We started early hoping to get in to climb the Duomo early before all the tourists got out. We were in the centre of town by 8:30am so that we could beat the ticket line and get tickets early before the cathedral opened. When we arrived we were disheartened to find that the sign outside of the cathedral said that the opening time was 10:00am!
So we were very early and decided to find somewhere to have a coffee while we waited. After looking at some markets we returned to the Duomo from a different direction, and that was when we saw a line of tourists waiting at a much smaller side door. We approached and read on the sign that this was the entrance to climb the cupola, and we read that it opened at 8:30am! We were very annoyed to say the least - as we had wasted time waiting when the part that we wanted had been open all along. Anyway the queue moved fairly quickly and before we knew it we were beginning to climb the first of 436 stairs to the top.
We climbed up a spiral stair case that made us feel a little dizzy, then we would walk along for a short while and then another spiral stair, thankfully going in the opposite direction. We were a little puffed when we reached the top.
We emerged at the lower edge of the cupola, only half a meter under the painted dome. From this vantage point you could see the paintings much better - and as we moved around we could see on the opposite side of the dome scenes of heaven and hell, with angels and demons, and in the centre of the dome a painted trick of the eye which made it look as though the ceiling opened to the heavens where more figures stared down at those below. We covered half the dome before exiting through a side door and beginning the ascent to the very top. This was more like climbing a ladder than walking up steps and a few daunted tourists turned back, but we ploughed on.
We reached a final narrow ladder and emerged outside above the dome on a viewing platform that encircled the top of the cupola. From here the vista of Florence extended out to the mountains. We dodged other tourists to try and get some good shots of the landscape. After about 20mins we descended again, and as we did we saw a girl on crutches making the climb up to the cupola! Knowing how exhausting the climb was we were amazed that she did it on pretty much one foot the entire way. It was actually quite lucky for us, as the route up and down for one part is the same and her slow pace had reduced the number of people who could climb, so as we returned the stairs had hardly any people on them. We came out onto the narrow landing that skirted the inner cupola and saw the paintings we had walked under previously covering the second half of the dome at a more leisurely pace than we had before.
The descent down to ground level was fairly quick and we exited into the cathedral, had a final look around the inside and left via a side door. The whole experience had been quite amazing.
We now had to return to Hotel Olimpia to check out and head to the second hotel, about 20mins north of the city centre. As we checked out the handle of Damian's bag broke, which made dragging it through the streets a little bit difficult. We caught a bus without too much issue, to our stop right outside the hotel. And then had to drag our bags up a flight of stairs to the second floor with no lift (which is definitely not mentioned on the website we booked with!).
We checked in and dumped our bags before heading back into the city. We were going to try and get into the Uffizi Gallerie but the lines were just too long with wait times of up to an hour. So instead we looked for a new bag to replace Damo's broken one. This took up a fair chunk of time as there weren't too many luggage stores and we had to shop around to try and find a good price - luggage is not cheap in Florence, so it seems. We headed down to the river Arno for a break and to get something to eat before returning to the city buying a reasonably priced bag and heading back to the hotel. By this time it was about 3pm and it was starting to get quite warm and we were pretty exhausted by time we reached the hotel. We organised tours for the next day to go and see Michaelangelo's David and to head out into the Tuscan villages for some chianti tasting.
After a nap (which was interrupted by a concert of some description) it was time for dinner, and we asked the hotel manager for a recommendation (we had to ask twice, mick's first attempt was met with a blank stare. Damian's second attempt, saying almost exactly the same thing got us a result). He suggested in broken English that we try ReMatto, located just around the corner from our hotel. We did and were not disappointed the food was beautiful, although Damian did order a dish which had one component 'femagitini' which turned out to be grilled liver on toast! Lucky he didn't know that at the time (Mick suspected it would be liver-like, so he didn't even taste it).
We were so full at the end but the owner insisted we try the tiramisu, which was just the right combination of sugar and cream to make us feel really ill. And then he offered us some grappa or limoncello. Only Mick accepted and had a grappa. We then waddled back to the hotel for an early night before a big day.
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