Florence was another city that I enjoyed more at night than during the day. This is simply because we arrived at night and I wasn’t hung over yet.

When a Contiki bus arrives in a city, it almost seems as though the local boganry has been pre-warned that a lot of foreign talent is going to be present at a certain bar/club at a certain time. Florence’s sausage-magnet was called Space Electronic Discoteque, where admittedly some pretty good DJing was going on, but I felt little motivation to do anything except get drunk. Italians do things differently, whether it be the toilets without seats, men’s much more grabby flirting style, or the way my credit card didn’t work when it was time to pay for my drinks.

To the best of my recollection, the morning after involved a trip to a leather goods store called Leonardo’s, followed by some free time and a walking tour of the town. The massive Santa Maria del Fiore along with its tower and baptistry are a spectacular sight in their three colours of marble: red, green, white. There is the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge), and that museum containing the statue of David that we didn’t have time to go into, outside which are likenesses of every Italian you’ve ever heard of—Dante, Galileo, all four ‘Ninja Turtles’, the list goes on—all of which either were born, or spent the best part of their careers, in or around Florence.

People travelling in Italy often remark upon how dirty they believe the country to be. As true as this may be, cut them a little bit of slack. A single statue in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence cost the city €1 million to restore after it was broken. One statue. Think about how much of Italy could do with that level of restoration, or at least a quick blast from a Kärcher. There is just not enough time or money, and meanwhile there’s all this great food and wine to be had. It is simply not an easy task.

I also had some gelato.

L