Florence

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!