Continuing with our 24hr bus ticket, we headed off to Piazzale Michaelangelo. This lookout, above its terraced gardens would have to be one of the best vista' of the City of Firenze. I could stand here for ages overlooking the many sights.

We reboarded an hour later and headed to "Fiesole". Fiesole is an ancient city dating back to about 600BC. It still has well preserved Roman ruins, but today is the home to wealthy Florentines. Enjoying a light lunch, with beer and fanta, we strolled around the Sunday markets until the next bus arrived.

As the storm clouds grew over the city, we headed home. Rain in an open top bus is not that much fun..

Heading out again for dinner about 9.00pm, we stumbled upon "Napoleons" restaurant in a little piazza near home. To be honest, we have both been a little gastronomically underwhelmed throughout most of our adventure. Finding little to shout about in Paris (especially after missing out on frogs legs), Zagreb had some nice meals, but Florence has failed to impress.

With the weather now clear and Napoleons, set outdoors under some large umbrellas on the side of a chapel courtyard, we thought we would give it a try. My fillet steak with cream pepper sauce was delicious and Lol enjoyed rigatoni with tomato basil and mozzarella… Things are looking up!

The next morning saw us hoofing it towards "ponte alla carraia" (Carriage bridge), so named as it was widened to allow carriages to cross, and on to Santa Maria Novella about 9.00am. Grabbing breakfast at what we thought was a nice looking little café, that actually turned out to be "JK Place Firenze", rated as one of the best hotels in Italy.

I Googled it when I got home, 1300 euro / night. If you go to their website gallery, it would appear a super sexy girl comes with every room!

Needless to say, the breakfast was superb and the service was magnificent, even if we did look like a couple of blow-ins from the bad side of town…

Oh' and Santa Maria Novella was pretty flash too!

Moving on to Cathedral Sant Maria del Fiore (Duomo). The immensity of the cathedral and chapel is striking! Taking 140 years to construct, the original designers had no idea how they were going to construct the dome over the cathedral. The eventual design was chosen by way of a competition, with the winning design by Filippo Brunelleschi finally being constructed 124 years after its drawing. Once completed, he destroyed all plans for the design, ensuring the dome would remain the largest self-supporting masonry dome ever constructed. The roof itself has 37000 tons of material, including 4 million bricks… Awe inspiring!

We are also able to confirm there are 463 steps up narrow, winding corridors from the base to the top of the dome…

Add this to the 414 steps to the top of the Bell Tower next door, and my poor old legs were feeling the stress by the end of the visit, even Laurens legs were feeling a little like jelly. Time for lunch and a vino…

We continued on to Santa Croce, only to find the entire piazza covered with a grand stand for a soccer match.

Santa Croce, also designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, is the burial site for Michaelangelo, Galileo and Rossini amongst others.

Fairly kaput after the days walking, we headed home about 4.30pm.