Saturday June 17th+
Florence
Lots of walking/hiking around the city
One thing I wanted to back track on was our last night in Assisi we met a guy our age from New Zealand who was also using the internet. Jon got to talking with him, telling him about our travel plans to New Zealand and joining the WWOOFing network. He ended up giving us a contact of a couple he knows who takes in wwoof-ers. We'll try to contact them before we go to NZ. What a small world!
Today started out pretty early. Our plan was to get to some of the sites before the tour group hordes took over. We left camp at 0700 and hoped to get a shot of the Duomo from the viewpoint on our way into town. This is a popular place for tourists because it is such a good place for pictures. Buses circle through all day just long enough for everyone to take a picture and buy a souvenir before moving on. When we got there the place was EMPTY! Imagine having a tourist attraction all to yourself. It was too good to be true and we hurriedly took our couple shot before anyone showed up! It was so nice and quiet you wanted to stay but we wanted to get to the Duomo before it got too crazy. We walked down the HUGE hill to the Arno river and Jon suggested that we jog the rest of the way (about 1 mile). It was early but I figured, heck, we're going to be all sweaty from the heat at some point today might as well get some cardiovascular benefit from it. So, we were off at a slow jog. It felt good and before we knew we came upon the back of the Duomo which is just as magnificant as the front! We stood for a moment in awe when Jon watched a man walk through a door on the side of the building. "Hey, that guy just walked right in there" it was a priest and off went Jon to see if we could do the same. There was a sign posted on the door stating that people could enter for confession. Good enough for us. Jon put long pants on over his shorts. I zipped the legs back on to my REI convertible pants and we walked right in. No one stopped us or even really acknowledged our presence. On says he said hello to the security guard inside. I was feeling guilty knowing that people wait in line for hours and hours just to get in to see the frescoes of the Duomo. There were staff there cleaning the floors and a very few residents of Florence sitting in the pews. I walked around trying to look pious and as though I came there every Saturday morning. Never mind that we were decked out in our best tourist outfits, complete with camera and backpack. We walked around for a few minutes but didn't want to linger too long for fear of being "found out" for the imposters that we were! Basically, we had the place to ourselves. As we made out way to the exit a priest walked and we said our hellos in passing.
Once we got out I all but did the happy dance. What were the odds of this happening. Was it luck? Divine intervention? Who knows, but we both acknowledged what a special opportunity it was for us. The inside of the Duomo was absolutely moving. The frescoes looked as if the paint was still drying, the size of the nave was stunningly massive. Because of the earliness of the day it was still pretty dark inside which made the experience all the more like we were getting away with something, which we kind of were. It was like we cut to the front of the line of everyone who would go in through the front doors that day.
Next stop, the Acadamia to see Michaelangelo's David. The museum didn't open 0815 - we had plenty of time to get there. We ended up walking right past the doors. The main entrance was moved for some construction so the new entrance was a completely nondescript door down the street. We did end up about 30 people back in line which allowed us to enter the museum with the second wave of tourists. In all, we were only waiting 15-20 minutes. The night before I had overheard some people talking about how a 4 hour wait isn't unusual. We we left, about an hour later, the line was snaked down the block and around the corner. Lesson learned: it may be painful but getting up early can make a huge difference in you day! So before 1000 we had seen and done all of the touristy things we had expected would take the entire day. We finally found a grocery store bought some food and went back to the Duomo for snacks and people watching. The place was already getting busy and we sat on the front steps eating yogurt and cookies feeling quite pleased with ourselves.
We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon walking around through the markets. We headed back to camp about mid afternoon to unload our groceries. The hike back up the hill is a doozy and we've seen many an older couple taking breaks on the way back up the hill - it's a good workout.
We spent the rest of the afternoon working on our journal. We hit technical difficulties when my Thursday journal wouldn't save. Nothing Jon tried would work. The only thing left to do was a full reset of the PDA which would mean losing everything. No way.
What ended up happening was that we ended up going back down the hill to a cash machine by the Ponte Vecchio swinging by for a gelato that was Recommended by Rick Steves (it was really good) and then schlepping back up the hill where I sat retyping the journal entry while sitting on a cheap IKEA stool that felt like it was going to collapse under the weight of me at any second. I typed fast. Oh, we had to go to the cash machine because we were completely out of cash and needed to pay for the internet in order to type the journal. It was worth it. I'm glad we did it.
Tonight was the night of the big game: Italy versus the USA in the World Cup! We had seen the setting up of the big screen at the piazza near our camp. Jon ended up going by himself - I was pooped, don't really know anything about soccer and really wanted to shave my legs and wanted to wash my sports bra before the next day. We both ended up having a good night. I could hear the broadcast clearly from the campsite and you could hear the cheering when Italy was doing well. It was a tie 1-1. Jon came home shortly there after, I guess, I had already fallen asleep. The tentative plan was to make our way back to the coast and up to the Cinque Terra Sunday.
