04-25 Florence from On High

This morning we would be exploring Florence from the heights of a Cathedral and a Bell Tower. We bought tickets for the Panoramic Terraces of the Cathedral Tour. We were at the largest church in Florence although it was no where nearly as ornate inside as the outside would have you believe. Pisa's church inside was spectacular. Florence's was stark in comparison.

One of the most unusual sites inside the Church was a backwards 24 hour clock.

The tour allowed us to go outside the church on a pathway at the level of the stained glass windows. The views were nice. The outside of this church and the Bell Tower look like a madman's 3-D puzzle. It is very ornate and geometric.

After we walked around the outside with the tour group we were allowed to climb stairs to the top of the dome on our own. In contrast to the orderliness of Pisa's stair climb their organization here in Florence was an utter fail. Too many people into a smaller staircase. No one could move either way at times. But the views of the city were worth the effort and mild frustration at Italian inefficiencies. Notice that there are no buildings taller than the dome of the Cathedral. Some towns have rules about these things.

Because the climb up the adjacent belltower was six euros it seemed less crowded and there were open areas in two places on the way up to disperse the mild crowds. There were circular openings in the decks on these levels for the ropes of long ago to go through to ring the bells from below. Here are some of the pulleys used for the same purpose.

We had lunch and walked with the crowds of people. Many, many streets were full of people walkng about and then it would open up onto another Piazza (plaza) with places for sitting, vendors selling souvenirs, gelato places, restaurant/cafe sitting areas, and horse-drawn carriages to whisk you away to another piazza if you wanted.

We wandered onto a small piazza selling scarfs, leather, junk souvenirs, and hats that Karen had on her list of places to visit. It was fun to go up and down the aisles of an outdoor marketplace that had been around for centuries.

Too late in our evengin we spied Disney bags in the hands of people. We asked a few where it was located and when we finally found it it had closed early that day. Pooh.

What to do? Gelato time! This place is great. Gelato on every corner and a few in between. Our biggest problem was deciding whether to go with the flavor we loved or try a new one. Tomorrow would bring the same difficult decision once again. Ah, Italy.