When we arrived in Florence we found a tourist office to direct us to the hostel - it was bloody miles out of town! So we had to get a bus about 6km out of the centre. Even the driveway was a trek! We paid a little bit extra to have the luxury of what was advertised as a "Bungalow" - more like a shed with 2 bunks but at least we were on our own. We did nothing the first eve as it was too far back into town, so we cooked on our new stove and shared a bottle of red wine!!

Today we were woken up at 6.30 by none other than a woodpecker outside the door, lovely but annoying all the same! Had a good wander around the city and climbed the dome of the cathedral over 400 steps - and the view was amazing. Not a nice climb though, quite busy and very narrow and dark. The weather has been rainy on and off all day but we made the most of it by getting on the bus tour of the city. We got shown all the dainty streets and all of the parts of the city we couldn´t reach by bus. Got some lovely pictures. There are 2 bus routes and we managed to do both, the second took us out of the city centre to a neighbouring town in the hills which had fantastic views back down to Florence. Ponte Vecchio is great, so old and rickety! Was almost disappointed by the jewellery stores though, not because they weren´t impressive, but because we couldn´t afford to buy anything at all! Florence is a very pretty city, completely untouched by modern buildings, and well worth a visit.