The next leg of our journey took us to Florence, Italy.

The sites we visited in and around Florence are listed in yellow at left.

Click on them for more information and pictures.

The cathedral of Florence is Santa Maria del Fiore, or more commonly, the Duomo.  The whole structure is made of pink (reddish), green and white Tuscan marble. The first stone of the cathedral was laid on September 8, 1296.  The final added structure was the enormous dome which was finished in 1434.  The dome alone took nearly twenty years to complete.  The campanile or bell tower is 276 feet tall and was designed by Giotto.

Details of Santa Maria del Fiore

Admission to the Santa Maria del Fiore is free, but go early or you will have to contend with an extremely long line.  You can also climb to either the top of the Campanile or to the top of the Dome.  On the 2004 trip I arrived fairly early on the first Saturday of the month in order to climb to the top of the dome.  The cost was €6 and it was well worth it.  Check in a guidebook or at the Duomo itself for times the dome is open.

The climb to the top of this architectural giant is amazing.  It's a 463 step climb which takes you inside the dome up to the very top for an outrageous view over all of Florence.  On the way up you get up close views of the frescoed ceiling which was done by the artists Vasari and Zuccari.  The frescoes detail The Last Judgment.  Once on top of the dome you can view all the sites of Florence, including the

So, once you get in...there is plenty to see.  The dome was designed by Brunelleschi and was one of the first and is still one of the four largest in existence.  Brunelleschi used engineering techniques that were way before his time when he designed it.  The structure is really like two domes, one inside the other.  The inner part supports the larger part.  It was/is truly an architectural feat. 

 Other points of interest inside are: the marble flooring, the candles, the mosaics, the stained glass windows, etc.  You get the point...the Duomo is full of things to see and photos are allowed.  One very interesting item is the clock.  The clock is above the main entrance and was painted in 1443.  It's a 24 hour clock which is still common in Europe.  If you notice it also goes counter-clockwise instead of the usual clockwise.  One of my favorite things in the church were the candles, which were displayed very differently than I have ever seen before (like little trees).  There is also a mural which features Dante, but I didn't get a picture of it!  Also, Donatello's painted wood sculpture, Mary Magdalen is housed here.

Another must see part of the Duomo is the Baptistry.  There was a competition in 1401 to design a set of doors for one side of the baptistry.  They were to be decorated with gilded bronze reliefs depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments.  Brunelleschi (who did the dome) was one of the contestants but Lorenzo Ghiberti won.  One reason why Ghiberti might have won was that his doors required less bronze, actually making them cheaper to produce.  There are three sets of doors, two of which were done by Ghiberti (the north and east doors).  *** The information on the Baptistry Doors comes from "Art Across Time: Volume 2 by Laurie Schneider Adams. Pages 484-486. ***

*** Information on this page not otherwise noted is from Eyewitness Travel Guides: Florence and Tuscany 2003. Pages 64-65. and also a brochure on Santa Maria del Fiore printed by the Archdiocese of Florence which was available on site. ***