Florence - the culture and sights

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After a better night sleep for both of us, we were up and had breakfast in our apartment. We had bought some lovely fruit and yoghurt and also a baguette which we still had some cheese from Rome to eat with. I found the right coffee for the coffee device and heated up some milk to make myself a flat white (the Italians call this cappuccino).

We then walked in towards the Duomo as we decided we wanted to at least go inside but at best walk up the Duomo so would see if that was possible. Firstly Janine wanted to sort oit her molbile phone at the Vodafone shop as she wanted to confirm just what she could use. After this we walked to the Duomo and spoke to someone that was selling tickets for €45 for a guided tour of the Duomo plus entry to the cathedral, the crypt and something else. After chatting for a while she said the best price she could do was €40 which which seemed reasonable compared to what I had seen online - all of which was fully booked out. We decided we needed a break to think about it but promised we would come back and find her if we wanted to do it.

After a coffee and cake we decided we would do it - we only had 15 minutes before we needed to be at the Uffizi gallery for our scheduled entry time so raced backed to the Duomo to find her. We couldn't see her and Janine went looking for her. In the meantime I saw a guy holding the same brochure so I spoke to him but explained we were waiting for the girl, who he knew. In the end, she hadn't reappeared so we said to the guy we would book with him but he needed to give us the discount the girl had given. He asked what price she sai and I was about to say it but Janine stopped me and asked what price he would give. He said "did she give you €10 off and Janine said "yep, that's it" so in the end we paid €35 each. When I was talking to him we were trying to work out what time we should book. I mentioned we were going to the Uffizi and I asked him how much time did he think we needed. I said that we were mostly interested in seeing the statue of David ....... and he kindly informed me that David isn't in the Uffizi, only the replica outside. Doh!!!!

Anyway, we booked the 2:30 tour and ran off to the Uffizi. Our entry time was between 12:15 and 12:30 but by the time we got there and found where we needed to be to pick up our tickets, it was getting dangerously close to 12:30. Then, the email that confirmed our tickets that I had open, suddenly disappeared! Of course it did! Right at the moment I needed it. And the pressure was on to find it again using my spotty internet. I think i found it and the man managing the queue, who took pity on us, let us in to get our ticket at 12:28. I handed my phone to the girl in the ticket booth - who proceeded to chat and laugh with one of her colleagues until Janine, in no uncertain terms said " scusi - we need ticket 12:30!". Very unhappily the girl gave us our ticket and we were off.......... to join the next queue. This would be he story of our day lol.

15 minutes later we were finally in the Uffizi (minus David) and thoroughly enjoyed it! There are so many amazing works - from Bottecelli to Leonardo Di Vinci and Raeffele Michelangelo ...... so many to name. We saw the Birth of Venus and the Madonna with Child ..... so many amazing works of art.

Unfortunately we were on a tight timeframe, otherwise we could easily have spent more hours here. We wanted to grab something to eat before heading back to the Duomo to went back to the cafe we had the coffee and cake earlier, as we had seen some really yummy salads there. We had a nice bruschetta we shared and both had the asian chicken salad. After quickly eating our lunch we raced off to the meeting point for our tour, near the Duomo. Then we were off climbing the 428 steps that would eventually bring us to the roof top of the dome. Along the way we heard a little about the making of the dome and we also got to see the inside of the dome from very high up. There were some challenging places in the climb, when the path was very narrow and made it difficult when people were coming the opposite way but eventually we made it to the top and wow, what a view!! So, so glad we did this (even though we were hot and sweaty when we made it to the top). There was a nice breeze that made being at the top quite pleasant. We spent some time soaking up the 360 degree views of Florence and the surrounding hills.

Eventually it was time to head back down (so much easier!) and enjoy the views along the way. Once down we headed to join the queue to get into the cathedral. Our ticket also gave us entry to the crypt, which we also wanted to do. We joined the queue, which were told 'moves quickly' and 'don't worry, it will only be 15 minutes'. Janine headed off to get us both a well deserved gelato. I hadn't moved too far when she returned. I had the lemon sorbet with pineapple sorbet and she had the lemon sorbet with strawberry sorbet - all delicious. I was worried we might be still eating when it was our turn to go into the cathedral - hahahahahaha that was funny! We finished the gelato in no time - and we were still in line 30 minutes later. All up it took us 45 minutes to get inside.

Such a beautiful cathedral! We also really enjoyed the crypt - it had some amazing mosaics and artifacts. By this stage we were both fairly exhausted so after ensuring we had seen everything we wanted to see, we headed back to the apartment for a little r&r (and happy hour!).

We decided to crack open the Rosè we had bought at the winery yesterday and were pleased to find it was as good as we thought. After relaxing and checking and looking into some of our travel plans over the next few days in the Cinque Terra as well as Paris, we decided to freshen up and head out to dinner. By the time we left England had already kicked a goal in the semi-final against Croatia so we were keen (ok, maybe only I was keen) to find a TV to watch the game.

We went to a restaurant down the end of our street that had been recommended by our AirBnB host. I have the Scampi & Calamari risotto with insalada mista and Janine had the prawns with tomato and rice, with spinach. We both really enjoyed our meals!

By this stage we asked if we could move into the room that had the TV and took our glasses of red wine with us. We got there in time to see Croatia level the score! We started chatting to the two girls we were sitting next to - they were from China and Lithuania. Fun times!

Eventually we headed back to the apartment and called it a night - after we saw Croatia seal the deal with their second goal and make their way to the GF against France.

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