May 31, 2012: Florence and Fiesole
	May 29, 2012: Siena and San Gimignano, Italy
	Return to the Index for Our Week in Florence and Rome

Having spend all day yesterday in Siena and San Gimignano, this will be our second day in Florence itself. We plan to spend it at the Uffizi, at the Duomo and in general walking around Florence.

The Uffizi Museum

The first thing we did this morning was to head over to the Uffizi Museum, which is located near the Pont del Vecchio on the north side of the Arno River.

Since we already looked at the aerial view of a walk two days ago, and since the route we took from Casa Rovai to the Uffizi to the Duomo and back to the bed and breakfast isn't really important, all we'll do here is look at the locational relationship between the three destinations today. The aerial view at left shows them to you.

We left Casa Rovai about 9:45; we had tickets with an entry time just after ten at the Uffizi. On the way over through the gloomy, overcast morning, we passed some sites we'd seen before as we headed to the Arno River there to walk a bit west to the Museum. On the way, Fred did take some additional pictures worth including here, and there are clickable thumbnails for these pictures below:

We arrived at the Uffizi right on time. As we entered, I was a bit chagrined (but not surprised) to find that photography was not allowed inside the museum galleries. Lots of folks were checking backpacks and stuff, but I went ahead and carried my small camera on my belt.

We came to the museum walking west along the Arno, as we had done a couple of days ago. At right is a picture that we took day before yesterday from across the river; it shows the south facade of the museum.

The building that is now seat of the Gallery was built in the mid-sixteenth century by the architect Giorgio Vasari in a period when Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was bureaucratically consolidating this recently acquired position. The building was meant in fact to house the offices of the magistrates (the Italian word for "offices" is "uffici"). From the beginning however, the Medici set aside some of the rooms on the third floor to house the finest works from their collection. Two centuries later, thanks to the generosity of the last heir of the family, Anna Maria Luisa, their collection became permanent public property.

The Uffizi Gallery is one of the most famous museums in the world given the rich amount of unique artworks and masterpieces conserved within its walls. It hosts works of art by great Italian artists such as Botticelli, Giotto, Cimabue, Michelangelo and Raffaello, just to name a few of the most famous. Its large collection has works from all centuries but a large part dates back to the periods between the 12th to 17th centuries.

We entered the museum through the facade that faces the river, stopped to have our tickets checked at the office where we bought them two days ago, and then walked down the long interior court (towards the Duomo) to the entrance, which was in the wing on our right. As you can see in the view in the interior court that looks back towards the river and the facade, the building is an extremely enlongated "U" shape, with the bottom of the "U" is the facade by the river. That facade, incidentally, is only thick enough to provide walkways between the two long galleries at the second and third levels.

The Uffizi was, to put it mildly, amazing. I only wish that there weren't so many docents around; their ubiquity made it impossible for me to take any pictures at all, even though, had I done so, I would certainly have not used a flash. But I suppose it was just as well, since without a flash, the relative dim light would not have been enough to show the magnificence of many of the works we saw. For me, simply standing in front of Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" was worth the entire cost of admission to the museum.

Below are a diagram and two pictures; the pictures are among the only ones I could find of inside galleries at the Uffizi. There are many pictures of the individual artworks, but I could spend all week gathering them together for you. Much better would be for you to visit the many websites that provide images of those works, should you wish to see some of the amazing artwork, sculpture and craftwork that we were able to see as we make our circuit of the second floor.

A Diagram of the Uffizi

A Typical Gallery Room

One of the Long Halls

At the end of the second hall, there was a set of windows that looked out to the Loggia del Lanci in the Piazza Signoria next to the Palazzo Vecchio. I also happened to find myself in an area where I could not spot a docent around, and so I chanced taking a couple of pictures of the ornately-frescoed ceiling above me. The pictures aren't great, as I couldn't take the time to compose them, but you can have a look at them here and here.

From the Uffizi, we walked via a roundabout way towards the Duomo, and along the way took some (to us) interesting pictures.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

The pictures we took were all over the map- very eclectic. And there were enough of them good enough to include here that I created a little slideshow for them.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at right and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Actually, as it turns out, we did go back by Casa Rovai for a little while before heading to the Duomo.

