Florence

And so we arrived in Florence two and a quarter hours late, at 9.30 instead of 7.15. No matter, things in Italy have a habit of working out differently, and I was in no hurry at this stage. I dumped my bag in the left luggage, got a bite to eat in the station and set off for a couple of hours wandering around the world's favourite cultural icon.
And it is staggering! I really only touched the surface but I have to say that it was too much. The crowds queueing to get into the Duomo, wandering around the Piazza della Signoria and across the Ponte Vecchio. Busy streets, narrow pavements... It didn't help that I was tired from the journey. Funnily enough, one of my favourite buildings in Florence is its station, Santa Maria Novella, built in a modernist style during the fascist era (a style that was not in favour with the regime). Definitely one of the world's great stations. Anyway, I duly wandered around the Piazza del Duomo, saw Ghiberti's famous Baptistery doors (or at least the replicas – the originals were moved from their home to a museum a while ago), Orsanmichele, the Piazza della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio, and the San Lorenzo market. It seemed that every corner I turned, there was something I had studied as part of my OU degree course. A bit footsore, I then had a bit of lunch, retrieved my bags from left luggage and got on the train to Lucca.