Our first visit was Castel Nuovo. Well, we didn't so much visit it as walked round the outside of the dark structure, commenting on its poor design as the shapes at the bottom would make it easier to climb if it was under attack back in the day!

We walked to the fountain of Neptune then continued on to San Pietro Martire Church. The church wasn't very impressive as there wasn't much of it to see from the outside. Google seemed to get a little confused with the journey to the next church so we found ourselves wandering into a very peaceful square that's part of the museum of palaeontology, plus walking up a load of stairs, which, of course, dad complained about! Lol

Today we had a tour booked for Florence and Pisa as it cost just the same as making our own way there. We took a shuttle from the port to the meeting point, then met Alessandro and Pamela, our guides for the day.

I had read that it took an hour and 10 minutes roughly to get to Florence, but the guides said it would be 1hr 40 mins. Not sure if it's because of traffic or because when you do a coach tour, the coach can't get right into the centre, it has to park about a 20 minute walk outside. Alessandro gave us info on the city as we made our way there but it was hard to stay awake with the coach rocking you to sleep!

Our first stop was a place where we could taste Tuscan red wine and 2 types of traditional food, Pappa Al pomodoro (which tasted to me like ravioli minus the pasta) and Panzanella. I couldn't quite figure out what this last one reminded me of, but I didn't like it anyway. Unsurprisingly, dad didn't like either of them, but at least he tried them! And although he made faces at the wine, he still drank the whole glass! Lol. This wasn't actually what had been on the itinerary. We were meant to stop at the food market for cantucci (a kind of cookie). Pamela told me it was because something was wrong with the market, which I can understand.

The name of the tour included the words, "fully guided" so, understandably, people were annoyed when the guide said he'd show us the meeting point and leave us to explore on our own. After they complained a lot, Alessandro said he'd show us around. However, with a group size of around 40, without the radios, you'd end up just following a group of people around with no time to stop for photos or knowing where you were. Plus, as he hadn't expected to take people around, he wouldn't have had detailed info to give. Dad and I are generally both 'make the best of things' people, so we just went off on our own to explore for just under 2 hours (the itinerary had said 3 hours in Florence).

We saw the impressive Cathedral, Basilica di San Lorenzo, and Giotto’s Campanile from the outside. We couldn't go in as there was a massive queue and we wanted to have a wander and see other things. Or at least I did. Dad could probably have done without the wandering part! Lol. Though I did give him the option of staying in a cafe and he said he was fine to walk.

There were quite a few impressive buildings, fountains, and statues in the city. In the Piazza della Signoria, there was the fountain of Neptune and the Loggia dei Lanzi, which house many statues and a fountain. They were all pretty violent and/or grotesque, which I reckon makes them much more interesting to look at!

We walked to Ponte vecchio Bridge, which is one of those bridges that has shops (mostly jewellers) and apartments on it, some hanging out further then the bridge itself.

We wandered back to meet our guide then walked about 20 minutes back to the coach. Heading to Pisa, a journey I thought was about 45 minutes but took 1hr and 20 mins, the guide told us there was an accident in the road but our driver Valter had found a shortcut to avoid it. He drove down small country/village lanes, getting us to Pisa (or at least the nearest parking lot as it was still a 15 minute walk away) without delay.

I hadn't realised that the leaning tower of pisa wasn't standing on its own. It sits in a large square beside the Baptistry and cathedral. You can climb to the top for 18 euros but neither of us could face the 300 stairs! And yes, nearly every tourist was trying to get that iconic image of them holding the tower up. I tried to get dad to do it but he wasn't really understanding the instructions! Lol

We wandered around the area, took a load of pictures (well, I did!), then headed back to the meeting point where we grabbed an ice cream before the 15 minute walk back to the coach. They dropped us off right at the cruise port after half an hour, which saved us another bus trip!

Cannes is a tender port, which means the ship can't get right into the port as it's too big, so you have to go on the lifeboats or local boats to get there. We had to sign up for a number the day before. When this number was called, it would be our turn to get on a boat. The problem is thst they didn't even give you an indication of time; it could be any time between 8am and 12pm, which meant you had to be up and ready when you could have been having a long lie! Luckily, our number was called pretty soon after we finished breakfast.

Arriving in Port, you couldn't miss the massive luxury yachts. I could definitely live on some of them! The sail boats looked way to complicated! Too many cables getting in the way! It would definitely be a power yacht for me!