So, after Rome, Florence.
Have to say, some people raved to us about Florence, I liked it, but I didn't find to it be that special. It's a lovely city, has some beautiful buildings, great outdoor market, and nice art. Doesn't exactly make it unique in Italian cities though.
In Florence we stayed in a hostel that was a converted hotel and it had an indoor pool and a sauna. Both good things.
Important Art seen: "David" and Boticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera.
One annoying thing about Florence: They have this thing where you can pre-buy tickets, it costs you an extra 3 euro though. The idea is that you then don't have to queue. It is an utter money earner for them. We decided to queue for the Uffizi gallery and we had to wait over 40 min to get in. For at least half this time they were not actually letting anyone from the regular queue in to buy tickets at all. /gripe
One cool thing: The view from Piazza Michaelangelo. It is totally worth walking up the hill for.
Verona
I had a great time in Verona. We were staying with the daughter of a family friend, Kit. Kit is 1/2 Kiwi, 1/2 French and I last met her when we were about 13. She was totally welcoming to us though, drove and tour guided us around, fed us and even gave us towels (we left ours in Naples by accident).
We spent one day walking around Verona and seeing the sights there (it's not that big and we decided not to pay to go into anything, we were a bit museumed and churched out) and eating delicious food. That evening she'd organised to meet up with English speaking friends and we went to a really cute bar.
The next day she drove us out to Lake Garda and we walked around the lake and had lunch at a restaurant on the lake (actually ate at a table on a wharf). It was a cool, but sunny day and just altogether enjoyable. We dozed lake-side before eventually heading home.
Also, Kit makes the *best* Caprice salad, just cherry/plum tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, salt and pepper, maybe a bit of basil. Omnomnom.
One reason Verona is cute: it's amphitheatre is made of *pink* and white marble.
Venice
Venice is different from all the other Italian cities in one big way, no motorbikes! This is of course due to the canals, also a big difference. Long-time readers already know that we went to Venice we shopped. Venice is fun to wander and get lost in, easy to do as there are no straight "roads" pathways.
So many tourists and so much shiny, Venice is extra fun because there really is nowhere else like it. Plus, it's supposedly sinking, go now, while you can!
Still to come:
Vienna, Budapest and Prague. Tomorrow we catch the overnight bus (and then a train) to Trier, Germany
Point of Fashion: Same-old same-old
Current Obsession: Banana-beer!