Saturday 4 June

This was our last day in Italy.

Tessa and John left early to drive to the airport at Pisa.

Helen and Adrian got the train to Florence (1 hour journey, cost e5.80 and the train was spotless and on time) and spent the day sightseeing there.

This is the Florence Duomo and Baptistery which are quite stunning (we 1st saw them 26 years ago and they are still quite breathtakingly beautiful)

This is the bronze carving on one of the Baptistery doors (600 years old)

This is the ceiling of the baptistery, again painted (actually inlaid mosaic) 600 years ago

This is one for Rob, one of the panels depicts part of Dante's Divine Comedy.  This is Lucifer in hell

and this is Virgil, leading Dante into the inferno

This is the town square with Michelangelo's statute of David in it:

Actually, the statue is a copy, the original is in a nearby museum, but its still very impressive (the other statues...about 20 in all... are all original and date from 1550 to 1700).

We finally left Florence at 5.30 on the train to Pisa (again over an hour for 6 euros....Rob you should get down to Italy and do a bit of cheap backpacking here).

Flight from Pisa airport delayed but we eventually took off at 11.00 and back to Gatwick and hotel bed by 2.00!