Florence in just a few hours north or Rome. We got here just in time for hte sun to burn through and give us yet another sunny day in Italy! Rome has all the ancient Roman history to expect, the Vatican has acquired so much art you could get lost in the beauty of it all for an age. But Florence has the history of that art. The Medici cultivated the arts and sciences here with so much history of it to be felt.

We talk a walking tour around the city today. The Museum where David is housed was closed but the city is proud enough to have a number of replicas, the best was the marble one that replaced the original when it was moved into the museum in the 1800s. It sits in a piazza in front of the castle with a host of other statues, increadible these things. The representations are so clear, insightful, revelaing in deatail you forget about the craftsmanship to extract these pieces from single stone.

Equally impressive are the craftsman that could cover a building with the same material and skill. The Basilica de Santa Maria del Flore stands over 100ft tall god knows how long and is completely covered in ornate marble. Inside it houses the largest fresco in Europe. In front of the Basilica stands a replica of the golden gates to paradise.

All around there is the family crest of the Medici. Their stamp and patronage on everything here. I remembered a documentary I saw once about the amount they "invested" in their certain entry to heaven by commissioning ceremonial scultues and paintaings, we didn't make it to any of their private churches, but their patronage is in every eyefull.

Up on the hill is where Da Vinchi sent a young boy to his death trying out his fliying machine. Walk down a street and a little plaque tells you where he painted the Mona Lisa, or where Michelangelo lived.

To the Basilica of Santa Croce, here an increadible collection of tombs outshines what would otherwise be an imperssive place of worship. In one building, in fact within a few square meters the tombs of Galileo Galilea, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli - I got a shot of Max in front of each. Scientist, Artist or anything in corporate/political life I've got him covered for a founding interest photo :)

A few hours of strolling and shopping had us walking all over finding little treasures. A quick drink before meeting up again for the tour got me in a ballsy mood as I haggled with some north african replica watch hawkers. $150 Patek Phillipe down to $45, you know I still paid too much :)

At the hotel Emerson couldn't contain her excitement at the butt-washing pot, she ran from Gab's room to mine telling the whole hotel about it. "Bidet" never seemed so understated.