From sun to torrential downpour in Florence

It's Sunday morning and I can't wait to go back down to Florence to climb the steps. This was the one thing I hope to accomplish today - and by "steps" I can't remember if it's the dome or the tower, but either one will work for me. This will be my only day in Florence. After the Vespucci Institute, we'll head to Pisa. But first, it's time for breakfast at the hotel which was delicious. It consisted of cereals, ham, salami, cheese, yogurt, juices, fruit, toast, pastries, and Italian coffee or tea. At breakfast, I got a chance to see my friend Stéphane from Quebec! I didn't know he'd be in Fiesole for the Vespucci Institute and staying at the same hotel. It turns out that most of the hotel was filled with Vespucci participants. I'm glad I chose it.

I walked down the hill from our hotel to catch the bus and had a chance to pass through an interesting flee market set up in the main plaza of Fiesole on such a beautiful warm sunny morning.

I also passed a few sculptures which I had some fun photographing from different angles.

Bus number 7 drops off passengers within a short walk to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Along the walk you can find art everywhere along narrow roads and through massive doorways, not to mention an endless supply of gelato shops.

Before you know it, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore comes into view and it's so enormous and ornate, no photo does it justice.

Wow!

There's a smaller building right across from the main church and it is called the Baptistry. The doors to the Baptistry are adorned with bronze sculptures of bible stories.

At one point, the church doors opened. I was able to get this quick shot of the priests (?) inside.
Climbing the stairs in the Duomo or the tower would require some euros and I didn't have enough. I really wanted to do this, but since I didn't know how or why I became so fixated on climbing the stairs, I couldn't really protest missing the opportunity. I know it was something that my friend Karl had mentioned to me, but getting to an ATM to get tickets and do this was not an option for some reason so I followed a podcast walking tour from Rick Steve's website. At this point I think I was on my way to the Ufizzi Museum with lots of art and narrow streets filled with people along the way.

Once at the Uffizi Gallery, the lines were long, but for four euros extra per ticket, you could get an assigned time of entry. Time for some gelato and more walking around. I saw this Martini sign and thought of my friend Theresa back in the states.

I even found the famous collection of locks. Apparently, couples add a padlock at this spot as a good luck charm.

The Uffizi Gallery was amazing. There were so many familiar works of art from a book I remember looking through so many times when I was a kid. I wonder if my mom still has that book.

After the museum, I walked over Ponte Vecchio to see the Arno River. The clouds were starting to roll in at this point, but it was still balmy outside.

From there, more walking to the Palazzo Pitti where a wine festival was taking place in tents lined along the edge of the plaza. Inside contains another museum, but after the Ufizzi, I just wanted to take photographs of the building and outside sculpture. At one end of the building you could purchase tickets, and then enter towards the middle of the building through a large archway. You can see the central archway in this picture below.
As you can see, there were lots of people sitting on the sloped plaza, enjoying wine and taking photographs. I wanted to go into the archway to see the inside courtyard, but you had to have a ticket in hand to go more than a few inches inside of the archway... until the rain started coming down in buckets. The woman in charge of keeping folks out of the archway eventually let everyone in to get out of the rain. Not just any rain, but a torrential downpour! It was unbelievable and when the rain wasn't enough, wind kicked in followed by a hail storm! A river of water and ice was literally blowing up hill into the archway. It was an unbelievable sight and something out of the ordinary according to the museum staff.

This poor guy probably wasn't expecting to be a participant in a wet t-shirt contest...

After at least an hour, maybe two, there was finally a break in the storm and the only chance to try to get back to the bus stop for Fiesole. The bus stop was at least a brisk 3o minute walk away and there were connecting buses to get there, but I got lost thinking I'd find my way back to the bus stop easily. I worried I wouldn't get off the connecting bus at the right stop and it was still raining and street signs are impossible to see because they are typically just white plaques posted on the sides of buildings at most, but not all intersections. The paper maps were reduced to shreds of paper machete material in no time. By the time I made it back to Fiesole, it was time for the reception and no time to make it back to the hotel to change out of wet clothes. Luckily I dried out a bit and warmed up quickly and had a great time meeting the other attendees. Unfortunately my shoes were soaked and would take a couple days to dry out completely. When I finally got back to the hotel, I still need some light so I read for an hour in the bathroom so I don't keep anyone awake. With no alarm clock in the room, I have to do some math to set the alarm on my tablet which has PST time and cannot be altered. I'm exhausted!