The Cathedral of Florence

On our first day in Florence, we had noted the lines for entry to the Duomo; they were always long. Actually, there were two lines- one for entry to the cathedral and the other for the walk up to the top of the dome. We planned to do both today. Time did not permit all three of us to do both, and since Greg dislikes heights and close spaces, he opted for going into the cathedral itself. The climb up to the top of the dome involves a long trek up narrow stairs and passageways between the inner and outer domes, as you will see shortly.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) is the main church of Florence, Italy. The Duomo, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style and structurally completed in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.

The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. The three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence. The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.

It was impossible to get far enough away from the cathedral to get it all in one picture; the picture at left is a composite of four pictures that I took in succession.

A Short History of the Florence Cathedral

The Duomo was built on the site of an earlier cathedral; the ancient building, founded in the early 5th century and having undergone many repairs, was crumbling with age. Florence undertook an ambitious reconstruction in the Late Medieval period- a time when other Tuscan cities did the same thing (one example being Siena, whose enormous proposed extensions were never completed).

The new church was approved by city council in 1294. The designer, Arnolfo di Cambio, proposed three wide naves ending under the octagonal dome. The first stone was laid on September 9, 1296 by Cardinal Valeriana, the first papal legate ever sent to Florence. The building of this vast project was to last 140 years, partially because Arnolfo's plan was greatly expanded in size. After Arnolfo died in 1302, work on the cathedral slowed for the following thirty years. In 1334, the guild of wool merchants became patrons of the project, and Giotto was appointed to oversee the work; he continued di Cambio's design. His major accomplishment was the building of the campanile. When he in turn died in 1337, Andrea Pisano continued the building until work was again halted due to the Black Death in 1348. In 1349 work resumed on the cathedral under a series of architects, and by 1375 the old church had been pulled down. The nave was finished by 1380, and by 1418 only the dome remained incomplete.

In 1418, the Arte della Lana announced a structural design competition for erecting the dome; it was won by Filippo Brunelleschi, who was supported by Cosimo de Medici. Work started on the dome in 1420 and was completed in 1436. The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV on March 25, 1436 (the first day of the year according to the Florentine calendar). It was the first octagonal dome in history to be built without a temporary wooden supporting frame.

The decoration of the exterior of the cathedral, begun in the 14th century, was not completed until 1887, when the polychrome marble façade was completed. The floor of the church was relaid in marble tiles in the 16th century. The exterior walls are faced in alternate vertical and horizontal bands of marble from Carrara (white), Prato (green), Siena (red), Lavenza and a few other places. These marble bands had to repeat the already existing bands on the walls of the earlier adjacent baptistery and Giotto's Bell Tower. There are two lateral doors, the Doors of the Canonici (south side) and the Door of the Mandorla (north side) with sculptures by various artists, including Donatello. The six lateral windows, notable for their delicate tracery and ornaments, are separated by pilasters. The clerestory windows are round, a common feature in Italian Gothic.

During its long history, this cathedral has been the seat of the Council of Florence (1439), heard the preachings of Girolamo Savonarola and witnessed the murder of Giuliano di Piero de' Medici on Sunday, 26 April 1478 (with Lorenzo Il Magnifico barely escaping death) in the Pazzi conspiracy.

The Duomo: Exterior Plan and Structure

The Duomo is built as a basilica, having a wide central nave of four square bays, with an aisle on either side. The chancel and transepts are of identical polygonal plan, separated by two smaller polygonal chapels. The whole plan forms a Latin cross. The nave and aisles are separated by wide pointed Gothic arches resting on composite piers. The dimensions of the building are enormous: its length is 502 ft., its width is 124 ft. and the width at the crossing is 295 feet. The height of the arches in the aisles is 75 feet, and the height of the dome is 350 feet.

The Duomo

I made a movie outside the cathedral of the facade and looking back towards the dome. You can watch it with the player below:

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The Duomo: Brunelleschi's Dome

Probably the most interesting, and most recognizable feature of the Florence Cathedral is its dome.

