Climbing the Duomo

Saturday- March 31

Since we decided last night that we would hold off on Cinque Terre, we all slept in. Unfortunately my body must be used to waking up at 9 everyday because I woke up at 10 wide awake. I watched an episode of One Tree Hill waiting for everyone to wake up. About an hour later, mama came into the family room. She said she couldn't fall asleep until 5 in the morning the night before! I was so shocked because I was passed out by 1! Mom said, "Yeah I know. All of us were wide awake walking around and you were passed out on the couch." I laughed. 

After mom showered she asked me how to use the converter with the hairdryer, so I walked to the bathroom to show her. After we plugged it in, all of a sudden a loud noise erupted from the outlet and it started smelling like smoke. We both jumped back in surprise. Only two days in and mom already blew a fuse. I've been here for almost three months and I haven't experienced that yet. 

Ali and Jon must have either been awake or it woke them up because they came downstairs asking what the noise was. I walked around the apartment seeing if any of the electricity worked. Everything was "caput." I walked around looking for the electric box like the one in my house. They showed me on the first day I was here how to fix the electricity if we were to ever blow a fuse, but I could not find it anywhere in their apartment. I then called the woman who was at the house on Thursday, and she directed me to where it was at. It was hidden behind a painting near the front door. Clever, clever, I thought to myself. I pushed the switch up, and voila, the electricity came back on!

Around 2 in the afternoon, everyone was finally ready to venture around Florence again. After being away from my family for a few months, I forgot how they take their time. I've become more fast-paced being here. 

We walked down the streets to Cafe Mario, which is a few doors down from my apartment. I hadn't been there in forever, but they have good coffee and hot chocolate. It's still the best hot chocolate I've ever had. Ali, Jon and mom were hesitant to walk up and order, so I asked them what they wanted and I ordered for them. The woman spoke pretty good English too, but I always like to try to use my Italian. I understood where my family was coming from too because I remember back in January I was nervous to go up and ask for something — I still am at times. 

Somehow there was a miscommunication between Jon and the woman about whether he wanted a bottle or can of Coke Light, and they gave him both. He got an attitude a little and I had to help tell them he just wanted the bottle. I wanted to shrink into my shell a little bit. 

We sat outside and ate our breakfast and drank our little coffees. I still couldn't believe they were sitting around me in Florence. 

After breakfast, which was more like an afternoon snack, we walked over toward the Cathedral. Ali and mom were wowed by how beautiful it was. When I saw their reaction it reminded me of how beautiful it really is. When we walked around the Cathedral to where the entrance to climb the Duomo was, there was a line. I was appalled at how long it was! Only a month ago I was able to walk right in and climb it.

Back in November when I was having orientation for coming here, people who went last spring advised us to see all of the art museums and "touristy" things before April because it'll get busy. Boy were they right! I don't want to know what the line is like in the summer during tourist season.

Mom said we should just hop in line now and do it because we were going to have to wait eventually. The line went pretty fast actually, which surprised me. We probably waited about 20 to 30 minutes. Once we paid inside, we started climbing. I told them the beginning was the hardest part because it's just winding stairs that go on forever, but once you get past them, it's smooth sailing.

Jon and I hiked up the stairs and made it to the first rest stop. It took Ali and mom a few more minutes to get to where we were when we waited for them. Mom needed a breathing break, and Ali asked, "This is supposed to be easy?"

When we ready to move on we pushed through the stairs and made it to the point where the stairwell got clogged because people were climbing back down. After we waited a few minutes we pushed our way through.

We made it to the point where you had to basically climb the the arched part of the Duomo. I told mom not to look down as she climbed up it. I knew she was scared of heights, but I didn't tell her how steep this would be or how high the view was because I wanted her to see the city from this view.

We had to wait at the top to climb up the ladder to the lookout point because more people were climbing down to leave. Jon and I climbed up first and walked around to the one side and when I turned around Ali was there and then mom was plastered against the back wall.

I told her to come over to where I was to look at the beautiful view, and she said the view was fine from where she was. She found a bench to sit on and didn't move from it. When Jon, Ali and I got close to the gate at the edge, mom asked us to not get so close to the edge. I had to reassure her I had done this before and I was fine. I laughed on the inside though.

Ali, Jon and I asked mom to take a picture of us and she did, but from sitting on the bench. She wouldn't even stand up and move closer to take it.

