back to SMN station which is right outside our hotel. Then catch the Milan train and get off at bologna. This was a first class train and we got served a cuppa tea and biscuits. Really needed it because by this stage we were nearly losing it with frustration, exhaustion and sickness. Was tired of hoisting bags on and off trains.

We got to bologna and had to wait for next train to Verona which was a regional train not first class. Got herded in and there was no seats do we stood in the doorway with no air-conditioning. The conductor told us it was an hour to Verona. Aaaaarrrrggggghhhh! Nearly lost it

I squeezed into the slightly cooler ccarriage and squashed into a seat. Put my music on and tried to relax. Can't believe we paid €90 to be treated like this.

Finally arrived in Verona completely worn out and walked to our hotel and had a sleep and a shower to wash the day away.

Went into town by taxi to see juliettes house, which was nice and had a pizza in the piazza for dinner. So exhausted we were asleep by 8pm and slept for 12 hours.