Buongiorno, today is a beautiful day in Florence. The itinerary today is an afternoon tour of the Cathedral and Duomo and an opera later in the evening. We begin the day with a wonderful breakfast that our hotel provides. I especially love the coffee and croissants, they are the best I have ever had. The chef’s creation of an egg pie brings back memories of my grandmother’s recipe that she or my mom would make at Easter. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was beautiful as it was delicious.
After breakfast we walked around the city to get our bearings and to explore the area. The streets are narrow and busy and you have to pay attention to the traffic. The buildings are taller than I imagined and each one is unique. The sidewalks are cobblestone and each one has a different pattern and occasionally some missing stones. A linger of tobacco smoke fills the air, along with different food aromas like pizza, coffee, bread or seafood.
We stopped by a little cafe to have a snack before our tour begins. Paul got a mixed salad and I got a ham and cheese panini. Afterwards, Paul indulged in a pistachio gelato, with his goal to have one per day.
Our tour begins with a walking tour to the Duomo. Our tour guide points out one of the gated residential areas for the Medici family, a well known wealthy and political family of Florence, particularly in the renaissance period. The seven balls above the statue are their family crest or coat of arms and it shows up around the city in different places where they commissioned the work or financed the construction of a structure.
Our tour guide shows us the outside of the Baptistery and Cathedral before we go inside the Cathedral. The buildings are constructed of marble from nearby areas that are white, green, and red in color symbolizing faith, hope and love. The St. John Baptistery structure is a stand alone building and located in front of the Cathedral, as that is where the Christian life begins with baptism. The outside doors of the baptistery have golden panels on them with scenes from the Old Testament on one and the New Testament on the other. They took many years to complete. We will return another day to get a look inside with our tour ticket.
The Duomo, pictured above, is not as ornate on the inside as it is on the outside. There is a large clock on the inside door symbolizing your walk with Christ in your life ultimately ending with the beatific vision of Heaven. Christ crucified, resurrected and ascension to Heaven. There are terraces to climb that get you close to the top of the dome. The Church didn’t have the dome for many years because no one was sure how to construct it. The Cathedral was completed in 1436.
We climbed up to the first terrace where the views were spectacular, Paul completed the climb all the way up to the dome, but I couldn’t do it. The stairway was narrow and I felt claustrophobic. He got great pictures from his high vantage point.
After our tour we stopped for a quick happy hour before we headed back to rest at our hotel.
Next on the agenda for the evening, the opera. We walked to the St. Mark’s Angelican Church where the venue was held. It was a beautiful smaller Church across the Arno River, about a ten minute walk for us from our hotel.
The Night at the Opera was called Puccini in 90 minutes and featured three opera singers, one woman and two men, along with a pianist who was the host and explained the particular song to us in English before it was sung in Italian.
The opera featured songs from La Boheme, Toscanini, Gianni Schicchi, Madame Butterfly and Turandot. The singers sang with such emotion that it frequently brought chills to my body. Each piece told an emotional story that brought you into the scene of that particular song. It was an incredible end to day two in Florence.
We ended with a walk back to our hotel and a Prosecco nightcap to say Ciao to Day two in Florence.
Fears and Tears 
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