Today we went to the Firenze Duomo. We all piled into the Fiat and drove around the downtown section looking for a parking lot. We finally found one - yep - it was very expensive. At least we did not have to walk very far which was good for the little kids. We went first to the Firenze Duomo. On our way in - we lost Joe - the oldest Hess child. He did not see us duck inside the building. It was a fairly crowded square - and he must have been looking the other way when we all moved inside. Well - it took us a while to determine that we were actually missing one of the 6 kids. We looked all around inside the cathedral, then started looking outside. We found him in short order - he was still in the square outside. He had done the right thing - stayed where he was - so that we could locate him. Gotta hand it to him - he was brave for the 15-20 minutes that he was outside alone! After checking out the inside, we decided to climb to the top of the Duomo. Liz did not want to go and stayed with the youngest child. It took a good 30 minutes of walking UP to reach the top. When we got to the top - the view was very impressive! I took many pictures from the top. I don't think that Jesse really liked it - but I think he has fond memories of it now. Here are some pictures of the cathedral:
This is a picture of the bell tower attached to the Cathedral. In the next picture, I show that we are taller than the tower.
Same tower as the picture above - but now we are on the top of the dome, looking down. It took a while to hike up. At times - the very narrow passageway was 2-ways. We were trying to go up while others were trying to go down. The kids did really well - I think they liked the adventure of it all.
Here is another shot looking down from the top of the dome. We are not at the very top - but - if you look at the shadow - we are where the dome meets.
After spending some time at the Duomo - we grabbed some lunch and walked about 4 blocks to the Accademia to see David. It was a most unassuming building. We were just walking along a street and came upon a sign that said that the line starts here. Fortunately, we did not have to wait long (10 minutes) like we had to wait for the Uffizi. They were pretty strict about no photos inside - so I don't have any pictures of David. All of the boys were very impressed of the statue. I think that they all took turns sketching David.
All in all - this was a great day. We did some shopping at the open air markets where we all bought some Christmas Presents.
Same tower as the picture above - but now we are on the top of the dome, looking down. It took a while to hike up. At times - the very narrow passageway was 2-ways. We were trying to go up while others were trying to go down. The kids did really well - I think they liked the adventure of it all.
Here is another shot looking down from the top of the dome. We are not at the very top - but - if you look at the shadow - we are where the dome meets.
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