Brunelleschi's Dome Under Restoration

The basic features of the dome had been designed by di Cambio in 1296; his brick model, itself 15 feet high and 30 feet long, stood in a side aisle of the unfinished building, and had long before become sacrosanct. It called for an octagonal dome higher and wider than any that had ever been built, with no external buttresses to keep it from spreading and falling under its own weight.

The commitment to reject traditional Gothic buttresses had been made in 1367, and was one of the first events of the Italian Renaissance, marking a break with the Medieval Gothic style. Italian architects regarded Gothic flying buttresses as ugly makeshifts and their use was forbidden in Florence. The model depicted a massive inner dome, open at the top to admit light, but enclosed in a thinner outer shell, partly supported by the inner dome, to keep out the weather. It was to stand on an unbuttressed octagonal drum. The dome would need an internal defense against spreading (hoop stress), but none had yet been designed.

The building of such a masonry dome posed many technical problems, and Brunelleschi looked to the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. That dome is a single shell of concrete, but the formula for concrete had long since been forgotten. A wooden form had held the Pantheon dome aloft while its concrete set, but for the height and breadth of the dome designed by Neri, starting 171 ft. above the floor and spanning 144 ft., there was not enough timber in Tuscany to build the scaffolding and forms. Brunelleschi chose to employ a double shell, made of sandstone and marble, and to build the dome out of bricks, due to their light weight. There would be nothing under it during construction. He constructed the wooden and brick model, but intentionally left it incomplete to ensure his control over the construction.

Brunelleschi's Dome

Brunelleschi's solutions were ingenious. The spreading problem was solved by a set of four internal horizontal stone and iron chains, serving as barrel hoops, embedded within the inner dome; a fifth one was made of wood. Because the dome was octagonal, not round, a solution had to be found to avoid all the pressure of the hoops being borne by the corners of the octagon. The chains needed to be rigid and stiff enough to hold their shape, so as not to deform the dome as they held it together.

I really don't quite understand Brunelleschi's solution, which was stone chains was built like an octagonal railroad track with parallel rails and cross ties, all made of sandstone beams 17 in. in diameter and no more than 7.5 ft. long. (For a complete explanation, read the book "Brunelleschi's Dome.") But his solution allowed the work to progress upward without the need for scaffolding. His features would eventually hold the dome up, but would not hold the bricks in place while the mortar was still wet. So Brunelleschi used a herringbone brick pattern to transfer the weight of the freshly laid bricks to the nearest vertical ribs of the non-circular dome.

The outer dome was not thick enough (only two feet thick at the base and 1 foot thick at the top) to contain the chains used in the inner dome. To create the same thing, Brunelleschi thickened the outer dome at the inside of its corners at nine different elevations, creating nine masonry rings, which can be observed today from the space between the two domes. To counteract hoop stress, the outer dome relies entirely on its attachment to the inner dome at its base.

A modern understanding of physical laws and the mathematical tools for calculating stresses was centuries into the future. Brunelleschi, like all cathedral builders, had to rely on intuition and whatever he could learn from the large scale models he built. To lift 37,000 tons of material, including over 4 million bricks, he invented hoisting machines and lewissons for hoisting large stones. These specially designed machines and his structural innovations were Brunelleschi's chief contribution to architecture, and part of the reason why it is his name, than the designer Neri's, that is commonly associated with the dome.

Lantern and Observation Platform

Brunelleschi had to win another competition to crown the dome with a lantern; his design (now on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo) was for an octagonal lantern with eight radiating buttresses and eight high arched windows. Construction of the lantern was begun a few months before his death in 1446; it was finally completed in 1461. The conical roof was crowned with a gilt copper ball and cross, containing holy relics. This brought the total height of the dome and lantern to 375 feet. (The copper ball was struck by lightning in 1600 and fell down. It was replaced by an even larger one two years later.)

The commission for the bronze ball went to the sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, in whose workshop there was at the time a young apprentice named da Vinci. Fascinated by Brunelleschi's machines, which Verrocchio used to hoist the ball, Leonardo made a series of sketches of them and, as a result, is often given credit for their invention.

