This weekend was Halloween and we were all really excited what to see what a Florence Halloween would be like. It turns out that Italians do not really care for Halloween festivities and we had to make our own. Which pretty much included all my friends hanging out in one of our houses watching Halloween movies and eating cookies. However, we were not disappointed because Halloween was on a Thursday and staying in meant avoiding the storm that was starting. That storm that started carried over to the rest of the weekend. Instead of staying inside we put on our rain gear and decided to do more things that we kept saying we would do and never did. On the top of our list was visiting the Duomo. I have been wanting to climb to the top of the Duomo since I saw it. From the outside this building is so beautiful and I wanted to see the view from the top. Though the climb is around 500 stairs, it does not feel that bad. I think the harder part is that the staircases are very small and narrow so when people are going both ways it is really hard to navigate. But the view from the top made it fully worth it. We could see all of Florence and the brick tiles contrasting with the stormy clouds was so beautiful. Once we climbed the Duomo we wanted to go into the other things that the ticket allows you to, but the lines were quite long so we decided to adventure elsewhere ( knowing that the tickets have a 72 hr validity after first use). We ended up riding the carousel with a bunch of children and attempting to go shopping in the rain. By the end of the day we were all tired and just ready to sit down and eat, in order to prepare for the next day.
This Sunday was another free museum day so we got our time tickets for the Uffizi gallery and decided to go explore the rest of the Duomo buildings. We were able to get in and out of the baptistry really quick and then stood in line for the bell tower. This line was longer and as we were standing the rain started coming down quite hard. Once we finally got into the bell tower we were just happy to be inside, but then we had to climb to the top of this one as well!. This climb was also not too bad after the first few flights. Getting the first level of that bell tower left my friend and I completely breathless. As we kept climbing and climbing the rain was getting worse so at the top level of the bell tower than rain was all over us as we were also appreciating the view. That said, the view was still incredible and we were able to see all these details on the Duomo that you cannot see from below!
We then managed to go to the Uffizi gallery which was just full of beautiful artworks. Because it was free museum day, there were a lot of people there, but we all went at our own pace and appreciated eventually made it out without any issue. Though rainy, this weekend was filled with a lot of exploring, and what I have noticed is that the people here do not let the rain stop them from going outside and living their lives, which is something I really appreciated!
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