After a fair bit of driving and miles travelled over the previous week we made the short journey from Bologna to Florence. We picked a campsite 30km north of the town with the intention of taking a bus and train to the centre. However, when we got to the campsite we headed for the pool and promptly both fell asleep for the afternoon. This triggered a conversation about have a little bit of rest time. While obviously we are on a continuous holiday, we have not often just spent whole days doing nothing – so we agreed to have two full days by the pool reading books and napping…heavenly.

The campsite had a cocktail pool party the first night which was a lot more effort than we had seen at any other campsites and we could still hear it going well into the early hours. We also soon discovered that the campsite chef was incredible supplying us with delicious salads, the best bruschetta I have ever had and for Dave a seafood carbonara that had him smiling all evening. A accidental but very welcomed bonus to the campsite and our mini holiday from a holiday.

A few days later we decided, for our site seeing efforts, we would move to a campsite closer to the city and found one that was a short bus ride away. We had a full day planned and so went to get fuel (coffee) from the campsite restaurant in the morning, while keeping a watchful eye on some suspect clouds on the horizon. Just as we were about to walk to the bus stop the heavens opened and we were treated to the most humongous storm (biggest word I could think of and it doesn’t quite come close to explaining the storm) came out of no where. The thunder had us all jumping out of our seats and the rain washing down the hills caused us some concern for the camper perched up high uncover us. An hour or so later the sun came out and we were made it into town.

Florence was, of course, beautiful. A little larger than I had expected although we stuck to the historical centre – with some of the most incredible statues in the world, including David’s namesake. We wandered around a little aimlessly at first but then fixed our plans to seeing the fake David, in a piazza, the real David in a museum and one of the most famous bridges in the world Ponte Vecchio. The bridge used to house butcher shops all along each side until the Medici Family decided it smelt too bad and turned them all into Jewellery shops. The statue of David was remarkable, carved from a single piece of marble it was fascinating how long you could stand in front of it continuously find a different part to admire (and no not his nether regions…naughty!) sadly you are not allowed to take any photos in most Italian museums or churches. The remaining time we spent wandering – Dave insisting we went into every church and me insisting we had at least 20 injures looking around the markets. We didn’t quite fill our cup on the first day and decided that while we would leave the following day we would nip into Florence again first thing and take in the Cappelle Medicee and Basilica di San Lorenzo with sculptures by Donatello and his tomb. Finally feeling satisfied enough to move on we left Florence and on the eve of 3 months travelling in the camper headed deeper into Tuscany.