A huge statue of Brunelleschi now sits outside the Palazzo dei Canonici in the Piazza del Duomo, looking thoughtfully up towards his greatest achievement, the dome that would forever dominate the panorama of Florence. It is still the largest masonry dome in the world. So, while the building of the cathedral had started in 1296 with the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was crowned in 1469 with the placing of Verrochio's copper ball atop the lantern, it was still not done- the façade was still unfinished and would remain so until the nineteenth century.

Our Trip to the Top of Brunelleschi's Dome

Fred and I opted to take the tour to the top of the Dome, while Greg opted for a tour of the interior of the cathedral, so while he went around to the main portal (see below), we queued up at a side entrance to pay our admission and climb to the top. As we were waiting, Fred was examining the wood door and the intricate carvings that surrounded it. The door was certainly beautiful, and the carvings surrounding it intricate, as you can see here and here, as well as by clicking on the thumbnails below:

We began the ascent just beyond the ticket entrance as we took a stairway on our left. Having climbed other medieval buildings already on our trip, we were prepared for narrow stairs, and this set was no exception. They were also kind of dark, even though our flash makes them seem much less so. The stairs made an almost immediate right turn and came up into a small, round room. This room contained statuary and medallions; I presumed that the statues were of personages associated with the cathedral or the building of the dome, but we couldn't get close to them and I couldn't see any inscriptions. You can see a couple of individual pictures of these bigger-than-life statues here and here. There was one exit from this room, and it led to another narrow passageway, this time a long set of spiral stairs. We stopped to take some pictures of each other on these stairs (we had to hurry as we heard people above us coming down, which was unusual, as we found out later). Anyway, you can have a look at my picture of Fred and/or you can take a look at Fred's picture of me. Then we started up.

I made movies on both the first set of straight stairs and on this set of spiral stairs, and I thought I would be taking a lot of movies on the way up. But the lighting turned out to be very dim, and since the first two movies didn't turn out all that well, I didn't make another one until we were on our way down. You can see what I mean if you use the players below to have a look at the two movies I made on our way up:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) On the First Set of Stairs

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) On the Spiral Staircase

The walk up to the top of the dome involved three sections. In the first, we ascended through the walls of the cathedral pretty much straight up to the height of the base of the dome itself.

This part of the trip was mainly stairs- some straight and some spiral. Most were relatively dark, so movies weren't really feasible, but we did get some better still shots with flash. You can use the clickable thumbnails at left to see some of the pictures we took during this part; you can see that the stairs were very narrow- so narrow, that there was one way up and another way down, with people having only to pass each other relatively rarely.

At the level of the base of the dome, we came out onto a catwalk that ran around the inside of the cathedral at that level- and our walk along it was the second section of our trip up. There was a lucite barrier that extended from the railing of the catwalk upwards- high enough so that visitors couldn't drop things over the rail or, of course, fall over it themselves. As you can see in this picture of Fred on the catwalk, that barrier seems to be something that was added on after the catwalk was built (and I have not been able to find out when that was. You can also see that the catwalk is a one-way affair. Going up, one comes out onto the catwalk at one point, goes about a third of the way around the dome and then back into the walls to continue up. Coming down, visitors come out onto a different point on the catwalk, go around a different arc, and then back into the walls for the rest of the way down.

Unfortunately, the lucite wall made pictures of interior of the cathedral dim and a bit fuzzy, although pictures taken looking up at the huge fresco painted on the underside of the dome were much better. I was nervous on the catwalk; I had no idea how well anchored it was, and I could see from looking across the open space underneath the dome that there was nothing directly underneath my feet. So I kind of slithered close to the wall as we made our way around our section of the catwalk.

Looking Back Down the Curved Stairs

From the catwalk to the top of the dome was the third section of the trip, and it was probably the most interesting. We are having to negotiate the space between two domes, one smaller than the other and inside the other. And we have to reach the apex of the lower dome before we can go upward to come out on top of the larger one. This means that, at some point, the stairs we climb will have to follow the curve of the top of the lower dome; you can see me coming up a section of those stairs in the picture at left.

