Some travel guide said that to visit Italy, it may be best to fly in to Venice and travel down to Rome, so that there isn't such a big shock. Then again, in my opinion it may be better to experience Rome first. Sad to say, Rome isn't my favourite destination. Maybe it was due to the over crowded tourists (sorry I contributed to that), or that huge difference from hospitality we received from the Dutch, or the-not-very-bright metro stations, or we didn't spend enough time to grow a liking to it. In Rome, I started to carry my backpack in the front, being paranoid of pickpockets as I can't lock my backpack. It wasn't the most comfortable way to carry a backpack but better be safe than sorry.

Regardless, we bought an earlier train ticket to Florence than what we planned initially. That, was probably a good move. Now back to me saying that it may be better to experience Rome first... we went to Florence with the same expectation that it would be similar a situation as to what happenned in Rome. I was glad that say that I was wrong. People were less harsh and much nicer. Staffs manning the information counter were more helpful, the man selling bus tickets were less grumpy, people were nicer. A particular Italian lady were so kind to help us pressed for the bell in the bus for our stop and told us the direction to our B&B. She was speaking in Italian at all times but tried so hard to help us. I like Florence already :)

Even more so when we saw this beautiful building at the end of the street.