SO we spent another day in Florence including climbing the Duomo (Barb has gone places you'd never bet on in this radventure!) before heading to 4 nights across the Lagoon from Venice - visiting the beaches and a spectacular waterlogged city full of tourists. They are spending a huge whack of dough on a plan to separate the city from the sea, while letting the boats go back and forth. Not much left for the buildings which are looking like life is tough. Traffic jams in gondolas are not that romantic either. Have now reached Ljubljana in Slovenia, where the people are definitely not Italians - nobody has even tried to steal our laptop sitting out here in the square. A real student town, and nice to get back to tons of bikes around. Are getting more rain than the first 7 weeks combined, but temp is good and somehow it doesn't rain when we really need it not to.