Today we started our day with a huge breakfast at our hotel, which made me exceptionally happy. We had the Duomo and the Uffizi Gallery on our slate for the day and was going to do anything else that we had time for. We first walked to Santa Maria del Fiore (the name of the Duomo) and went inside. Unlike some of the other abbeys I've been in in London and Paris, Santa Maria del Fiore is completely open inside and not divided into smaller components like the nave, baptistry, and altar. Instead, the moment you walk in you have an astounding view some 150-200 yards to the end of the church. As its made in a new style of architecture that differs vastly from the Gothic style of Westminster and Notre Dame, the church is also much wider and spacious, so that added to the immenseness of the room inside. 
The floor, like the exterior walls, is made up of thousands of various green, pink, and white marble bricks laid in intricate patterns. We walked around the inside for a little while taking pictures of the church and the top of the dome itself before actually attempting to climb it.
From street level to the observation deck is 463 steps up the old staircases used by the masons and painters who actually built the dome. Brunelleschi designed the dome to actually be two domes that are self-reinforcing. Thus, the passage to the top takes visitors winding up the cupola and dome in between the two shells. It was very interesting to see some of the original structural elements and bricks that haven't been replaced (or needed to be) in 600 years. When we finally reached the top, it unfortunately started to rain relatively hard. We still made it out and took pictures of the city from beneath our umbrellas, but we were all three pretty disappointed that the horizon wasn't nearly as clear as it had been an hour before. Oh well. We may have to do it again tomorrow. 
After the Duomo, we got a quick bite to eat at a small pizza shop and then headed south to the Galleria Uffizi, home to the world's largest and most impressive collection of Renaissance pieces. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, even though its the low tourism season. I'm guessing the rain had driven all the tourists inside to Firenze's museums this afternoon. We spent about 2-1/2 hours inside the Uffizi, seeing early Renaissance works by Cimabue and Giotto - still in the process of escaping from the Byzantine style of paintings - to the later masterpieces of Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Raphael. We saw a number of paintings that I learned about in art history and was able to recognize, which was pretty cool. Even with the Louvre and British Museum under my belt, I still don't often see in person paintings capable of being recognized by everyone. 
After the Uffizi, we headed home to dry off and change for dinner. We also busted upon a bottle of chiante and the bruschetta that we'd been given the night before at Buca Mario. We followed a tip from the lady that had sold us the wine and olive oils yesterday and went to a place called Sostanza. I had a Florentine rib steak with tortellini. We also tried some traditional dishes - an artichoke quiche and goose-liver pate spread - for appetizers, but I wasn't super fond of either. It was interesting to try new things, though. After all that we walked down the Arno to try and work some of our dinner off, took some pictures from Ponte Vecchio, and then wandered the city in search of gelatto. Not hard to find, but we felt like walking around so we took our time deciding on a place. We ate that on the way back to Santa Maria Novella and are calling it quits post-midnight to be able to have a productive last full day tomorrow.
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