The queue for Florence starts here

OMG--nearly peed my pants reading this!
Curmudgeons unite--crowds, queues--no thank you. I know it's a chance to breathe in and out, a la Buddhist mode, but I prefer to avoid and go in the really low season--like I was here at Christmas, though when exiting the Duomo after Xmas service and giving gypsy/Roma beggars a couple of dollars, they stole all of my money--bad form. Shocked that it was so crowded in Oct--maybe it's high season forever now in Europe. Loved your story of none-ascending the Duomo's tower--so Italian! Napoli is bound to be bedlam, but hope you make it to Herculaneum and not just the more crowded Pompeii. And I so recommend you stop by Sucre and me on your way home. Fabo, cheap and Shelley and I can ogle churches, Scott and I can commiserate on our most absurd, crowded tourist sites and we can eat in restaurants, which I never did my five years in Europe. I waiting!

'Hell is other people' :)
Haha Scott I really shouldn't have found your discomfort funny - but I did! I have a feeling that Naples will be more to your taste, but I could be wrong. Shelley, like you I'm a compulsive candle/lamp lighter for my Grandma and Dad regardless of the appropriateness of the religion...it can't hurt right?? :D

You are a great story teller
Sorry we are entertained a bit by your pain. I can't ride backwards either. When getting tickets on a train we do lots of research to make certain I'm facing forward. Somehow we had a special pass in Florence that allows us to go in a back door at the museum and not stand in the line. It was great. We were part of a walking tour. It was very cool. We enjoyed sitting in cafes in Florence and watching people. We went knowing we'd have to deal with the tourists and just decided to go with it and not allow it to bother us. Always love your impressions. Great photos.

Love the reflections
Nice