There were sections of curved stairs like this- it wasn't one continuous arc. Fred took a picture at the lower end of another arc section that shows some people ahead of us on these stairs. I could never have done this, if we were on the exact same stairs with the same railings but with no second dome above us; the image of losing my hand-hold and falling down those stairs until I reached the vertical drop to the ground would have been too much to take. But inside, as we were, it was no problem.

Along this portion of the trip- mostly near the base of the dome- there were also sets of regular stairs, although these were sometimes canted at weird angles to fit into the space between the domes. There were also, along these stretches, windows that you could look out and which provided ventilation for the space between the domes. If you would like to see some other views of the narrow stairs along this portion of the ascent, just use the clickable thumbnails below:

Once we reached the apex of the inner dome, there was one final short flight of stone stairs up and out to the circular observation platform which ran around the base of the lantern. We were awestruck by the 360°-view that we found when we came out on the platform; these views were truly amazing. The observation area runs around the base of the lantern Brunelleschi designed and placed atop the dome, so it is circular. From the lantern outward there are "ribs" of stone and marble that extend from the lantern outward. At the top of these "walls," there is intricate scrollwork.

Florence and the Campanile Tower from Brunelleschi's Dome

Through each of these walls there are two openings. One of these is fairly close to the base of the lantern, and is perhaps three feet wide. You can see a picture that Fred took of me though one of these openings here. The outer end of these walls did not quite reach to the iron railing that encircles the platform, so that you could also walk around the entire observation area right next to the railing. This opening was perhaps a foot and a half wide, so only one person at a time could squeeze through. The platform itself was stepped- higher at the back next to the lantern and lower at the outer edge next to the railing. This afforded good views even to those whose constitution kept them from getting very close to the edge.

At left are clickable thumbnails for some of the photos I took of Fred here on the observation platform of the Duomo, and you can see the same structural features that I mentioned above. We also took pictures of each other with portions of Florence in the background, and you can see one of those pictures here. When you get down to the railing, of course, you can see directly down the slope of the outer dome to the ground; this view could be a little disconcerting when you realize that in many places around the dome, there wouldn't be anything to stop you from sliding all the way to the ground. Fred used this sloping view of the dome in a good many of his pictures, such as this one of Giotto's Campanile. At eight points around the railing, of course, you could also look directly down one of the "ribs" of the dome as it curved out of sight heading down.

For our time up here, we simply walked all around the circular observation platform, going down to the railing and up to the back, admiring the views in all directions out across Florence. Before looking at some individual pictures and movies, let's look at a 360° view of Florence from the top of Brunelleschi's Dome. I set a personal record by taking a series of 17 separate pictures as I walked slowly all around the observation circle, and then stitching all these pictures together. The result is in the scrollable window below:

As far as the rest of our pictures were concerned, both Fred and I took a number of very good ones. Of course, almost all of them are part of, in one way or another, the 360° view above.

Giotto's Campanile Tower

Of course, we got excellent views of the Campanile, like the one at left, but also a wide range of city views.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

We took lots of really good pictures from here at the top of the Duomo, and I've taken a good selection of these and put them into a manual slideshow for you.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at right and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

All of these views were just amazing, particularly when you realize that we were less than 500 feet up- certainly much less than your average high-rise. With the red tile roofs, the narrow streets and the mountains in the distance, Florence presents a unique view to its visitors, and we just spent a good deal of time here taking it all in.

Before we leave our perch and head down, I might mention that I also took four or five movies. These again duplicate what the still pictures show, but I think they provide an added dimension to your appreciation of what we saw. I have chosen the two movies most representative of all that I took, and you can watch them with the players below:

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We spent a good deal of time at the top of the dome, but it was eventually time to head back down to meet up with Greg.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Heading Down the Duomo Stairs

Once again, when we left the top of the dome, we went down a set of stairs carved into the top of the inner dome. Just before we reached the actual base of the dome, we encountered a group of people at one of the few places where people going up have to pass people going down, and I made a movie of the process that you can watch with the player at left.

Then it was a walk around another section of the catwalk and following that a set of straight and spiral stairs similar to those coming up. One difference on the way down was that we passed through a small room that contained either the originals or models of some of Brunelleschi's mechanical inventions. Use the clickable thumbnails below to see some additional pictures of these innovative mechanical devices:

We did pass through the interior of the cathedral before we left through a different side door, but I've included those pictures in the section below describing the cathedral inside. Once out of the building, it was interesting to look back up to the observation platform that we had just left.

