Italy's my favorite country to vacation in! The food and the people cannot be beat.

I especially like the islands off the west and south coast. The Marche area is currently my favorite though; it's not as spoilt as part of Tuscany and Umbria are.

Florence is amazing - over 2,000 years old; founded by Julius Caesar in 59BC. You walk down narrow cobblestone streets past shops, restaurants and residences, the street gets even narrower and just about the time you think you've reached the end, you turn a corner and there's another large piazza with more restaurants and shops. We spent hours every evening just walking. Happened upon Casa di Dante(home of Dante of Dante's Inferno) purely by chance and then his chapel another block down the street, which holds a shrine to him.

There's a tremendous amount of history there - much of which they seem to take completely for granted. When we toured the Ufizzi Gallery(home of Botticelli's Birth of Venus), the first landing on the first set of stairs we climbed had a 2,000 year old marble bust of a nameless Caesar sitting there. I couldn't believe a two millineum old piece of art sitting there would I could touch it(no I didn't dare!). You can't even take a picture of David tho'.