On leaving Rome, Doug, Janet, Tony and I headed firstly to the Tivoli Water Garden's, approximately 30 minutes north east of Rome. We first learned about the Tivoli Gardens from a movie and on wandering around the beautiful water displays and fountains we soon realised the benefits of sitting through many a 'chick flick' with Sarah and Kate when they were teenagers. Yes the Tivoli gardens are featured in the movie 'Lizzie McGuire', which we freely admit to having recently re-watched to jog the memory as we thought it featured 'Bramante's staircase' in the Vatican (which it didn't).

Next stop Florence........
After arriving in Florence and a couple of loops around the city to avoid 'no traffic zone cameras', which have a fine of €100 if you drive under one, we found our hotel. Due to a tight time frame we took a taxi to the Academia gallery as we had 'skip the line tickets' to see Michael Angelo's 'Statue of David'. As a sculptor Michael Angelo claimed he did not carve the marble and stone he used into the statues he created, he simply 'released' the creation that was already inside. Might just have to give that a go myself sometime!

Next stop was a climb up the Duomo Cathedral dome to enjoy spectacular 360 degree views of Florence . We first visited Florence as a family thirteen years ago and it was upon climbing the very narrow, very steep and very enclosed staircase back then, that I discovered I suffered slight claustrophobia, as well as not being too keen on heights (which I already knew). But, I like to challenge myself and I figured I'd done it before so could do it again, so 400 plus steps later & with a lot of puffing and panting (and I must point out it was 38 degrees outside and virtually no ventilation in the staircase), we were at the top and the moment we stepped outside, the hard work was forgotten. The view however was once again breathtaking, without a doubt well worth the climb and a strong breeze at the top very refreshing. On wandering through the streets of Florence the atmosphere was buzzing, we firstly stumbled upon a youth orchestra playing in Piazza Vecchio. We stopped, sat and listened for a while, it was quite surreal, here we were in Italy, in Florence sitting in a Piazza (square) on a very balmy evening, listening to an orchestra with hundreds of other people, most of them probably locals. We wandered on to the Vecchio Bridge, another famous Florence landmark, there were street performers playing, again we stopped and listened, they were playing a variety of English and Italian covers, a mix older and modern music, €10 later we had their CD.

Prior to heading for the Cinque Terre the next morning, we drove up to the Piazzale Michaelangelo, an area on the hills above Florence, here there is a replica of 'The statue of David' and more amazing views of Florence. Last time we visited, we stayed in a camping ground among olive trees just below the Piazalle, a lovely place to visit that brought back great memories.