"Go to the Back of the LINE!"

Today I did a short post from my phone while we were standing in a long line waiting to go into the Uffizi Gallery. We had already been in line about three hours when I noticed a nice family of four had sidled up near us in the line. I quietly leaned over to Rach and told her I knew they were butting because I knew I had seen them at least an hour or more earlier passing us in the opposite direction. I knew it was them because the mother was wearing something that did not appear to be doing her body shape any favors. I don't want to pass any judgements, but there really are some people who should not be wearing tank tops. Rach and I just giggled a bit and gave each other the look that says we are annoyed someone has not followed the rules. While I might be annoyed I won't usually take up an argument with some really tall guy and his heavy-set wife and their two children. It was a LOOOONG line and we had been in it a long time, but I wasn't going to worry about it. Turns out I didn't need to. Maybe twenty minutes later, the American guy behind us noticed they had sidled up to us near the frontish area of the line and he took issue with it loudly and publicly. The parents argued with him in Italian that they had been in line for four hours or that there were just four of them - I'm not sure which point the mom was making - but American guy would not let it drop. When he could not verbally persuade them to go to the back of the line he threatened to go get a museum employee. By then some other woman of Italian? heritage jumped into the conversation, as well as the obnoxious American girl, who smokes a lot, had to throw her two cents worth into the mix too. Rach and I just stood in the middle of it trying not to laugh. We did not get involved. We didn't need to, American guy behind us made good on his threat and went to fetch the college-aged kid who was doing his job of crowd control at the entry door. This poor kid, who didn't even really look like he could do much about it, came and kept telling the man to go to the back of the line. They really held out for a long time, the wife seemed determined to stand her ground. I felt sorry for their kids, clearly waiting to see how it would end. Then, they started to move back, but not actually turn around and go to the back of the line, they just moved back a few people behind the American guy behind us. The poor employee kept telling them to go to the back, but they didn't. They stayed right there. Then some Italian guy behind the American guy said something really rude about what a great example they were setting for their kids by teaching them to be dishonest. He said it in English, which was nice for us, but not so much for the offending family (Italian) who sort of pretended like they didn't understand any of it. I think it was the highlight of our day. The employee said he wasn't going to let them in, but we had already gone in by then so he could easily have let them in later. I never did see them during our tour, so maybe he got the police involved like he said he would. If it had turned into a fist fight, it would be a highlight of the trip. I whispered to
Rach at one point, "If it weren't so obvious I would have been making a video of it for posting, but I was afraid I would end up rolling around on the ground with "heavy set woman in tank top" for filming it. The funniest part is that the line really did seem to be ending not that far back from us, anyone who got in line even right then would only have had to wait about an hour, not three like we did.