October 19

Our first full day in Firenze started late such that we skipped the complimentary breakfast. Today we were going to shop until we dropped. Firenze is a place to shop, there is the market, and there are many super-expensive shops. We were going to go to the former. Sean and I had a plan, we were to play 'good-cop, bad-cop'. It goes like this. We see something we like and we ask how much. I ask Sean if he likes it, he says yes. I say it is too much, but he says that he really likes it. We play this little charade whilst the stall owner looks on. Finally, I'll offer less. They will either accept this, or we'll walk. In one store we were down to 1/2 the original asking price, but that wasn't enough, we wanted more ;-) I offered 60,000 less. The guy practically laughed at us, that's fine and we went to walk out. About half-way out of the store he calls us back and asks who is buying, Sean is and so I leave them to it. Eventually we got it for 50,000 less with Sean partly paying in cash. The shopkeeper was really pissed when Sean said that he was retired and had been for a couple of years ;-)

The leather market was packed with bargain hunters like ourselves.

When I get into shopping mode, I am a hard bugger to stop. I get on a mission, and off I go. Matthew did a great job with the 'bad-cop' stuff, and the prices would go from 1,100,000L to 600,000L! Katia would be proud :-)

Otherwise it was very exciting and fun.

The Duomo is huge. You enter the piazza and there it is taking up your entire scope of vision. The outside is covered in coloured marble, green, red and white.

I think Matthew understates the immensity of the Duomo, simply because he knows that words fail. It is the fourth largest cathedral in the world, and the interior is completely open, no rooms or partitioning walls. Often one sees a cathedral and it looks big from the outside, but once you go in, it feels dark and somewhat heavy. Not so here. Completely open, airy and expansive.

I call this little master-piece 'Coffee-cup and two upturned glasses, with ashtray'. It was raining, so as to not give us the impression that it did anything but, and we had ducked into the ristorante for a coffee and a bite to eat. Eating & drinking in an Italian restaurant is a slow-paced affair. This is fine for us as we're on vacation and my brain has been only semi-functional for a while now. We have mastered the phrase, 'Il conto, par favore.' (Translates to: 'The check, please', or 'Ok, you win, you have more patience than we do'')

Inside the cathedral it is just as impressive. The photograph on the right is of the painted dome. It looks incredible.

I like these shots of the interior, probably because I took them :-)

Our final accomplishment of the day was uploading almost a whole week's worth of updates to the website. Normally this is not a big issue, but it seems that the Italian telephone system contains a remnant of Daisy/Damien's ill and refuses to submit to our modem. We finally ended up asking the hotel owner if we could use his personal computer, and a floppy disc, and his internet connection to upload our files. He was slightly amused and extremely helpful. I must put in a plug for Hotel Albion now. The rooms are a little average, but the owner and all his staff are absolutely wonderful, and I would return if only to be with them again. Website is: http://www.hotelalbion.it

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