463 STEPS! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I swear it seemed more like 4,063! Ok, so I guess with a title like that we'll go in reverse order today. Sometimes it pays to read signs correctly and well.... They're all in Italian here. No "hey stupid American go here" signs. LOL So, we were looking for the Duomo Museo Della Opera not the Museo Della Opera Duomo. There's a difference of Donatello statues verses climbing to the Dome of the duomo. Guess which one we did!

Yeah, we bought our tickets thinking we were going into the museum. We didn't think anything about it being the Dome because all the guide books say "no kids under age 8" and they let us take Beck right on through. It didn't take us long at all to figure out our mistake though. LOL Now, I will say that it was worth the near myocardial infarction and the fact that my legs shook for half an hour afterwards. The view of Florence from the top was spectacular. The view of the art inside the top of the dome was equally worth it. Jacob has some great pictures. I haven't viewed mine yet.

We never did actually make it to the museum so we'll have to go back. We did the Duomo climb after lunch. When we first arrived at the square we went into the church and viewed it from the bottom level. It's very impressive in a size scale but not as ornate as San Marco. Again, it's just hard to imagine all the work that went into it, especially all the paintings.

We also saw the baptistry which was somewhat smaller but much more ornate. the entire ceiling was done in gold and colored mosaic. I hope some of my pictures come out as we were able to take pictures inside.

The only annoyance on the square were the band of professional beggars who were everywhere. They were women, sometimes with a child, always with a photo of a large family trying to get money. They were very persistant and it didn't take too many to figure out that they were using the same photo. It took the kids a little while to get through to them that these weren't homeless people but a band of professional beggars (and probably pickpockets) and we didn't need to feel sorry for them or give them money. It's difficult because you want them to have a heart for the less fortunate but also to not be taken for a sucker.

We had lunch at a cafe beside the duomo. Beck and I shared proscuito e melone and some kind of penne that I got about half of. Mr Beck-man was HUNGRY! He ate half of the one I got for us to share and then probably about a third of Carina's spaghetti a la frutti di mare. He would have eaten more but there wasn't any.

We're going to eat dinner in tonight. It's threatening to rain and we got back earlier than expected since we had to rescue the wash off the line. It was sprinkling a while back. An early night will do us all good too. We've been up until midnight the past several nights.

I went to the little mom and pop grocery store that's literally in the same building but around the corner. I'm pretty sure that my bedroom at home is bigger. Frankly, my bedroom here is bigger. It has a nice little deli and the basics though. I picked up "un etto" (about a quarter pound) each of salami milanese, salami toscona, mortadella, reggiano fresco, cured olives and a packet of mozzarella di buffala to go with the bread and fruit John bought this morning. It will give us some different things to try. We also have proscuito left from Venice. No one except Jacob and Beck will be all that hungry anyway. Lunch was huge, even with Beck eating half of mine.

Tomorrow is the Accademia and the Uffizi. We have reservations for both of those, although doing our late timing method has worked out well so far.