One secret of touring Firenze is that if you don't have time to wait in long lines and tour the Firenze Duomo, the Duomo's bell tower gets you the same beautiful view with no wait. Granted, you don't get to see the inner layers of the Duomo's dome, or the inside of the Duomo, but you do get to see the Duomo from on high & up close.
When we stayed in Firenze in 2006, we tried to do just that late on the afternoon of September 7th. We arrived at the tower 5 minutes too late. No problem; we have tomorrow, still. That's when we saw the sign: Bell tower open every day, except: Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, ... , and September 8th. All the other days had names & reasons ... but Sept 8?! Was this some kind of conspiracy? We hung our heads, walked away, and vowed to ascend the tower our next time in Firenze (only years later did we learn that Sept 8th was the religious holiday celebrating -- I am not making this up -- the "Girdle of the Virgin Mary").
This time in Firenze, after lunch with Joe, we tackled the tower, and no girdle, no matter how important, was going to stand in our way. The day was grey, but the view was beautiful.
Ciao! Brent (& Nancy)
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