- Note to self – if the conditions for free entry say that you should have photo ID then make sure you have it. Every once in a while there will be a stickler for the rules behind the glass panel and the long walk will be just exercise for the body.
- Always chat with the staff in the shops if they have the time, to pick up interesting information. You might even find you get into one of those 6 degrees of separation situations. Like the Czech lady in the Oltrarno gift shop whose life long friend lives in the same Sydney retirement village where my mother-in-law lived.
- Firenze doesn’t start to wake up until after 10am so it’s the ideal city for a holiday when mornings aren’t your finest hours.
- On a similar note, plan Monday’s activities at least in your head because most museums and some shops are closed. Remember that the churches are still open so Monday is a good day to see them. If you find a tour group that speak your own language wandering along near them isn’t wrong … is it?
- My favourite Italian dessert is almost always the last one I had. At this moment it is tiramisu. I wonder what it will be tomorrow evening.
- It doesn’t matter how good Italian chocolate is, I will still get a headache if I eat it too close to bedtime.
- I have finally worked out that the noise I hear each evening isn’t a large mulching machine. It is the municipal garbage truck emptying the enormous underground rubbish collection bins. I can’t imagine where the branches my peripheral imagination had conjured would have come from around here, anyway.
Io voglio essere in Italia 