Viaggi Florida Keys area

STAND on the observation deck of La Concha Hotel on the corner of Duval and Fleming and inhale the fresh sea breeze drifting in from the Gulf of Mexico. To the North East the 204 km (127 mile) tail of the Florida Keys arcs languorously back towards the US mainland along a curved asphalt spine built of highway and some 42 bridges. More than 800 islands and mangrove-swamped islets make up the Keys, of which only 30 are inhabited. Flat (the highest natural point is 5.5 metres (18ft)), lush and protected by an offshore coral reef the Keys, from the Spanish word 'cayos' meaning 'small islands', attract annually over a million tourists who island hop their way south towards Cuba. Mile marker 127 on US Overseas Highway 1 is Miami. At mile marker zero you'll find Key West, the southernmost point of the continental USA.

Banyan trees and Spanish colonial clapperboard houses welcome you to mythological Key West. Immortalised by Ernest Hemingway in 'To Have and Have Not', this playground of pirates, wreckers, artists, writers, eccentrics and the just plain laidback has a big image to live up to but Key West doesn't care whether you're impressed or not.