I went to Italy in '94 and we flew into Florence airport. And we climbed down the aircraft steps and walked across the tarmac to the reception area. It felt like we were in a 1940's film.
If you go to that area do make time to visit the city of Lucca.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca
We had gone with a couple of friends, staying in a flat in nearby Bagna Da Lucca. (And, yes, we are still friends.) According to the guide book we had with us, which we had been consulting in a cafe there is a Roman amphitheatre (the buildings are medieval but built on the Roman building). So off we went, we saw an awful lot of Lucca but could not find the amphitheatre until we ended back at the cafe and looked up and around.
You've guessed it, we were in it before we left to search for it.
Whilst having our coffee we looked at the discarded Italian newspaper to see how the World Cup match between Italy and Ireland had turned out the day before. It took a while but it eventually dawned on us that Ireland had won. No wonder it had been quiet the day before.
Later that week Italy won and we knew it from the reaction of the people on the street.
We also went to a market one day in Lucca and bought a lithograth of the amphitheatre. It is black and white and shows it using a bit of artistic licence and has priests flying down to the ground from the sky. We managed to buy it and tell the stall holder we did not want the frame only the lithograth as it was too big too fit in any of the suitcases without us being able to speak Italian (we knew a few words to get by in) and he could not speak any English.
Shopping was easy, the greengrocer spoke English, the supermarket has one man who was born and raised in Britain before the family returned to Italy. Only trouble was he came from Greenock. So we had to listen carefully and mentally translate a strong Glaswegian style accent with an Italian accent on top of it into English.
Keep smiling because the light at the end of someone's tunnel may be you, Ron Cheneler