Florence, Italy

We started early at Santa Maria del Fiore (aka Duomo di Firenze), a beautiful Gothic cathedral, the symbol of the city, to climb 464 steps to see the panoramic view of the city before the crowd. Brunelleschi's huge dome was an engineering feat of the Renaissance. A statue of Brunelleschi is sited in the piazza, with his figure looking upwards towards his dome. We then took a free walking tour around the city and ran into heavy rain.

After freshly baked pizza for lunch, we went back and got into in 10 minutes (super lucky without 3 hrs wait or pay for reservation) Piazzale degli Uffizi, One of the world's most famous fine art museums with collections of Renaissance paintings and sculptures from classical antiquity. Included is The Birth of Venus by Sandro Boticelli. We went back to cover the Duomo cathedral, the underground archeological museum, and Florebce baptistery. At the end of the afternoon, we rewarded ourselves with the best ice cream from the oldest store if Florence (1939).