Being a tourist in Florence

After many late nights, early starts and long days Julie (Justins mum) and I enjoyed a slow relaxing morning while the boys trekked out to Pisa to see The Leaning tower.We made it into Florence by about 11.30 and spent hours enjoying a slow leisurely pace wandering around the tourist filled markets, smelling the leather and buying of course! There was beautiful Italian made silks and ties, handcrafted jewellery, a wonderful selection of gorgeous authentic leather hand bags and of course, around the Doma cathedral (where the concentration of tourists is at its peak) the obligatory dodgy street vendors with unoriginal designer handbags, watches and prints. Those guys provided much amusement as their goods were laid out on white sheets and as soon as they saw or heard the cops or word reached them of a patrol they picked up their sheets like sacks and bolted down side streets or hid in corners until it was safe to set up again and this little game continued all day!

We met the boys for a quick lunch before the shopping continued.We walked to the square with the famous museums, fountains and sculptures (sorry the name escapes me) and saw the copy of Michelangelos David. As the queue to see the original was so long they'd stopped letting people in so we made do with the copy and some lesser known originals in the square.

the sun was out all day as we strolled through the markets and enjoyed a gelati

The sun was out all day, we enjoyed a gelati, watching these amazing street artists creating awesome painting with spray paint and the markets kept going. The air was full of the babble of predominantly English voices and the locals enjoyed the bartering. We all managed some souvineer and gift shopping but I'm still struggling with my xmas decoration collection. I suppose it's too early and the few I've seen are not to my taste.

We ended the night with a long dinner at an Italian restaurant filled with locals and lots of laughs. As it's our last night with Justins parents and their friends we said our goodbyes and enjoyed chatting way into the early hours again.