While the weather turned nice and sunny as we left Venice, it seems the rain had the same plan we did - it arrived in Florence less than an hour after us. I took with equanimity the fact that the afternoon's open-top-bus city tour was a complete disaster due to heavy rain, and I even took in stride the thunderstorms and jet-black clouds the next morning. But when hail started to pummel my umbrella as I stood in Piazza del Duomo (admiring many of the things you see on this page), I really started to think someone up there was out to get me. It didn't help my paranoia when Tom (who was no more than 100 metres away when the hail descended) said with a perfectly straight face: "what hail?"! (For the record, that was May 8, 2004 - and it did only last for a minute or two).

But all's well that ends well, and over the course of the next 3.5 days we charged about Florence (Tom in the lead, Fodor's always at the ready), rarely stopping for lunch, and soaked up as much of the city and its incredible attractions as we possibly could. In truth, we barely scratched the surface. But that's OK - I now have a ready excuse for a return visit! And of course, we continued to pursue with single-minded determination and whatever energy was left at the end of the day, our gastronomic and related ambitions.

I hope (if you have a good internet connection) you'll click on some of the small photos on the left, particularly the two in the top grouping. The top one's my personal favourite, and the one just below it shows the incredible detail of the facade of Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (i.e., the Duomo). And if you like tombs of the Rich and Famous (well, famous anyway), the little ones to the right will be just your cup of tea! (If you don't want to click them, rest your cursor on each one to find out who's buried there).

You'll note that there's virtually nothing in these pages regarding the history or background of any of the photographs' subjects. Between available space and my knowledge, there's no way I could provide that. But a Google search for "florence" brings up 20,300,000 possibilities. Be my guest!.