FIRENZE

I last went to Florence when I was 15, and came back with madly romanticised ideas of how beautiful everything was -- the art, the society and also the men. I vividly remember seeing a tall, dark, Florentine man walking through one of the piazzas wearing a deep purple velvet smoking jacket with jeans, and thinking he was divine. Ok, so my taste back then might have veered a little towards Dolce and Gabbana, but it was still a very striking moment nonetheless.

The last time G was there was the same time as me, coincidentally. Was he the man in the purple smoking jacket? He swears not, that he's never had such heinous taste in clothing.

Anyway, both of us viewed the city differently this time -- the nostalgia was stripped away somewhat and we saw the city through more grown-up, less awed, eyes. More appreciation for the architecture, the food, the weather (!). It decided to rain on us, hard. We bought rain boots. G was in heaven with numerous men's tailors dotted around -- the perfect chance to stock up on decent trousers, jackets, shirts and shoes. He didn't disappoint.

The cathedral was lovely. Inside more so than out.

We ate well -- the key to finding the good places -- once we'd (rather G had) made enough visits to certain shops that sold items of a sartorial nature, he was allowed in on the local's places to eat. We recommend Coco Lezzone....a tiny weeny no-frills, honest to goodness homemade and authentic Florentine food tucked away in a back street -- recommended to us by locals. G's first course was a tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms "the mushrooms were like foie gras", followed by a main course of the classic Florentine steak.

For shopping...just about anywhere that takes your fancy really. There's tat and there's sartorial heaven (including Salvatore Ferragamo's flagship store which definitely falls into the latter).

Sightseeing....we popped into the Accademia to say hello to David...still very handsome despite having overly large hands. We also dropped into the Uffizi. Despite the glum weather and it being off-season, the city was still packed with visitors from all over the world.

After 2 days in the city, we picked up a hire car and drove ourselves to the Tuscan countryside to find G's mother's old house...there it was, about 20 mins outside of the city in the most beautiful countryside. Down one lane and up another until we reached the gates. They were padlocked but we could still see the place of many of G's happiest memories. Walking in the countryside with 4 cats by his side (I swear he is the doctor doolittle of cats), lying in the sunshine, taking the bus into the city for class. The drive up to the house has olive trees on one side, grapevines on the other, and there are cypress trees surrounding the house. It's stunning.

We drove on to Panzano where we had lunch in a restaurant called Il Vescovino. Panzano is a very pretty medieval village -- one where only residents can drive inside the city walls. There was only one other table, we arrived at closing time (of course!), but they sat us down where we had a stunning view over the fields into the distance, with the mist just closing in on us...then the heavens opened, but the sun still shone.

After lunch we drove onto Volpaia -- a tiny weeny medieval village which was just stunning. We stocked up on cinghiale salami -- wild boar, a Tuscan staple.

We then continued our drive to St. Gimignano. St. G is another of the medieval towns (larger than the others) and is bustling with visitors and trade.

We ate at a great trattoria -- Osteria del Carcere on Via del Castello. I was fascinated by how they decanted glasses of wine. They used a glass bubble bong thing in order to aerate each glass individually. We stared at it so much that they put it on our table. G poured himself a glass while I took a photo. I suspect they thought we'd only take a picture. G had no such shame.

I had ribollita, a traditional Tuscan soup. Delicious and perfect for an autumnal day.

We decided to continue our drive towards Siena...but enroute we made our final stop of the day in Radda in Chianti...