Florence's Duomo

Cathedrals tend to play a big part of any European city, and Florence is no exception. When the Duomo, as they call their cathedral, was built the Medici family wanted it to be the largest in the world. It was of the utmost importance to be larger than the cathedrals of Siena and Pisa. 

This post will be filled with more pictures than words because I did not go on a tour. I also did not plan ahead well enough to purchase tickets to climb inside the dome (something Don and I did do in 1999 on our last visit to Florence). This time we climbed the tower instead.

We also took a self-guided tour of the crypt underneath the floor of the Cathedral and the Baptistry. The way the tickets work, you have three days to enjoy the different parts. I suspect most people do like us and see all four in the same afternoon. 

The crypt.

The current cathedral is built on the spot of another church, which is still under the church today. Its most famous inhabitant is Filippo Brunelleschi, the architect of the Duomo (an honor not often given to humble architects). 

Love that the donor list in the mosaic was translated on the modern floor

We then went upstairs to walk around the Duomo. Our timing wasn't the best as we only had 20 minutes to walk around the inside of the cathedral. We knew there would be other opportunities as Ashley worshipped there on Palm Sunday.

Our next stop on the tour was the baptistry (i.e., where people used to visit to become baptized before heading into the cathedral). The mosaic ceiling in the baptistry is undergoing a massive renovation, but they thoughtfully created a cover for it that has a likeness of the ceiling. I've often said something is always covered in a European city giving us a reason to want to return once the work is completed.

Meanwhile, for an additional fee, you can climb scaffolding to see the restoration process up close. I suggested it to Ashley the artist.

We ended our visit by climbing 414 steps to the top of the bell tower. What is nice about the climb is there are several terraces along the way giving you an opportunity to poke your head out and decide if you want to continue on the climb. The passageways become narrower as you reach the top. The corners are particularly narrow. The same staircases are used for up as they are for down.

People try to tell me that up is harder. I say they are both challenging, but in different ways. Different leg muscles are engaged in each direction. For me, the challenge is becoming depth perception. I have a fear of missing a step and tumbling down, knocking into those in my path. I take stairs really slowly -- especially on the down.

As we climbed up, there was a group of middle schoolers. I told Don and Ashley once I got to the top, I was hanging out until after the left so I could take my time going down the stairs. It was already 6 pm and they closed at 7:30. As expected, the middle schoolers didn't stay upstairs long and wanted to race each other to the bottom.

Our AirBnB should be visible

It is surprisingly hard to take a shadow-free picture inside the bell tower

Ashley gave us a tour of Florence from way up high. She showed us the patio of the hotel where she stayed for a few nights and other highlights of her city.

During the climb down we noticed doors in the center. I wonder where they went?

We heard the bells ringing. The building didn't shake nearly as much as I would have expected.

We went back to our room to gather another couple of layers before heading to Dante's Restaurant for dinner. Ironically, this was one of the places we tried to get dinner from the night before. Ashley made dinner reservations and after a small wait (and pontificating from the Canadian hostess who sounded Scandinavian and who is a huge Trump fan), we were seated. Ashley and I shared a half a carafe of wine -- more than enough for two of us. It was wonderful catching up with her.