heaven and hell pizza frescoe

After a night of exploring the town and finding more gelato and a free buffet with some very good pesto, we came to "planning noir", a black decor'ed bar serving over-stuffed cocktails, witha pimped-out white-suited chap dancing to some comforting house. this came before a day of queueing.


On monday we met sharon and nick at a stunning apartment by the river, and went to the Catedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, the most famous cathedral in italy, the dome of which adorns the vast majority of the souvenir tat available for general purchase throughout the country. the architecture is stunning, with beautifully preserved, stylish outer walls, and surrounded by an excited, busy throng of restaurants, propellor toy sellers, queueing tourists and pickpockets. inside, a 463-step climb through the narrow corridors will take you to view not only the stunning heaven/hell frescoe painted across the entire ceiling of the dome, complete with fire-rod-poking-demons and skeletons gesturing at children, but also to the top of the dome on the outside, offering a birds-eye view of the misty city-scape. the green of the hills contrast stunningly with the uniform orange-ness of all the buildings below.


At lunch-time we head to "yellow", an extremely busy pizzeria in which we sit for 2 1/2 hours while the rains pound the street outside, moving onto a gelato shop for that sweet tooth. by the evening it feels like i've swallowed a baby, and looks like it too when i look down. tasty.


Today we're heading to venice, not the closest of places to go for a day trip on our final day before heading back to the airport with giant pigeons, but one i'm looking forward to nonetheless. the train passes many pretty mountain villages and streams, and i look forward to finding out what the next 3 hours of it will bring, and whether or not we'll be able to get return tickets once in venice. spell-as-you-go scrabble, anyone?