Executive Summary - Florence & Tuscany

• Saw: Uffizi Gallery (and Botticelli's Birth of Venus), Siena, Duomo, leaning tower of Pisa, Lucca, Michelangelo's David, Greve and Chianti, Ponte Vecchio

• Did: waited in line 3.5 hours for Uffizi (at least it was free), climbed 414 steps to the top of the Duomo, hiked to Piazza Michelangelo and the lookout over Florence, took a market tour, participated in a wine tasting and tour of Castello Vicchiomaggio in Chianti, treated myself to a whole lot of 3 course meals

• Ate/Drank:I wrote the Italian versions all down in a journal currently in Iowa but from memory...The Best Prosciutto Ever, at Il Latini, gelati and lots of it, salami al cinghiale, pappardelle al cinghiale (wild boar pasta) with fig and walnut tart in Lucca, best pizza yet (more to come), crostini fiorentina (chicken liver crostini), braised rabbit, zuppa fiorentine (a thick vegetable and bean soup), chianti classico, grappa, limoncello, moscato, vin santo, cough syrup

• Favourite part about Tuscany: It's cliché to say the food but...oh, what the hell. The food. Particularly the belt-busting 4 courses at Il Latini with Mark & Walter.

• Least favourite part about Tuscany: The head cold/flu that kept me down for a week!

• Life-altering revelation which has contributed to my search for universal truth: Cold pressed extra virgin olive oil is a marketing term as all (Italian, at least) extra virgin olive oil is cold pressed.

• Current career thought: Anything that pays money, so long as I can live in Tuscany.