The Duomo and museum

Oscar looks angry abou t

Oscar is in love with our new hotel because they put us at the very

back and there are all these ramps, twists, turns and stairs in the hallway to get from our room to the front of the hotel.  He spends more time running up and down these hallways than we spend seeing Florence.  All of the cleaning staff know him now, all of the hotel staff know him now and we’re probably driving people crazy, but it keeps him happy and wears him out some.  After breakfast we head out to the Duomo to run into the group still standing in line to get in to climb the dome.  This time  

 there are so many tour groups in Florence that you can’t get in to Santa Maria de Fiori for long periods of time, the Baptistery has a line too and Oscar and I get our ticket from the group and go to the Duomo museum where you can see the real doors that Ghiberti made.  The

 ones on the baptistery now are imitation and I have never laid eyes on the real doors even though this is my 4^th time to Florence.  Finally, I get to see the real thing and the new museum that they have built is truly beautiful.  Oscar fusses some and we hurry through at  

a high rate of speed in order to get done, run into the group again as they are coming down from the dome to tell them to hit the museum first because there is no line, and then head to H and M for some shorts for John.  Of course the new pair that he brought with him that he loved, the zipper came out, so  

 that’s another fail on this trip.  I’m able to get some shorts and get back to the hotel in order to Oscar to take a nap in his crib and he stays there for 3 hours which allows me some time to catch up on this blog.  Tonite in the night that John is going to take the first group of students to the restaurant that Ferris students have been going to for many years, La Mossace and I think because of the good nap time, it’s going to be okay for Oscar and me to come along, but it is a disaster.  He is fussy and 

squirming, John and I together can’t control him and this restaurant is EXTREMELY small.  When the group has to go in two groups of 10 each night because the largest table only seats that many, think about only 5 more tables in the entire restaurant.  I take Oscar out to walk him some while we wait for food and then realize that I’m wet, he’s wet, we’re both wet because his diaper has failed.  There is no bathroom in the restaurant and so we’re doing another open air change with a  

change of clothes too because his jeans are now soaked in urine.  Forget the fact that I’m a little wet on the side too, I didn’t bring a change of clothes, so we return to eat a little bit and then leave and walk around some waiting for the group to come out.  I feel bad about the dinner not going  

 well when this is a tradition that John wanted to keep up, but am at least able to mitigate the damage some by taking Oscar away when he’s being a butt.  We are able to stroll around Florence some and get some gelato, a Nutella cookie and take Oscar on his first merry go round ride.  I doubt many American kids’ first merry go round happens in Italy, but it was there and cheap, so John held him on the horse and Oscar loved it.  He would smile so big every time they came around to see me 

 again that you could tell that he didn’t want to get off.  And did he scream when it was time to get off.  You would have thought that John and I were pulling him away from heaven the way that he carried on for a while.  But we distracted him with vendors throwing lights

and making noises trying to sell them to us and got back to the hotel and bed without much more problem.  A shower for Oscar and me both was the first order of business and I’m already thinking about when I’ll have to do laundry again in Paris.