People come and go talking of Michelangelo

After all these years M gets me down to the Uffizi gallery in Florence.

His arrival on Ryanjet was dramatic as the wind blew over Pisa yesterday. I could see the plane make a low banking turn under the heavy cloud cover and then straighten up to bang down on the runway. Other flights were diverted from or to Pisa. But all was well.

A quick trip into The Boss's office to print out our ticket reservation. It turns out the 'office' is at the top of a Renaissance castle, tucked under the roof eaves with the door from the little loggia that runs around the whole edifice. It was stunning and photos will follow as I shall be camping out there from now on.

Florence was pretty packed and even with reserved tickets we had a 45 minute wait. But once into the Uffizi it was beautifully calm. I've put in a couple extras - the crowd to see Botticelli's Primavera, and a view from the window.

The Hugo van der Goes triptych was absolutely stunning. So much art to come. Suddenly my appetite is whetted.

Funnily, we nearly got into a fight with a punter who was of the opinion we were blocking his view of a film about the restoration of Da Vinci's 'Adoration of the Magi'. It would have made for a hilarious scene in a film about two blokes taking in the sights and liquids of Italy but at the time it put a kink in the aesthetic experience - although fighting and bloodshed was de rigeurr for the Renaissance, even with its rediscovery of Humanism.