A lot of steps in Florence

we started our last day in Florence by sitting on the pavement and watching a protest. It was very peaceful but the police still had on full riot gear which they walzted around amongst the protestors. it was pretty casual, we even saw a policeman who was driving (a pretty serious looking truck with all the windows covered in cages) whilst doing a rubiks cube. ewen was pretry impressed.
we weren't (and still aren't) entirely sure what the protest was about but it had something to do with budget cuts (we figured this out because people had cardboard scissors around their necks).
We had heard about a pig statue that is famous here in Florence and after having no luck finding it the day before we set off to find it again. we had gotten directions off the internet but they turned out to be useless and we actually found it after we had given up and were looking for something different. It is a statue of a boar that locals believe is lucky, if you rub its nose, put a coin in its mouth and drop it into the grate below you will return to Florence within one year.
We went to the Duomo (this is what they call the biggest cathedral in each town) next, first for a look inside, we were surprised that the inside was quite simple compared with other cathedrals we have been to. although at the top of the dome their was some beautiful artwork. I really liked the tea candle trees they had, definitely need to get myself one of those when i get home!

We had some lunch and then it was time for the massive climb to the top of the dome, 430ish steps to the top! It was a long climb but definitely worth it because the views were incredible! we spent probably half an hour at the top looking at the view from the 360 degrees (and catching our breath) before climbing back down and rewarding ourselves with gelato!
We spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry, how boring!
Then went out for our last dinner in Florence, they had moscato on the menu and i got a bit excited but it turned out to be desert wine (no wonder the waiter looked at me so strangely when i ordered it before my meal) but it was pretty good anyway, just very very small considering what it cost.