Final Thoughts from Florence

It's Sunday morning. Our train to Venice leaves at 1:33pm. Sitting in a cafe wondering whether or not to buy another slice of pizza for the train journey. I wish I could speak at least some Italian. Feel ignorant but people are tolerant. I suppose they're used to it. We're getting by ok. You can learn most of the basic words like hello, goodbye and thank you just from sitting in a cafe for 30 minutes or so.

Anticipating Italian dentistry. A little concerned.

Italy so far is reminding me a lot of Barcelona and might even go as far as to say that most of Italy, France and Spain are very much alike in terms of lifestyle and settings. The architecture is similar, as are the small narrow streets forming a web around pretty squares and small cafes. One thing which I have noticed about Pisa and Florence specifically is that there are no chains. No Starbucks. No McDonald's. Every commercial outlet is an independent one. Makes me wonder why? How? Do the cities have regulations against such development or have these offending chains done some research and concluded that they wouldn't be successful.

Everything is small here. The streets, the cars, the portions of food, cups of coffee and even the shops are shy of a few extra square foot. On the other hand, everyone seems to be very healthy living a comfortable and relaxed lifestyle. No body is rushing anywhere.

Lots of churches. Lots of bells ringing.

With just over 3 hours to kill before our train departs we decide to venture out one last time and stumble upon a square (yes, another one) which happens to be host to a large antique fair. Ali happily sits on a bench with our bags whilst I wander around to see what's on offer. A perfect way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon in Florence.

Paid 5 euros for 2 cookies... ridiculous! Obviously I have learnt a valuable lesson here - don't buy cookies (or anything else for that matter) unless you are certain of the price before hand.

Cookies had better be good :)