After breakfast at the nunnery (bread and butter with coffee or juice), we struck off toward the Arno River to go to the Museo Galileo (the Galileo Museum). Along the way, Jacob asked if he could grab a good-looking pastry from a cafe, so we sat in the square in front of Santa Croce while Jacob ate. It was another sunny day, if a little cool in the shade, and there are many worse ways to start your morning,

We got to the museum a few minutes before it opened, so we spent the time along looking at the rowers on the Arno while Meredith N. and Regina went along the outdoor gallery of statues along the Uffizi Museum, looking for a particular statue of a scientist. Once we reconvened, we waited for a couple of minutes for the museum to open.

The Museo Galileo was built from the private collections of two wealthy and powerful Florentine families, and is mostly made up of scientific instruments, maps, globes, and curiosities. The museum focuses on Galileo, as he was the first modern scientist and a contemporary of the Medici family, who ruled Florence.

The instruments and displays are very interesting in themselves, and the experimental equipment was often of the highest quality, made of stained wood or shaped glass, and often decorated. But, in addition to the objects on display, we had a guide for just the six of us – an ex-pat from California who became an Italian citizen about fifteen years ago and has since married an Italian man. As such, her English was flawless and she was able to make cultural references to things like Seinfeld. Meredith and I prefer guided tours, and this was no exception. She pointed out the major and/or interesting pieces and told us how they were used. It included a huge eight-foot-across complex globe showing the seven layers of the heavens going around the Earth (the Earth-centered model of the universe). We saw maps where the coasts were well mapped, but not so much for the interior. We saw dozens of early telescopes, including the only two surviving telescopes that Galileo made. There were lots of different types of clocks and early thermometers and barometers. We learned Florence founded the first scientific society in 1660. The tour was excellent.

We stayed after to tour for a bit to look at the part of the exhibit that we had not yet seen, the most striking of which were life-like models of babies in the womb, some of which had forceps around their heads, presumably as doctor training models. These were from the 1700s – I had no idea human anatomy was so well understood then. We finished the museum by spending a few minutes in the small hands-on area where you could roll balls down planes and the like.

By now it was around noon. On their wanderings the night before, Jacob and Regina had seen a line for a sandwich shop stretching a whole block, so they wanted to go there, and that sounded great. We had to wait in line for about thirty minutes, but we were able to grab huge sandwiches made on homemade focaccia-style bread, which we took with us to sit in the square outside the Uffizi. While we ate, we were entertained by a nearby person who played an excellent living statue that moved if you put money in his box. He especially was creeping out the grade school kids that came up to him.

After lunch, we ducked in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio, which is before you have to pay admission. The courtyard was lavish, and a good reminder that the owners of these places when they were still palaces liked to let you know you had entered a home of wealth and power. It was impressive.

The next stop on our little tour was all things Duomo. You can get into the church of the Duomo for free, but if you want to see the baptistery with its amazing murals, or climb the dome itself, or see the crypts, or climb the bell tower, you needed an all-in-one ticket for fifteen euros. Since we all wanted to do some of these things, we got tickets. We bought them through machines individually, and as such, only four of us got tickets before the dome-climbing option sold out. Since Regina and I are both afraid of heights, we volunteered to stay down on the ground. The others had different times, so Tim and Meredith were going up together, and Meredith N. and Jacob were going after them.

To start with, though, we went into the church, which is very plain and simple inside, except for the dome, which is lavishly decorated with scenes from the life of Christ and His final judgement. Inside was also where you could go into the church crypts, which in this case had been turned into an informative display showing the different archaeological periods of building on the site, starting with the Roman ruins found during renovation. It was a small exhibit, but was very well done.

The biggest surprise for me in the complex was the baptistery. I had expected it to be like the church, and the walls were simple, but the domed ceiling, which spanned the entire interior of the space, was covered in brilliant mosaics. Jesus on the judgement seat took up about a quarter of the space, and the rest was given over to illustrated stories from the Bible. The artwork was amazing.

After this, we split into our pairs based on climbing times. Meredith and Tim went to wait in line, while the rest of us went to get gelato. We failed at that because we got distracted by the display of pastries at the shop instead. I had one of the best desserts I have ever had there – profiteroles drenched in a fudge sauce. By the time we finished eating, Meredith N. and Jacob felt they should get in line, so Regina and I wandered off to explore.

We headed to the river and then down past the Ponte Vecchio. We took the first narrow-looking alley we found, and it led to a tiny 1823 church, which was sadly locked. The alley then led to the high-rent shopping district, where we wandered past Gucci and Armani and their ilk without stopping.

We got back to the Duomo about forty minutes before we were to meet the others, so Regina and I went back to a store where they embroidered things. Regina wanted to pick up a souvenir for her nephew, so we got to watch as a woman stitched his name and other words onto the cloth in excellent “handwriting” at high speed. It was a very impressive display of skill.

That still left us with about thirty minutes, and Regina wanted to sit in the sun, so I went back in the church, and eventually saw where people could come in to pray, over in a side chapel. That seemed like a great idea, so I went outside to find that door, where I ran into Tim and Meredith coming out from their climb, which they had loved. Meredith joined me, and we went inside to pray for a few minutes.

We all met together in front of the Duomo museum, where most of the original artwork has been moved for safekeeping. Replicas were made for the actual church. Regina suggested we all meet back in the lobby at 6:30 so we could go at our own pace, and that seemed like a great idea. I got separated from everyone when I used the bathroom, but that turned out to be okay, as I had a great time exploring the museum. I loved seeing the original cast doors up close, having a good time seeing if I could identify the scenes from the life of Jesus (I could for all nine scenes I could see up close). I also loved the small room dedicated to the music of the church, with huge choir books and an interactive display where you could hear the music being sung while seeing the page it was being sung from. The room dedicated to the building of the dome, an architectural marvel, was also great.

But my favorite display was the Duomo itself as seen from the rooftop terrace. I stumbled upon it almost by accident – there is only one staircase that goes all the way up, and I happened to find it. The view puts you right under the dome, about half-way up to it. It is by far the best view of the dome I have seen (other than maybe the bell tower, but that has screens in the way). I went back inside hoping to find the others, and found Tim and Regina. They were eager to see the view, so up we went, and they loved it too. So, we tried to find the others, but they had already left the museum. Jacob asked if he could come back through, and they let him, so I took him up, We were soon followed by Regina, Meredith, and Meredith N. Tim had gone out to get them, and they sneaked back in (which was fine since they had tickets and could not seem to get the attention of anyone to ask if it was okay). In the end, everyone got to see the terrace.

We turned our attentions to supper. Regina wanted pasta, which is not hard to sell me on, so we went to a nearby restaurant, only to be turned away for the lack of reservation. Happily, the second place we tried was able to seat us, and the food was quite excellent, especially Regina’s pasta. We followed supper up with a return visit to the pastry shop from earlier in the day so Meredith could try it, and I could not let her eat alone (nor could Jacob or Meredith N.).

We finished the day by doing an evening stroll across the Arno, and up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, which is built on a hill that overlooks the city. Regina has some leg problems with hard climbs, so she stopped and hung out with Tim about halfway up the hill. The rest of us made it to the top, where we had the piazzale, rather surprisingly, mostly to ourselves. The views of the city were magnificent, and as an added bonus there is a copy of the David statue there. It was a lovely spot, and we stayed for about twenty minutes before heading back down the hill to rejoin Tim and Regina and then walking home.

A full Florentine day, with about twelve miles of walking in it. That may have burned off the pastries. Maybe.