Florence (minus the Machine, and Jude)

After Rome, I felt a little citied-out and was really looking forward to relaxing in Tuscany and exploring the small hill towns. So even though Florence was only 1 hour away by train, when my parents told us that they were planning to go, I passed, promising Pete that we would see Florence on another trip. Well then my parents got back from Florence and raved about it. And then they offered to stay with Jude so that Pete and I could go on our own and not confine him to the stroller for the day. Hard to pass that up! So on Friday, Pete and I had a whole day of exploring alone in Florence! 

Pete's family went to Florence last year and told us that climbing to the top of the Duomo (cathedral) dome was a must-do. We made our way there and got in a fairly deep line. We were trying to figure out the ticket situation when a young American couple offered us two tickets that were given to them by someone else, but that they didn't want to use. It was a combo ticket valid for a number of places in Florence, issued that day, but the catch was that you could only go in each place once with the ticket and we had no idea where the previous owners had already been that morning. We took a gamble staying in line and hoping that they hadn't made it to the top of the Duomo and back by then. The moment of truth arrived when we entered the church and used the automated turnstile. We were in! Happy Day!

Duomo exterior

Green marble

Once inside, you start the ascent up the 400+ stairs to the top! There were plenty of pauses as we made way for crowds to pass, including a long pause on the inside, just before the dome. Here there were great views of the painted ceiling. It was a depiction of the last judgement and there were some pretty disturbing images! 

 Then you travel outside the dome, but still beneath the roof, in a strange, angled stairway.

And finally, you reach the top! The reward was twofold. First, obviously, the view! Second, at the top of the staircase was a man that I knew from somewhere. I was trying to place him (an old co-worker of Pete's? One of his brew friends?). Then Pete walks behind me and whispers that he is a celebrity. So glad I didn't stop him and ask him where we knew him from! While he was instantly recognizable, neither of us knew his name so we had to do some clever internet searching when we got home. He was Patrick Fischler (Mad Men, Lost, Old School and many others). I didn't get a picture of him, but I got plenty of the views!

The Campanile, which my parents had climbed the day before. 

Across from the Duomo was the  Baptistery, which my parents had told us we had to check out. Again, we took a gamble with our tickets working and this time we were right in front of a guard when the moment of truth arrived. Thankfully it worked again! It was a beautiful site and really nice to get to sit down after that big climb!

The proper pose in Italy

Apart from the Duomo, we just wanted to walk around, get some food and experience the atmosphere of Florence. We took a self guided walking tour, which had stops in another church with a statued facade, a marbled paper shop, a former infant cemetery and a tasty panini shop. 

We stocked up on their Fall collection for Jude (psych!). 

Prosciutto and mozzarella, yum!

The walking tour concluded at the famous Pont Vecchio (old bridge). The colors of the shops along the bridge were awesome, though it was a little scary how similar the river color was to them!

Since our trip was very last minute, we had not looked into buying museum tickets for the famous Accademia or Uffizi Galleries. We stopped by the Accademia when we first arrived in town and found out the wait was 2 hours long. No thank you. Pete had remembered that the Galileo museum was in Florence so we checked out that instead. No lines whatsoever. Shocking, I know :) I was expecting a museum on the life and work of Galileo, but it was actually a collection of astronomical instrumentation. Some pretty cool stuff! 

Then it was back to the train to get back to our bubbo, who we missed and had spent the whole day talking about :)