Day 10/11: catching my breath

Cool bike shop I go in like every other day - they have to think I'm plotting to steal a bike or something by now

Mercedes garbage truck - they clean the streets in style

For being so high up with only a short railing I'm surprised that there are not any accidents (or people throwing stuff off of the top...which was pretty tempting)

View from the top - like I said, everything

Inside of the dome from about half-way up the walk to the top

Yesterday, the 27th, was another day in Florence. Instead of class our group walked around the eastern section of Florence noting important structures, churches, statues, and museums. It was a good mid-week break from class. This walk-about brought us to lunch back at the hotel and after that I thought it was about time I climbed to the top of the Duomo. It was an incredible sight from up there - you could see every part of the city from one point. The walk up there is a bit difficult though filled with narrow staircases, 2-way spiral stair cases, and elderly people needing to take a break for some air (probably wishing they had their oxygen tanks dragging behind them). Another 486 steps and I was back on solid ground. Decided to go to the Piazza d'ell Indipendenza to get a cup of coffee, a delicious blackberry tart, and do a little reading. It was funny to watch people in the Piazza interact with each other. Groups of people would sit down in a circle in the grass and have a beer, or couples would share a bottle of wine. It's funny because there's no public intoxication law so everywhere you go people are just casually having a drink as if they were carrying an Ice Mountain. Another interesting observation I made was that the garbage trucks in Florence are Mercedes-Benz - not much more to say about that, just found it kind of funny. Dinner consisted of left over pasta from lunch that was chilling in the fridge - which is why I spoiled myself the next night.

Today, the 28th, was a rough morning for me. I wanted nothing more than 3 more hours of sleep when I woke up for class but you gotta do what you gotta do. One double shot of espresso and I was ready to go - until after lunch when I passed out for 2 1/2 hours (a much needed siesta). This weekend is the Gelato Festival in Florence and my roommate and I took full advantage of it. In every Piazza there were tents up selling gelato for really cheap. So I bought 5. I think my mom is afraid I'm getting fat over here - and she's probably more right than wrong but hey, what am I supposed to do? Me and my roommate asked the guy at the front desk where a good place to get a steak was and he gave us his recommendation which turned out to be really good and not too expensive. The only thing was that I'm pretty sure our waiter thought we were gay...there was not much we could do to avoid that in the situation. Since we're going on a bike tour in the morning tomorrow we thought it would be a good idea to stay in and call it an early night. We found a website to watch free movies, decided on A Nightmare on Elm Street. Probably won't use too many nights to watch movies but I think it was what I needed. Busy 4 days coming up. Got to get some sleep.