Lines, Lines and More Lines - Florence Day 2

Hello everybody, hope you had a great Easter!  Jason and I are still in Florence and decided to visit the Duomo, Santa Croce and Galleria dell Accademia today.


Before I get started on that, heres a few things on Italy:

• People don't speak as much English here as in Germany and sometimes we really struggle to communicate when doing things.  Like today at Dinner, I asked about Ravioli and some how ended up having no idea what I was ordering, when it came out I was surprised to see that I had ordered rigatoni.  Jason ordered a Florentine Steak and couldn't figure out how to communicate the size he wanted and somehow ended up ordering a 35 Euro steak, so lets just say dinner was expensive!

• We are constantly making fools out of ourselves, always pushing doors when they should be pulled, walking across the street in front of cars, never having cash when they don't take card.  It really hasn't been frustrating though, we just laugh it off and call ourselves Stupid Americans!

• Everybody smokes over here and it is really messing with my asthma.  Since being in Florence, I have rarely had a breath of fresh air.  It so ironic to me, they work so hard to preserve our world over here, but don't give a crap about themselves.  Doesn't make since to me.

• People write, yes write, all over the historic monuments over here.  The Duomo had writing all the way up the stairs and all over the look out.  I can't believe that tourists come and WRITE all over something that is so historic.  At this pace, these monuments won't be around much longer, it was very disappointing and shocking.  Have some respect people.

Ok, also, if you want a picture to make you laugh, just look at Jason below!

The Duomo is a breath taking church, here are a few shots.

Here are a few pictures of the inside.

We decided to climb the Duomo, over 400 steps to the top and got to see this amazing view of Florence.

We then went and grabbed some lunch, I had some Authentic Tuscany Beef Stew and it was amazing!!  Next stop was the Santa Croce, this is the church were Michelangelo and Galileo Galilei are buried.

Michelangelo's tomb.

Galileo Galilei tomb.

We then headed over to the Galleria dell Accademia, this is where the statue of David is.  We were not allowed to take any pictures, but the statue is so big and so amazing.  We also got to see several other statues by Michelangelo that were never finished.

Tomorrow we are going to go to the Galleria degli Uffizi.  They have several pieces of artwork form Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Giotto's.  

All in all, we are having a great time!  We are desperately missing Mexican food and plan to go straight to Abuelo's when we get back! I am really excited about heading to Cinque Terre in a few days to see the coast.

Dad, I just had some caramel and butterscotch gelato and it made me think of you, it was delicious!

Jason and I are watching the Rangers, yes, we are watching baseball.  My technological savvy husband has made it so we can watch our tv at home in Europe!  He didn't want to miss opening day.

Love and miss you all!