Today was the long-awaited journey to Cinque Terre, a collection of 5 villages along the coast near La Spezia. It took us 2 trains and about 4 hours to get there. I've not been feeling well, I think it's IBS or something but it kept me up last night. When we got to Monterosso, one of the main villages it was absolutely packed with tourists. They were everywhere on the streets and on the beaches. We had not bought beach attire and we had our hiking boots etc on. W...

Today we got the sightseeing bus around Florence. It's actually a really interesting city, and it used to be the capital of Italy. We got off at the Piazza Di Michelangelo which is up a mountain and you can see over all of Florence. Again, it was very hot today. Galileo and Michelangelo are buried here as well as Machiavelli and other people. We went round the bus twice as its a good way to get some sun and it's interesting. For dinner we went to the Hard Rock ...

Today and tomorrow we are in Florence. The main attraction here is the Duomo cathedral. It was built and paid for by the florentine people a long time ago, and it is breathtaking. It looks like a painting, and the details are very intricate and unique. It's very large, and only a two minute walk from our hotel. We wandered around the outside of it, but I was tired (I'll explain why in a bit), hangry (when you're moody because you're hungry) and cutting my nose of...

Today we are in Pisa. It is extremely hot this week, between 36-38 degrees every day. Pisa is about an hour away on the train, which was grotty and absolutely stank of BO. We walked from the station to the Leaning Tower, and stopped off for lunch at a traditional restaurant on the way. We had cocktails of course and a sundae after lunch. We had ham and cheese omelettes. We sat in the shadow of the tower for about an hour, watching lots of Asians take the standar...

Today we are moving on to Florence. The train journey was about 3 hours but was straightforward. We arrived at the hotel, a short walk from the station and right in the shopping district. We are a stones throw away from il Duomo, the cathedral in Florence. The hotel is a very bizarre layout. To get to our room we have to go up one and a half flights of stairs, through a 'wifi zone', through the breakfast room, up another flight of stairs and then down a long cor...