Last night we stayed up very late to try and organise tickets for Museum etc today without success. The first time our impromptu travel has caused a problem. All tickets for Uffizi Museum sold out for today. Plans were revised. Lucky the concrete doesn’t have time to set on them as they had only just been made. So today we walked in to Florence from our hotel, only 20 mins. Good location, nice feel to hotel. Florence also has a nice feel to it, we think it may be because the main part of the city has had all its streets closed to the city. We walked over the old bridge to the city which is lined with gold/jewellery shops on both sides and then towards Uffizi Museum to check what we had to do for tomorrow as the hotel were able to get us tickets for tomorrow and we had decided against a tour. We then went to the Piazza della Signora where we saw a replica of Michaelangelo’s statue of David. There were also many other sculptures there. We then walked to Duomo Cathedral (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore). The basilica is one of Italy’s largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. The building took 123 years to build and at this final stage they still didn’t know how they were going to construct the dome. In the end Brunelleschi came up with the idea to construct 2 domes. One inside the other which you walk between when climbing to the top. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed. For a church in Italy this was very large but the inside was nowhere near as ornate (No gold and vibrant paintings and adornments on the altar) as some we had been in but the outside was amazing, to start with all you see is a building painted very subtle tones of white, red and green, on closer inspection it is ornate and of amazing detail not just paint. It is very impressive. The paintings and sculptures inside were still large and amazing but it was more sombre inside the church, except for the painting that covered the entire dome. This was amazing, the perspective was also amazing. We then walked to the top of the Bell Tower (416 steps) which was a struggle for many. As usual our fitness made it an easy walk up. The views of the Duomo and across Florence were fantastic. We then climbed the stairs of the Duomo and saw the dome painting from just below it rather than from the ground. It was amazing and depicted a scene from hell on the base the normal people going up to the the angels then kings. When we reached the top the views were equally as good as from the bell tower but without the Duomo in the photos. After this DB headed home for a nap and I headed to the hairdresser for some essential pampering, deciding it was easier to just get my hair down properly than fight with it myself. A good decision although it was really weird sitting there not hearing all different conversations. I was lucky the lady next to me spoke English and was able to tell the guy how I wanted my hair dried. I had managed to make the appointment that morning by showing what needed to be done rather than by speaking and the guy having his hair cut translated for me to find out a cost. Only 40 euro for colour and blow dry. After this I went back to get David and we headed back out for dinner. After a really nice dinner Wild Boar & Ravioli for DB and prawn pasta for me, followed by Apple crumble and cheesecake we did a night tour of the city. Seeing some things we had seen during the day already (the Duomo, Piazza della Signora, Replica statue of David, Uffizi Gallery) and some new ones – an old prison, Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza Della Republicca, Basilica San Di Lorenza. We even managed a concert (Chiesa di San Firenze e San Fillipo Neri) in one of the churches. This was really amazing, the organ music was incredible and the singing (opera) was also fantastic. We had the worst and most expensive gelato yet. Then headed home.