We checked out of the hotel very early this morning. We had to get the bus loaded early because of road closures due to the UCI World Cycling Championships. The race ran straight past the front of our hotel. I don’t need to say just how much I wanted to hand around the city and watch the racing. If we had a free day here then I would be as happy as a pig in shit.

However was not to be and we had organised a walking tour of the city by a local. We met the local shortly at 9am. The guide showed us around the city and told us the history of some of the buildings. This is Florance. There is nothing of major importance. We were shown the Fake David statue. Florance had a lot of statues. Where ever you looked there was a statue of someone.

After the walking tour we visited a leather shop. We were shown how leather boxes were made and how to tell the difference between real and fake leather. Still don’t think I can pick the difference the likeness is so close only a real expert could pick it. The speaker also told us that many stores mix both real and fake leather products together so as to make it even harder to pick the real products from the fake ones.

The walking tour finished around 10:30am. We had a couple hours to explore on our own and find lunch before the bus trip to Rome. Rhian and I stayed with a group from our tour and we found lunch at a small Pizza shop down an ally way. After lunch everyone else in the group wanted Gelarto. They found a store and got their fix. After this it was time to make the long walking jorney back to where we were supposed to meet the bus. The bus was meant to meet us on the circut for the UCI Team Time Trial. Racing had finished at this time and so the bus was actually allowed on the circut to pick us up. However I didn’t get my request for the bus to do a lap of the circut.

On the way to departing Florance we made a quick photo stop then hit the road to Rome. We arrived in Rome around 6pm. We had enough time to get off the bus, drop our bags into the room and then head out on another walking tour of Rome by our tour leader Kristy.

We did a lot of walking on this tour but we did see (from the outside) a large number of the sights of Rome. Some of these included

Piazza del Popolo
Fontana di Trevi
Pantheon
Gelateria Della Palma  – According to our tour guide this is the best Gelarto in Italy. I think it tasted like any other ice cream.
Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II
Museo di Palazzo Venezia
Colosseo

After our walking tour we finally caught the subway to where we would finally be having dinner. It was 9:45pm by the time we got to the restraunt and everyone was hungry. Some had to wait an hour and a half for food but it was worth the wait.

After dinner Rhian and I caught the subway back to the hotel for a well earned sleep.