Florence, day 2 - 26 September 2022

Head was full of information going to bed! Both slept quite well. However, this morning Tintin spoke with a German couple in a van behind us, some low lives tried to nick their e-bikes hanging off the back of their van. They’d cut the bungies over the cover, but gave up when they came across padlocks. Their beautiful rescue dog was too tired from walking the streets of Florence to wake up and bark - his big chance!

Well, don’t really know where to start writing today. Between us, we took over 200 photos!

Think I need to ditch XCWeather - definitely had rain on it’s forecast for today - but lovely warm and sunny all day, didn’t rain until about 7pm.

We’ve spent 7-1/2 hours being tourists today, and now back at Dave for a sit down!

Tintin does very well riding along with his phone in his hand, finding the way - not sure where we’d get to if left to me!

We locked our bikes up to railings behind a book stall, within sight of the baptistery - not bad!

Queued for only a few minutes to get tickets. Couldn’t go up the dome of the cathedral (sold out) which was fine as we’d already decided to go up Giotto’s campanile. Couldn’t buy a ticket for just that either, but for €40 for both of us we could climb the campanile, visit the baptistery, go into the crypt of the Duomo Di Santa del Fiore, plus visit the museum - well worth the money.

We’ve been so lucky with queues today, timed it right for once! First stop was to climb Giotto’s campanile. He designed this in 1334, but died in 1337 before it was completed. The two people who took over altered the design considerably, strengthening the walls and adding large windows. The building is covered with bands of green, white and pink marble and is decorated with copies of sculptures and reliefs from the Old Testament - the originals are in the museum we visited later. There are 414 steps to the top (82m), whereas the Cupola of the Duomo is 463 steps (92m). We’d decided it would be better to look at the Duomo. I remember Mum saying they’d climbed the steps in the Duomo, but she found it quite claustrophobic.

As expected, the views from the top were stunning - could see for miles and miles! Was good to see Filippo Brunelleschi’s masterpiece of engineering of the dome from up high.

As there weren’t really queues to go into the octagonal baptistery, that’s where we went next. It’s entirely encased in green and white marble, and is one of Florence’s oldest buildings, probably dating from around the 6th to 7th century. It was remodeled in the 11th century. It is most famous for its three sets of bronze doors. The south set by Andrea Pisano from 1330s, and the north and east by Lorenzo Ghiberti, aged 20! - worked on them from 1403 to 1424 and 1425 - 1452. His east door faces the cathedral and as Michelangelo considered it to be worthy of paradise, it’s called Porta del Paradiso. Again we saw the originals in the museum. The ceiling is stunning. Sadly, I’m not sure our pictures will do today justice, as you just don’t get the huge scale of things.

After that, we queued for about 10 minutes to get into the Museo Dell’Opera del Duomo. This contains the sculptures and paintings of the duomo complex, too precious to be left to the mercy of modern pollution!

We took so many photos - sure Tintin will just put a selection in!

By then it was gone 1pm - lunchtime. Found a place on the Piazza Della Signora (Ristorante Cavallino). Aperol spritzers for both of us. Bread isn’t really their thing is it?! Some arrived with bottles of olive oil and balsamic - but personally don’t think it was very good quality! I had homemade lasagne, and Tintin had a pasta dish with spinach and ricotta. Think I enjoyed mine more! €60.49. Aperol was €5 more than in Modena at €11 each!

Palazzo Vecchio is another huge building. In this square is a copy of Michelangelo’s David. Seeing as the Galleria dell’Accademia which houses the original is closed on Mondays - this was the best option! There is another full scale replica at Piazzale Michelangelo - but that was too far away!

The massive fountain is by Ammanati (1575), with the undignified figure of Neptune.

In the square is an open-air sculpture museum. The bronze by Cellini shows Perseus triumphantly holding aloft the severed head of Medusa.

We then walked back to the Duomo to check out the queues. Entrance may be free, but huge queues. We thought we’d try to get into the Santa Reparata (crypt), as we had tickets. Genius move! Bypassed all the queues to get into the cathedral!

Anyway, there are steps down into the crypt - it was excavated in 1960s, they found the tomb of Brunelleschi here. They unearthed some very good mosaics.

From here, we were in the Duomo. It’s huge! Inside there is space for 20,000 people. It’s fairly austere inside - again, most works moved to the museum. Pictures will have to show what was inside!

We then went back over Ponte Vecchio, on a mission to get to the Boboli gardens (via the huge Palazzo Pitti). Thwarted! It closes on the last Monday in the month!!!

Once again, we were getting weary by then, so walked back via Ponte Santa Trinità to get views of Ponte Vecchio from the other side.

Only about 13,000 steps, but so tiring around so many people. Think there were more crowds today than yesterday.

Tintin had a new left hip on 27th January this year, and is on the list for his right hip too - painkillers are his friend - but he’s doing really well.

Now for a much needed break from being a tourist!