Day 10: Venice

I loved Venice! I found it facinating...wouldn't spend a great amount of time there but it was nice to visit! Didn't notice any smells nor were we bothered by bugs.

 It was very pretty!

We were a little disappointed at the amount of graffiti on their famous bridge...

 We couldn't believe how many people had dogs in Venice..

A very romantic city! Especially at dusk.

Day 9: Duomo

Check out our cool florence wall paper...this was in the room we stayed in...

 If we thought day 8 was full of hot steep climbs, we were in for an even hotter and steeper climb day 9...up the Duomo...the most famous structure in Florence...here's a glimpse of the inside....

 ...then it was stairs...stairs and more stairs....and it was HOT!

 But the view was fantastic!

 Very high up!

 ....and then finally back inside the cathedral where it was nice and cool...

 mmm Florence is the home of Gelato...so our Gelato addiction continued...

 ...a final walk across Hayden's favourite Florence bridge...

 ...some wishful thinking...

It was a great way to end our time in Florence.

Day 8: Palazzo Pitti & Piazzale Michaelangelo

The gardens at Palazzo Pitti were gorgeous! All be it very steep... and hard to climb on a hot day!

The bottom:

 ...and the view from the top...

 Hot enough for shorty shorts!

 Piazzale fo shizzle!

 .... before we realised we could catch the bus up for this view...we climbed the million steps!

 Hence the flustered looks...

Another fake David...did I mention how awesome the real one was?

 ...So hot tryng to get shade by a bus!...

After all that we caught a bus out to an awesome armory museum....we weren't allowed to take photos except for in the dress up room...

oh yeah!

Day 7: PISA

Saturday morning we had a 'Rome' around Florence ;) It was very hot! Then we jumped on a local train to Pisa...the reason? well this....

...and yes we did have to climb to the top...

 

 ...but the views were great!

 It was an awful lot of steps...

 The leaning tower of Pisa was a bell tower for the adjacent cathedral, the foundations couldn't cope with the height of the tower, thus it began to sink. It was left as is and reinforced, which is lucky because Pisa now gets bucket loads of money from tourists!

 ...tourists mainly doing this...(Trying to get the perfect 'i'm holding up the tower' photo)

Well why not?...'when in Rome...' (or Pisa)

Day 6: Florence

Friday morning we caught a fast train from Rome into the heart of Tuscany...an hour and a half later we were in Florence...and it was HOT! Our new game would be find the shade!

We followed our Lonely Planet guide to an underground sandwich place...nice and cool! It was the first time the shop owners didn't speak Italian...but we managed to point and laugh our way through an awkward conversation.

Then it was off to see the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge that survived the war...it was used to link the Medici Palace and the Uffizi Gallery (their private art collection).

The top layer is their private walkway, the bottom part is a walkway for normal folk and is lined with jewelry shops.

 Today we wouldn't see Michaelangelo's David but took a quick snap of a fake one...

 After walking through the Uffizi we headed to the Galileo museum....

 It was a nice change from all the art work and sculpture...

 Here he is...they also have his actual preserved finger in the museum! Gross!

Thanks for inventing these Galileo, primary school teaching of measurement wouldn't be the same without them!

 The Duomo in Florence is very beautiful....look at the colourful walls..That night we followed lonely planet again to what we thought would be a fairly normal reasonably priced restaurant. When we got there we found a long line up, and with no booking hoped we would get in.

Once inside they sat us at a table with six other people, four from America and two from WA Australia... The waiter came over and pretty much said "today for Apetizer you will be eating.." we just nodded and out came heaps of delicous food for us to eat!

For Primo we were given a choice of pastas, and for Secondo we were given a choice of meat dishes (the first time we had a real steak in Italy!)

This was all lovely except with all this delicious food we hadn't once looked at a menu and had no idea what the meal was costing us! Luckily the New Yorkers we where sitting with had done their research and had more of an idea than us! They explained that the owner came round at the very end of the meal and wrote a cheque, the same cheque amount for everyone in the restaurant that night. Which was great for the drinkers cause we paid the same as them and they got all the free house wine! Anyway it was a great experience, and the food was AMAZING! I would really recommend it and despite our worries it worked out to 90Euro for the both of us so $110 for an amazing four course meal for two! AND the New Yorkers we were sitting with recognised Tony Burton sitting at the table behind us! We were really in one of the best and top rated restaurants in Florence! ...and we had no idea!

Great first day/night in Tuscany!