We woke to an alarm at 745 and didn't move. Eventually we showered dressed and made it out the door at 9. We stopped at the American Diner OK BAR and had a massive breakfast of sausage, eggs, bacon, toast and fruit.
We walked over to the Duomo and the lineups to climb the 436 stairs to the top was over 2 hours long so we opted for the line of 200 people to get in and just walk around the main area. It didn't open til 10 so we had to line up for a while. We had seen the Pantheon and St. Peter's Basilica and according to TripAdvisor reports this one was smaller and not very decorative on the interior.
We got in shortly after 10 and wandered around. It was massive but not very adorned as most of the art/sculptures had been moved to the museum underground where it was cooler and they charged a hefty fee to view it. We walked around the area and observed the tower and dome but had many other things on the list to see.
We walked to the marketplace where Krista purchased some bandages. The marketplace had thousands of leather goods including wallets and purses hand made in Florence. It was still extremely expensive but very beautiful. I bought a few handmade silk ties for the wedding next weekend in Ireland and we headed out.
We walked across Pointe Vecchio bridge markets. Jewelry was as much as 10000 euro per piece. Wow.
We walked through many communities and observed many older buildings. Most tourist things had a high entrance cost and were art related which wasn't going to cut it with disinterested teens and a tightwad dad. We wandered and enjoyed the sights and sounds of bustling Florence.
There were many more English speaking people here from the US than our experiences in Rome. A few tried to budge the line and sneak into the Duomo this morning before the Italian military guards put a halt to that and shuffled their butts off the property. Loved it.
We wandered through many marketplaces looking at all the leather goods as well as tourist stuff. We went in to several churches and they were all incredible with priceless works of art on the walls and gold/bronze everywhere.
We considered an art gallery/museum but it was pricy and I'm sure the boys would be bored as soon as we got in.
We stopped at a bank machine and got out another 500 Euro for our trip to the ocean tomorrow. Not sure how many bank machines are on the beach. ;)
We stopped at a little deli shop and had a big slab of bread with some mozzarella on it. Everyone loved it.
There was a small keg of wine that said Free Samples but there were no cups. The lady said "use water bottle!" - so I used my water bottle! All 500 ml of it! She had no issues with it. Bonus! Down the street we went on our next adventure.
We stopped in at a fascinating shop that had little pools of fish in square tanks. People were sitting down and having a Fish Pedicure! We needed to try this so Jacob had 5 minutes and Krista had 10. Jacob giggled while the fish sucked away at his skin.
We departed and made our way over to the Academia Gallery but stopped at the marketplace first to tour around. What an overwhelming attack on the senses as there were tons of meat and fish shops mixed in with cheese/bread/deli shops everywhere.
We found a homemade pasta shop and ordered Ravioli Bolognese and Jacob devoured it! Excellente!
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