Italy was a bit of a let down initially after the beauty of Switzerland. After crossing the border it just seemed to turn into some dirty ugly flat country with crazy angry people and toilets with duct tape to hold on the door k*** .
Eventually though it started to redeem itself when we saw some of the hilly areas and beautiful vineyards.
Drove in to pisa, avoided the hawkers, fought for our space in front of the tower and took a few photos. Absorbed a bit of the atmosphere and tried to grasp the fact we were in pisa. Felt a bit peckish being late afternoon and no sign of dinner until 8.45 when we got into Florence so Emily and I bought our first margarita pizza. Yum.

Arrived in to Florence to a lovely lovely hostel right up on the top 5th floor with not only a beautiful view of Florence but a deck overlooking everything once you'd climbed out the window. Decided it was a pretty nice spot so took a few snaps and set up a laptop to have a bit of an exclusive skydiving DVD viewing session right up until dinner.
Dinner was in the basement, Italian sausages, pork, salad with tones of olive oil and home made chips all washed down with a bottle of chiantelly? A local speciality red wine grape which tasted amazing.

Popped up for a much needed shower before being social and experiencing the live band before taking ourselves down the street to a local bar to attempt to chat with the locals. Naturally though we ended up talking with a French guy who was completely smitten with Sam and I got to test the high school French skills and play translator. Quel domage when he found out Sam was taken, her boyfriend Josh found it pretty funny though.

Managed to get some sleep and I accidentally woke us up an hour earlier than we needed to. Worked out well though, we cleared the shower for our two roommates and had a nap after packing all our things up.

Main event for the day was a walking tour with a local around the main attractions of Florence. Beautiful beautiful city with hilariously charming Italian men who will say anything to charm you into their restaurant.
Checked out a leather work demonstration and learnt how to tell genuine leather from fake leather (apart from the price difference).
All came down to the ease of sliding the suede side together, fake slides genuine doesn't or is very difficult to.

Hit up a small cafe for some lunch attempted calzone to fuel me before a bit of window shipping and light retail therapy.

Met back up with the group and waddled the ducklings back to the hostel and jumped on the bus. Next stop roma.

Arrived evening of the 11th left on the 12th