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I made my train to Florence this morning by 1 minute due to a bit of a delay on my egg and bacon sarnie. Priorities, you know.

Actually I hope I’m right in thinking Firenze is Florence otherwise I’ve no idea where I’m going to but I’ll be 4 hours away from Rome anyway.

My pal Topi has a mate studying in Florence so I’m meeting up with him later I think. As I’ve said before, always good to have an inside man.

What’s the chances of me finding a bar tonight that is showing the sexy football that is Manchester City’s encounter with Scunthorpe United in the Carling Cup. Probably a bit shabby and even more so with Fiorentina being away at at Genoa. Maybe due to public demand and uproar it will be featured on a large screen erected in one of the main piazzas. Maybe not.

Florence will be something of a base for me really. Tomorrow I plan to go to Pisa and Pontedera and I may also fit in trips to Sienna and San Marino. I’ll have to see though as I need to allow sometime to see Florence itself.

There’s a lad sat opposite me who I think hasn’t stamped his ticket and looks to be on the end of a hefty fine. He’s doing the praying/pleading action to the inspector that Italian footballers so often do to referees to try and get out of bookings. I think it might have worked ‘n all. Crafty.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to grab any more albums on Spotify while in Rome. So I’ve been forced to go all retro and actually listen to tunes on the iPod. I love it when you get a passage of 30 seconds or so in a song that just seems musically perfect, like this from 1:40 to 2:20.

I just reprimanded (though I’m not sure he understood me in the least) the lad who had the ticket incident. He seems like a whoopsy (it’s difficult to tell with Italian fashion and mannerisms!) but for the last 5 minutes he has been rubbing himself rather too often and vigorously for it to be a token scratch and it’s disturbing me. I believe I said something along the lines of “Do ya want to stop doing that ya freak”. What a weirdo.

I’m in Florence now and I’m bursting for a waz. €1 to use the train station bogs though! I’d rather walk in pain the 1 kilometre to the hostel on a matter of principle, 1 smeggin’ Euro for a basic human right.

The hostel where I’m staying seems excellent. It’s huge with 450 beds. It has a swimming pool, mini-gym, sauna, bar, disco, games room, restaurant and more. On the downside there’s no kitchen, probably to get you to buy their stuff (which while not exactly cheap, it will be less expensive than eating at proper restaurants every night). Another negative is that it just cost me a whopping €7.50 to do my washing (that’s the most expensive I’ve seen in 70+ hostels) though as I’ve not done any since Montenegro it’s a necessary expense. Also this bunk-bed is the noisiest contraption I’ve ever known. Still, it’s a good hostel.

Right, I’m off to meet Jukka (Topi’s mate) now for a wee tour of the city.

Based on my brief night-time tour I’d say Firenze looks a nice place, some epic architecture and pretty streets.

Jukka knew a place where it was €6 for a pint and pizza. I’ve had far too much pizza lately but a deal like that round these parts should not have a back turned upon it.

Then we went to another bar to watch the Genoa (no, not really … bad joke, sorry) vs Fiorentina (I’d faced facts and conceded that I wouldn’t get to watch City’s 5-1 victory, ahem). It was a great game featuring one of the most brilliantly blatant dives (seriously a desert of daylight between the defender and attacker) you will ever see and an amazing Palladino back-heel. YouTube clips may be available by the time you read this. Genoa went down 2-1 in the end though.

Then they switched the idioto boxo over to injury time of the game in which Napoli trailed AC Milan by 2 goals to 0. I’d already decided that Napoli would be my team well before (when in Napoli really) they brought it back to 2-2. Great scenes.

Italian football appears to be played at a lot faster pace than I thought it was going off all I’ve seen so far. I’m impressed.

I should mention that the best bit about this pub was that they served 2 pinters (formidables in France) at €6 a piece, goodo.

After that we went to a really cool bar/club called Foco (fire). I had to pay€5 to join but I didn’t really mind as the place had a really interesting left wing vibe to it. I reckon I’ll return to get my money’s worth before I leave.

Me and Jukka got on well and it looks like he is coming to Pisa with me tomorrow. Though as I post this at half 3 in the morning, I’m not sure I’m going myself.