Florence was only a short mornings drive to visit the final Italian city of our itinerary and it was only a 1 night stay so no time to waste. Probably my favourite of the cities, Florence was a smaller, very relaxed and well structured city compared to the other 2 and very beautiful, being known as the city of art (could also very easily be known as the city of heat, reaching 38 degrees). We started the day watching a leather making workshop before Doug & I decided to join onto a walking tour around the city, whilst the other boys thought it be of higher importance to find an air-conditioned pub & watch Michael Clarke shoot for his double century. The walking tour was great and very interesting for such a smaller, less chaotic city. We visited the cities Town Hall where Galleleo, Leonardo Da Vinci & Michaelangelo carried out their works in the one building, the Ponte Vecchia bridge and also saw the statue of David in the Piazza Della Signoria square. Before heading back to our campsite we decided to have a crack at one last gelato. Not knowing the portion sizes, we all merely asked for 2 scoops each of our differing choices. AU$18 and 2kg of gelato later, we each endured our first gelato-induced hangover.

We briefly went back to our campsite to freshen up and get dressed for our group photo at the Brunigspass cliff overlooking Florence, a truly spectacular view. Once the formalities had taken place, we were back into the square for a Tuscan dinner of our choice. And at long last we were in luck with our restaurant choice, opting to find one that Doug claimed was "family owned' & only Italian staff, not Indians". His prerequisites for restaurant choice worked, it had a great view, delicious pizzas, pastas and bruschetta and was the perfect way to round off our Italian food diet, being our last meal in Italy. After dinner it was on to the Red Garter bar for a packed house of karaoke. Happy hour for cocktail jugs & flaming beer towers got the night started well. We didn't have to twist Louis' arm very hard at all before he was up on stage in front of the large audience blurting out 'Heya' by Outkast. A late night mixing it with the many other Contiki groups there, leaving a few sore heads for a planned sleep day on our coach journey out of Italy & into Switzerland.

All in all, each of the 3 Italian cities; Venice, Rome & Florence were great in their own ways and loads of historical context behind them (not to mention there wasn't a day under 35 degrees). Although was all quite interesting, I'm very much looking forward to moving on from the sightseeing of churches, museums and historical architecture sites & visiting the beautiful natural scenery of our next stop, the Swiss Alps. Oh and also can't wait to move beyond my staple diet of the past 5 days; pizza, gelato & limoncello.