It's possible that one reason for my long-distance photo of the basilica is that I was at the opposite end of the piazza at the time. This shot was taken only 20 seconds after the previous one, and this looks down il Borgo dei Grecci, a narrow street that runs off the far end of the piazza.

Here we are looking toward the Torre di Arnolfo. That tower sits over the top of the Palazzo Vecchio, also known as the Palazzo della Signoria, as well as a bunch of other names. It has been the seat of government for Firenze for hundreds of years. The tower is reportedly 95 metres (312 feet) high and offers spectacular views of the city. And as you may have guessed, we haven't been up there.

I'm beginning to wonder whether I should change the name of this gallery to "The City of Lost Opportunities".

The tower is about 350 m (383 yards) from here.

I have a particular reason for putting this one in. You may not be able to see it clearly because it isn't illuminated, but on the right there is a neon sign saying "Leather Coats". That is il Borgo dei Grecci 8/red (no, that isn't a typo according to Google Maps), the home of Peruzzi Firenze. Although I didn't make the connection at the time, this was the place that we were deposited into at the start of our tour of Firenze while we were still doing our coach tour. It's the place where I perhaps mistakenly bought a leather jacket for myself. As I've mentioned previously, all coach tours do this; you are taken to a particular store where you are guaranteed that you will get the best bargains in the city (supposedly) and for anything that you purchase the tour company gets a nice little backhander. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this; I suppose it would be better if the backhander arrangement were disclosed but you'd need to be a painfully naïve traveller to not know about it.

Anyway, that's the reason for including this shot; as a mnemonic for our first tourist encounter with Firenze.