Florence has been a busy few days. We have stayed just one street away from the Santa Croce, a church and public square, which it turns out is the main leather district - much to Mum's delight. So after navigating car parking and the killer stairs up to our apartment with all the luggage we set out to explore these shops and get our bearings.

Yesterday morning Mum and I were out again delving further into the leather shops while Tom and Dad visited the Ponte Vecchio. There was some shopping success before we made our way to the Uffizi Gallery.

The ruling family of Florence was the famous Medici family - they married royalty across Europe, produced two French queens and four Popes. They built many palaces around Florence and one came to house much of their art collection. This is today the Uffizi Gallery with works by Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Titian, Raphael, Caravaggio and Rembrandt. Although we tired a little of the countless Madonna and Child works, there were so many paintings, statues and masters to admire, all in the one space.

We then entered the busy San Lorenzo markets, filled with people, bags, wallets, jackets, trinkets and the usual touristy souvenirs. Sorting through the fakes and the gimmicks we did end up with some good finds and slightly better honed bargaining skills. Tom is particularly good!

This morning saw all of us now with leather jackets and Tom braving a haircut from a man with no English! Luckily it turned out well but I will admit that I held my breath for a second just as he opened our apartment door!

We spent the afternoon at the Ponte Vecchio and Pitti Palace. The Ponte Vecchio is a bridge that houses gold jewelers, people with lots of money to burn and a nice view up the river. The Pitti Palace gardens are very beautiful with great views back onto the palace and across Florence. Unfortunately the heat took it's toll and some parts were closed unexpectedly so we did not stay as long as we would have liked.

We had a very nice time in Florence: the sights and the food were great and thankfully the shopping was not as difficult or wearing as some of us had imagined!