At least the only Golden Arches we saw was at the station

It’s Friday and it’s shopping day. I’m excited by this, as I’ve promised myself a piece of jewellery as a belated birthday present. As we cross the Ponte Vecchio, I look in one or two windows, but I already know the sort of thing I want. As I look, I also spot some pendants – they’re in the shape of masks - I’m hooked, as they tick both the boxes of ‘drama’ and ‘Venice’ (yes, I’m in Firenze, but it’s still Italy!). Before I know it I have a new mask pendant. Next it’s the ring shop. I know it when I try it on. It has a turquoise stone, it matches my nails, it’s the one. I have what Cat calls my ‘Cheshire cat’ grin.

The afternoon is slightly less fun, as I nearly loose my handbag in the Palazzo Vecchio – I’ve just climbed a flight of stairs, commenting how much hard work it must have been for the servants, when I realise I must have left in the last room - two flights down. I hurry back, with that awful cold feeling of fear gripping me. Panic. Thankfully, it’s still there.

In the evening we’ve booked to go on an evening walking tour. Only we what we didn’t realise was that the ‘native English speaking guide’ would turn out to be ‘native American speaking’. The tour is geared to the lowest common denominator, and tonight that’s the American tourist who has clearly never opened a guide book or read any European history. As we’re standing on the Ponte Trinita, ‘who were the Medici?’ The guide discusses the devastating flood that hit Florence in the 1960’s when the Arno burst it’s banks, damaging many works of art ‘gee, did that affect Rome?’ The tour is interesting, but I get the feeling we’re only skimming the surface because of the audience. As the organisers are a theatre company, I thought we might get some dramatic re-enactments of some of the tales, but we don’t. Maybe there’s a gap in the market?

We do see parts of the city that we otherwise wouldn’t have, though, including the house of Bianca Cappallo, whose story, I comment, sounds like a Jacobean tragedy. After I’m home, I discover that Middleton’s ‘Women Beware Women' is based on it.