Florence Darling

The bar on top of our hotel.

Same place seen from the top of the Duomo

All the walls were covered with idiot scribble

John Howard and George Bush dead on the same day? NO!

Easily bored

Ponte Vecchia (all jewellery shops)

The place to be

Medusa's just desserts

The most appalling beggar yet

Just let go Cheryl. It's over!

I think he's hurt bad Wayne.

The 'in' crowd

The view form our hotel room at Pisa yesterday

We are due for launch this morning. We have to be at the southern Rome airport (built 56 AD) by 10:55. We leave here at seven and have to direct the mighty Panda down the boot of Italia for 280 kays. Sounds easy, but we have to fill up twice and get out of Florence without any haematomas forming.

Jane's still asleep, I'm not. I woke at four which is better than the half-twelve of yesterday. They say that the 'Indians' in America used to drink a lot of water before the day of a battle so that they would wake early for the attack. I never understood that. Can you imagine a whole tribe sleeping in before a day of reckless carnage? They'd have to send an apology note or something.

Yesterday was beautiful. Perfect weather. Ideal conditions. Good company. Florence.

We had a great time exploring more of this old place and even managed to climb to the top of the Duomo. It had 458 steps and we loved ever one of them. They are unavoidable I'm afraid. Our calves were sending annoying memos to head office about the irresponsibility of middle-management and our brains were beguiled by the junket of a lifetime.

The view from the dome was typically astonishing and there was always a sense that we were very fortunate that the Italian economy is so strapped for cash that they would open these places to blundering tourists. I should mention too, that the usual obsession with legal consequences for accidents doesn't seem to figure in the picture here. The number of low balustrades, wonky steps and huge drops that we have encountered remind me of a time before they took all the fun stuff away. Apparently there are very few bone breakages in Australian children. They are either so fat that they bounce nowadays or they are trained to be too stupid to go out and have some fun. Where was I?

We even managed to see the gorgeous David. He was in a museum which featured Mick's unfinished works and hundred of plaster macquettes of other busts and statues. The museum also featured a lot of that gilt-ridden religious icon stuff (I imagine that is an emotional cue for many of the faithful...). But David... glad I managed to see what all the fuss was about. You can just stare for ages at the way the stone has been rendered. It looks like he's going to move. But enough of that.

We have four nights in Rome at a flat near the Colloseum and then two nights at Venice. We can't think where to go for the last four days before London but it's on our minds.

Maybe we'll go have a look at the palace of Versaille, maybe Switzerland is irresistible, maybe we'll just let you know.