I am a little embarrassed at my snobbishness.

If there is something more irritating than noisy American tourists, it is loud Australian tourists: like some in our tour party! in fact the Americans are polite, engaged and engaging, and quite good fun to be around. There is a small group of Aussies whose ockerisms, loudness and capacity to try to educate everyone about things Australian, is making us cringe with embarrassment. “‘Avyaerd Slim Darsty do the red back on the toylit seat?” A polite shake of the head from the bemused Americans. It goes on and on. They are an odd blend of Muriel, Crocodile Dundee and Kath and Kim. It turns out that the American sisters have actually seen more of Australian than our Aussie tourists.

Fortunately they are not all like that. There is a family who is returning to Italy to complete a holiday that went cruelly wrong some years ago, when the son, Mark, then aged about 24 fell following a dizzy spell, crashed into the pavement and suffered a spinal injury. During the subsequent surgery he suffered a stroke and is now quite paralysed. The injury happened here in Florence and they have come back to visit the scene where it all happened at the Cathedral, and visit the doctor who helped them at the time. They are remarkably positive, resilient and cheerful. I think that the mum, Beryl, wants to write about their experience, and I am encouraging her to share her story as it is quite inspiring. Ranjit, the dad, follows Geelong so he is pretty cool.

It is an eclectic group of people. One couple (he is English/Canadian and she is American) have retired to live in Mexico, a young couple are from Argentina and Canada, the two sisters from Michigan (really pleasant and fun), an Iranian couple who now live in Washington, near the Canadian border, a Columbian mum and daughter, some assorted Australians, and the Newcastle bunch.

We had a longish drive from Roma, first to Pisa to see its iconic buildings, and then on to Florence where we stayed last night and tonight. We have had a good walk around the historic old part of the city. It really is a beautiful city, and well worth more than the short time we are spending here. Of course there are an enormous number of tourists, and the streets are quite literally packed. Many, many young people. And where you find packed tourists you also find the odd artful dodger, and so far two of our group have had wallets snatched (both instances in a Rome.) Jen and I are being very careful. We continue to be astonished at the number of hawkers selling some reasonable looking things like paintings but also ridiculous throw-down squeaky toys. Then there are the mock statues: some are very clever, but the majority are rather unoriginal.

We have literally walked miles, so I guess that is a good thing, but my feet don’t seem to agree.

We could not resist the Florentine leather, and now look pretty flash in new jackets. We convinced ourselves that they would come in handy in Switzerland.

Tonight we are having a group dinner. Hopefully a better experience than last night’s which was a bit cringeworthy in some respects (or disrespects). Perhaps our last organised tour, though as mentioned, it is good to have someone else take care of the details and administration.Tomorrow we head for Venice where we will spend a couple of days.
Salute.