Florence Piccies

We're back from a week in Florence and Pisa, where we had a great time. Unfortunately, we're now back at work! Still, only a few more weeks until our next trip - Berlin.

In the meantime, here are some more piccies from Italy;



The Cathedral complex in Florence was very beautiful, but rather hemmed in by buildings, so it was almost impossible to get a photo of all of it!

As usual, Craig managed to find some ancient weaponry, much to Sharon's dismay.

Pisa has a wonderful square (called the "Square of Miracles") with the Leaning Tower, the cathedral, and Baptistry surrounded by a nice grassy close. The only thing spoiling it is all the tourists (like us!).

Now that Sharon has stopped holding it up, we suspect it may have fallen over...

Giotto's Campanile in Florence, which we didn't bother climbing - after climbing the dome of the cathedral we were shattered!

Michelangelo's unfinished Pieta. He doesn't seem to have been very good at completing things, Florence is full of half-done Michelangelo's!

The Ponte Vecchio over the Arno. It used to house all the butchers, but they were kicked out when the smell got too bad, and replaced with the Jewellers.

The Baptistry in Florence has a wonderful mosaic ceiling, although you do get a bit of a cricked neck from trying to look at it!

Florence!

We're back on our travels, although this time only for a week! We're out in Italy, and have been enjoying a few days in Florence.

Florence is a beautiful city (although rather too many American tourists for our liking!). We've spent our time visiting numerous galleries including the Uffizi, Academia and Bargello, where we have seen some wonderful works of art such as Michelangelo's David, Boticelli's Birth of Venus, and more Donatello sculptures than you can shake a stick at. Sharon has done very well, maintaining her enthusiasm for art for hours at a time (although by the end of each day she has been known to say "oh, another masterpiece of the Renaissance, big deal!").

We've also visited the cathedral and climbed the dome (no small feat for Craig with a dodgy ankle), and seen the wonderful Byzantine Baptistry. Florence has no shortage of churches, all of which seem to contain yet more amazing works of art, and tombs of important people. We've visited the tombs of most of 16th Century Europe over the last couple of days.

The food has been a bit disappointing - it seems to be mass produced for tourists, and isn't what we'd hoped for given Italy's reputation for food. Still, we have found a nice Chinese, so that makes up for it!

We're off to Pisa next, to give Craig's ankle another workout climbing the leaning tower.

Another Photo Post - Tibet

We haven't abandoned our blog, we've just been rather lazy lately! We're soon going away again (Italy), so will have something new and exciting to put on here, but in the meantime, here are some more piccies from our 6 months of travel. This time, it's Tibet.

A solar kettle! How cool is that!

They particularly like the British in Gyantse!

Craig had his usual problems standing up in Lhasa...

Sharon launches her own sports shop... What do you mean, you don't believe me? Maybe if it was a clothes shop... Or in fact anything other than a sport shop!

Our good friends David and Liz. It was nice to have some company, especially when you're sat for hours in the middle of nowhere while the Chinese authorities close the road!

I don't know what all the fuss is about, Everest isn't that big...