Only Fools and Horses

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Hello!

Since our last entry we've headed south again. Florence is absolutely beautiful but really tiny compared to Rome. It only takes 20 minutes to wander through the centre which is nice since our feet aren't killing QUITE so much.

The first two days we spent on a culture binge. MichaelAngelo's David is housed in Florence so it was top of our list. It was SO amazing. Five meters tall and with SO much detail. It was really imposing and you can easily see why it's one of the most famous sculptures in the world.

The food has been wonderful in Florence. We ordered a Tuscan T-bone steak which was so big they had to bring over another table to support it. We're ashamed to say that we didn't finish it. We both now know how failure eats away at the soul.

Yesterday we went to Sienna on the promise that the wine was cheaper than the water... We promptly didn't drink any wine becasue we were distracted by groups of Italian men roaming through the town singing. Turns out that Il Palio is taking place in a couple of days. Il Palio is the oldest horse race in the world. It only lasts for 3 high octane minutes round the central square in Sienna but is so big in the area, it's like a religion! They have the race, celebrate for a couple of weeks and then go back to building up for the next one. But it was a really nice, excitable atmosphere perfectly complimented by the appearence of James and gelato. Nosheen was so looking forward to seeing Sienna, having 'never been there before'. Turns out it looked quite similar to another very similar town also called Sienna, in the Tuscany region of Italy. She maintained her composure, not giving the game away.... for a whole minute before declaring 'you know what? I actually have been here before.' Pleb.

The Florentine Markets are legendary for their leather products so we decided that since we're pretty much native now we'd try our hand at haggling... Soooo we still probably got very ripped off but for a slightly lesser amount than usual. Hannah's particular technique (bore them into submission and refuse to leave until they accepted the price) worked very well... in knocking a single euro off the price. So well done to her. It is devestatingly addictive and we found ourselves looking for new things to buy just so we could argue with the Italian Del-boys. I think we definitely know who took who for a ride.

We're off to a wineary today and then off to Pisa tomorrow. Unfortunately, that will mark our last day in Italy before we head back to Blightly. We therefore intend on using our final day to take a very amusing and very original photo of us holding up the leaning tower. Very avante garde I know, but you are all welcome to copy if the mood should take you.

Wish you were here.

Hannah and Noshi

x

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