Florence Day 2

Today we got up later than usual due to jeg lag. After we were both up and got ready for the day, we ate breakfast at our hotel. The hotel has a rather small room for breakfast and serves the same thing every day. Last night we went to find dinner at the Piazza Repubblica which is a square that was built over the ancient roman forum. Now it is used for a saocial square and there are resturants all the way around the edge. We settled at a resturant on the left side of the square. There was a man outside speaking in all sorts of different languages to try and get people to come and eat at his resturant. I had a delicious spaghetti. The pasta here is not cooked to the extent that we cook pasta. The center is chewy and almost crunchy. Now back to today, after breakfast we walked back to the duomo that we visited on the segway tour. It is about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. This time however we did not just look at the outside but we climbed the 463 steps to the top. There is no elavator just stone steps to the top. At first is a normal staircase that zigzags up for about 100 steps. The only difference is that it is a very low celing and narrow stairs. After that it goes into a spiral stone staircase that is about 2 feet wide and each step was about 8 inches tall. It was very steep and very tight. That was just getting up to the actual dome. Because the walls are so thick, they couldn't make the dome the same thickness or it would be to heavy. Instead, The built an outer and inner layer. In order to get to the very top balcony, you had to climb between the layers. It got so steep here that I could reach my hands out and touch the staircase while standing straight up. It was almost like climbing a ladder. Once at the top, There was a fantastic view of the city. Once we came down the dome and we were at the base of it, you had to walk around a cat walk on the inside of the cathedral. From there you could see The Last Judgement which is a painting by Giorgio Vasari and Frederico Zuccari. At the bottom of th painting was hell and at the top was heaven. From the cat walk you could also see down into the Duomo. It was very high off the ground. Then we walked back down the same style of stairs but on the other side of the cathedral and then we went and got lunch. After lunch we took a walk around. During the renaissance all the buildings were built the same way. They were built out of rounded blocks of stone. So a building that looks this way was buils in the renaissance. We also saw a small wooden door that was about 3 feet off the ground built into the side of the building. During the renaissance anyone could knock on the door day and night an someone would answer. The door sold wine. The door was about 1 foot by 8 inches. Last, the streets are made out of cobble stone and are uneven. It makes walking a bit harder. I hope you all enjoy the pictures!