Florence; Saturday, 29 September, 2007

With a good nights sleep, and a decent breakfast inside me I headed out into the city. The first stop of the morning was to be the Cathedral. This is possibly the most famous building in the city; it's white, red and green marble a stark contrast to the muted colours of all the surrounding buildings. The Cathedral is three separate buildings; the main building with its distinctive dome, the bell tower that stands almost as tall as the dome, and the baptistery, the oldest part of the complex.

After having a quick look at the queues and the speed they were moving at I decided it was probably best to join the slowest one to begin with, that for the dome of the cathedral. You enter the cathedral by a side door, near the alter and then start your assent up the 430+ steps to the top. About a third of the way up you come out onto a gallery just beneath the foot of the dome, which gives you stunning views of the painted dome above you, and stomach churning views down to the marble and gold of the sanctuary below. Having walked half way around the dome on the gallery you start to ascend the dome itself, in a small, winding stairway sandwiched between the outer and inner skins of the dome. The final 30 steps or so are up over the inner skin and out onto the roof, just below the lantern. The views are breathtaking and take in not only the city, but out to the suburbs and the mountains beyond.

On the way down you again get to have a view of the inside of the dome, walking round a gallery a bit above the one on the way up, actually at the foot of the dome, and where the paintings start. By the time I had descended back down to ground level I had climbed up and down well over 800 steps. Of course, the best way to relax after that is to climb the 414-step bell tower. The bell tower benefits from having regular floors where different bits of bell equipment would have been stored, so there are far more opportunities to stop both on the way up and on the way back down. The views, once again are impressive, more so for the views afforded of the cathedral and its dome.

Having ascended and descended excess of 1,500 steps in a little over an hour I headed round to the front of the cathedral to have a look inside the building itself. The queue that was outside was deceptive. Whilst it looked very long, it only took about three minutes to get into the building. The queue is formed purely because the entry door is only wide enough to let one person through at a time. I had a look around the inside of the Cathedral, and was pleased that I had gone up the dome as it was not possible to get that close to the dome or the alter. I also popped down into the crypt of the cathedral to have a look at the remains of an earlier church built on the same site.

After looking around the cathedral I headed back round the front to the Baptistery. This is the oldest part of the complex, and currently undergoing extensive renovation on the outside. Inside it is simply spectacular with its golden roof well worth the entrance fee. With my feet now well and truly exhausted I headed the short distance to the Piazza della Repubblica for a quick bite to eat, followed by a quick postcard stop by the post office and then onto the Uffizi gallery to see how bad the queue is.

The Uffizi is officially the busiest tourist attraction in Italy, and the guide books all told tales of woe of 4-hour queues and still not getting in. They emphasises buying tickets in advance and how you would not be likely to get in just by turning up. In the end I was pleasantly surprised, not only by the fact the queue was only 90 minutes long, but also because the gallery was free to get into, I hadn’t noticed (possibly because the UK doesn’t take part in things that the EU suggest), but this weekend was European Heritage Days and most of the museums and galleries in Florence were free (shame the same didn’t apply to the Cathedral.) This had the added advantage of not making me feel too guilty about the fact that I would probably be round the gallery relatively quickly. All the climbing of the morning, added to 90 minutes queuing had given me a hefty dose of museum feet, even before I had started.

In the end I went with the flow, as most people were moving round quite quickly, bypassing the large tour groups and only stopping at the “crown jewels” of the collection – the odd Botticelli, a Caravaggio or two – that kind of thing. By the time I left the gallery I had spent nearly two hours inside, and felt that I had seen all that I would be able to take in.

From the Uffizi I walked the short distance back to the river and across to the southern bank, from there I walked up stream for a short while before I reached the Porta San Niccolò. From there it was a short walk up the steps and terraces to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a glorified car park, but offering stunning views over the city.

I walked on a little further to the Chiesea di San Miniato al Monte from where there are even more stunning views before deciding that it didn’t look that far to walk along the road back down to the Porta Romana and the hotel. In the end my scale reading skills proved to be badly out as it took nearly an hour, in the fading light, but it was a pleasant walk and the views, before the road started to descend back down into the city, were stunning.

After having a quick comfort stop in the hotel I headed back out again in search of dinner and some evening sightseeing.