I eventually got her to walk around to the other sides with us, but she stayed near the back wall. Ali and Jon loved the view and we eventually got mom to take a picture with us near the edge. As soon as the picture was taken she moved back away from the edge. 

I told her I was proud of her for climbing it. I'm positive if she knew how high up this was, she wouldn't have done it. She loved the view though. I love it too because you can see everything from the city to the mountains in the background.

When we were started to descend Ali said, "I picked the worst day to wear a dress." And that she did. The dress was really pretty, but climbing down a ladder with people standing below you isn't always the best thing. Had I known we were going to climb it, I would have told her otherwise. Thank goodness I had tights on. 

When we got down to the bottom, mom wanted to try Astor, the coffee joint I had showed them when we were waiting in line. It's the place I go to every once in a while to get some work done. They have the best iced coffee. It seems like an American place, so I try to stay away from it because I can get it at home.

My family loved it. I was surprised that mom liked her iced decaf coffee because she's not a coffee person at all. She wanted an iced chai tea, but they didn't know what that was. I hadn't seen it on any menus while being here so far, so maybe it's an American thing too.

While we enjoyed our coffees, we sat outside on the concrete sidewalk and enjoyed the sun rays stretching out to us. Afterwards, mom wanted to try a waffle with nutella. They sell them everywhere and at a lot of gelato shops. I had a really good one with whipped cream on top at a restaurant a couple months ago, but I had never had one from a gelato shop.

We walked toward San Lorenzo, where we found the waffles. I ordered one, and after mom saw they had cannolis, she got that instead. Jon, of course, got gelato.

We walked toward San Lorenzo and sat on the steps of the church and ate our snacks. The waffle ended up being not good at all. It tasted like it had been sitting outside all day, which was disappointing. Mom's cannoli wasn't the best either, she said. It ended up being a bust, but we tried finishing it.

While we were sitting on the stairs a gypsy came up to us and shook her cup with her one coin in it begging for money. She was speaking in Italian and I said, "No mi dispiace." — No, I'm sorry.

She didn't go away and kept talking. My mom was saying no a few times and when the woman kept talking mom turned to me hoping the woman would go away. Mom always gives money to the poor, but I told her in the beginning not to give money to gypsies because usually it's a scam.

I said "No, mi dispiace" again, but she kept talking. After legit three minutes, I finally said in a stern voice, "NO." She then looked at me and said something and walked away. It wasn't said in a friendly way. I looked at mom and started laughing. "I'm pretty sure I just got cursed at on church steps." Mom laughed. Mom, Ali and Jon couldn't get over how persistent the gypsy was and how annoying it was. I told them, "SEE! I TOLD YOU!" They drive me nuts!

After we finished our snacks, we walked through the San Lorenzo market. It was definitely a lot more busy since I was last there. Mom and Ali looked at scarves and bracelets and Jon just waited patiently. We walked through most of it and then walked home.

We hung around the apartment and then decided to go out to dinner.

As we walked around Florence we ended up walking to Gusta Pizza, where I ate at with Lydia on Ash Wednesday. I wasn't entirely sure how busy it would be since it was a Friday, but we went anyways. 

When we got there, there was a line extending outside of the restaurant. We hopped in line, and while we were waiting a drunk man stumbled his way past us. I didn't get a wift of him, but apparently Ali and Jon did and they said he smelled like nothing but alcohol. 

When we finally got up to order, we decided what we wanted and waited for a table to open up. It's a tiny place and most people seem to take their food to go since there's only about seven tables total in this place. After standing for about 10 minutes someone called our number and we realized we were given a seat. I was happy this was happening because I was under the impression we had to fight for seats. It seemed like it took forever for our pizzas to be done, especially because we were all starving. Finally, they called our number and Jonathan went up and kindly got them. I met him halfway to carry two because they are massive pizzas. 

Everyone was extremely happy with their food and mom said it was definitely worth the wait. I couldn't have agreed more because this was probably still the best pizza I've had in Florence yet. 

On our walk home we stopped to admire the beautifulness of the Arno river at night. The calmness of it still amazes me.

When we got home we decided to watch the rest of The Double from the previous night. Ali and Jon watched the rest of it last night since they couldn't sleep, but we still watched it. Ali got tired a little into it, so she headed off to bed around midnight. Jon, mom and I watched the rest of it and then headed off to bed ourselves.