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What can I say about Florence that hasn’t been said by countless others over many centuries?
Above all, it is the golden colours of the ancient buildings – merchants’ tower houses, castles, churches, spires, domes, walls that glow in my memory – tones of warm ochres,  buttery yellows and deep creams.

It’s not often you forget where you ate your first – and last – roast dormouse. Mine was at a roadside stall in Malawi where I washed the mouse down with a beer called Kuche Kuche which means ‘until dawn’. (If you nibble a scrunchy bit quickly and wash it down even more quickly, you can even persuade yourself that it’s almost palatable, especially as it is delightfully presented, along with the rest of its late family, kebab-style on a peeled stick by a smiling, expectant Malawian.)

When visitors think Botswana, it’s often of the `Okavango Delta, or the Kalahari Desert. But there’s another corner of Botswana that is well worth visiting…

It’s been a hectic month where I covered nearly 3 000 km by road.

Fancy gumboot dancing with a difference? Try a frogging safari and help save our planet.

The Okavango Delta is one of the last true wilderness areas on earth but it is like no other because it is a water wonderland of quiet lily-studded lagoons, papyrus-fringed channels, secret waterways where one of the world’s rarest antelopes − the aquatic sitatunga hides − forested islands and tall palms. Expect game galore and hundreds of waterbirds, including the rare and sought-after Pel’s fishing owl.