After leaving the Cinque Terre region, we drove east towards Florence and then a few days later to Venice. O the way to Florence was stopped at the walled city of Lucca. They were in the process of staging a large bicycle race and it was very colorful. We then pressed on to Florence and made arrangements to spend two nights in the Seven Saints Hostel which was situated in an old convent next to Church of the Seven Saints. The hostel was was clean and comfortable and very close to downtown Florence. We spent two days roaming around Florence and seeing the city. We had strong European coffee with pastries in the morning and great Italian food with local wine in the evening. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed seeing the city. We drove into the hills one day and saw many fine villas and great views of the city.

We proceeded towards Venice next and took the main highway to save time. We arrived there mid day and stayed in a nice hostel on the main island. We decided to turn in our car because parking was very expensive. We roamed around the canals and got lost but always found our way to where we wanted to go. Venice is an interesting city, but things are very congested and there is not much greenery or open space on land. The canals break things up a bit so that helps. It was overcast and hazy the whole time we were there and it had somewhat of a dreary appearance. Everyone we encountered was friendly and it was a very unique place just packed with architectural delights.