We caught the early train from Venice to Florence so we could start exploring the city as soon as we arrived. After an hour of train delays, each time the train stopping inside the dark tunnels obscuring our view of Tuscany, we arrived in Florence around 2pm. The hostel we had booked was warm and clean, and we shared the dorm with a quiet British couple, making it a great place to lay our head after a long day exploring. Although the weather was overcast, we eagerly hit the streets of Florence. Our first stop was the post office to unburden ourselves of the masks we had purchased in Venice then continuing on in search of our normal essentials; laundromat, supermarket and gelato. Our afternoon was spent lost among the streets of Florence, where we stumbled upon a supermarket and stocked up on necessities, plus a detour at the tourist office to book a tour of the Uffizi gallery and Florence the following day, before heading back to the hostel for an early night.

The following day we took a scenic route to the Palazzo Medici Ricardo and along the way stumbled upon the magnificent gothic Duomo. We arrived at the Palazzo as the rain started to come down, where we spent the next couple of hours wandering an exhibition of Salvador Dali sculptures and paintings. Lunch was spent at the hostel before heading to the Piazza Republica to start our guided tour of Florence (jsut as the camera ran out of charge) which enlightened us further to the history of the city, taking us past many known and unknown historical buildings including the Palazzo and Ponte Vecchio. The walking tour ended on the river Arno outside the Uffizi gallery, before we headed in to spend the next couple of hours working our way through a brief history of art during the Renaissance. As we browsed some of the greatest art in the world our guide pointed out subtle differences in methods indicating the progression that was being made. As the doors to the Uffizi were closing we left to head back to our beds, ready for the next day.

The morning was spent washing clothes and communicating with our mechanic to find out when we would need to head back to La Spezia. After a basic backpacker lunch we headed back into the city to revisit some of the sites we had previously passed, now with a fully charged camera. Having heard back from the mechanic we booked an extra night and spent the evening organising our itinerary for the coming days. Our final fall day in Florence started with a visit to the Galileo museum which housed a huge variety of scientific equipment used in the past, each piece often being grand in size and construction. With the weather now starting to clear we crossed the Ponte Vecchio to head to the Palazzo Pitti and then Piazza Michelangelo. Enroute we discovered the best handmade gelato we had tasted which we enjoyed in the piazza with views of Florence below. As the day was drawing to an end we headed back to the hostel to prepare ourselves for the early morning departure the following day so we could visit Pisa enroute to collecting the van.

Our early morning train delivered us to Pisa where we made a whirlwind tour of the leaning tower before catching the next train onward to La Spezia. We collected the van after emptying our bank account, then hit the road for Switzerland.