The trip up to the top of the dome was extremely interesting and the views spectacular. It was well worth the time and money to do it, and if you ever get to Florence, it is something you simply must do.

The Duomo: Facade

The Facade of the Duomo

The original façade, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and usually attributed to Giotto, was actually begun twenty years after Giotto's death and was the collective work of several artists. It was only completed in its lower portion and then left unfinished. It was ordered dismantled in 1587-1588 by Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici, as it appeared totally outmoded in Renaissance times. The competition for a new façade turned into a huge corruption scandal; the facade was actually left bare until the 19th century.

In 1864, a competition was held to design a new façade and work began in 1876 and was completed in 1887. This neo-gothic façade in white, green and red marble forms a harmonious entity with the cathedral, Giotto's bell tower and the Baptistery, but some think it is excessively decorated.

We took some additional pictures you might want to see that show the various details of the facade; you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at them:

The Duomo: Main Portal

The three huge bronze doors date from 1899 to 1903. They are adorned with scenes from the life of the Madonna. The mosaics in the lunettes above the doors represent Charity among the founders of Florentine philanthropic institutions, Christ enthroned with Mary and John the Baptist, and Florentine artisans, merchants and humanists. The pediment above the central portal contains a half-relief of Mary enthroned holding a flowered scepter. On top of the façade is a series of niches with the twelve Apostles and, in the middle, the Madonna with Child. The Madonna along with three of the Apostles on either side can be seen very clearly here. Between the rose window and the tympanum, there is a gallery with busts of great Florentine artists.

The Duomo: Interior

In arranging the pictures for this album, I found that although Fred and I had opted not to take the interior tour, we did get pictures of some of the interior features, and I want to include those here. The pictures we have of the interior of the Duomo were taken from two different vantage points. One was at the end of our descent from the dome, where we came through one corner of the front of the nave, and could look out into a portion of the main aisle. The other group of pictures were taken from high up in the dome itself, at that point where we came out onto the catwalk that ran around the interior of the dome, about halfway up the dome itself and thus some 250 feet above the floor of the church.

Inside the Duomo

The Gothic interior is vast and gives an empty impression. The relative bareness of the church corresponds with the austerity of religious life. Many decorations in the church have been lost in the course of time, or have been transferred to the Museum Opera del Duomo, such as the magnificent cantorial pulpits (the singing galleries for the choristers) of Luca della Robbia and Donatello. As this cathedral was built with funds from the public, some important works of art in this church honour illustrious men and military leaders of Florence.

Above the main door is the colossal clock face with fresco portraits of four Prophets or Evangelists. This one-handed liturgical clock is one of the few clocks from that time that still exist and are in working order. (You can see that clock face, although not very well, in one of the pictures that Fred took from the catwalk. It looks down the central aisle towards the main entrance to the cathedral, and you can have a look at it here.)

The church is particularly notable for its 44 stained glass windows, the largest undertaking of this kind in Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The windows in the aisles and in the transept (use the clickable thumbnails at left to see views of three of these) depict saints from the Old and the New Testament, while the circular windows in the drum of the dome or above the entrance depict Christ and Mary. They are the work of some of the greatests artists of the time. Christ crowning Mary as Queen, the stained-glass circular window above the clock, with a rich range of coloring, was designed by Gaddo Gaddi in the early 14th century. Donatello designed the stained-glass window (Coronation of the Virgin) n the drum of the dome (the only one that can be seen from the nave). The beautiful funeral monument of Antonio d'Orso (1323), bishop of Florence, was made by Tino da Camaino, the most important funeral sculptor of his time.

> The Last Judgment (a small portion)

Many decorations date from the 16th-century patronage of the Grand Dukes, such as the pavement in colored marble; some pieces of marble from the façade were used, topside down, in the flooring. (as was shown by the restoration of the floor after the 1966 flooding).

It was suggested that the interior of the dome should be covered with a mosaic decoration, and Brunelleschi had proposed the vault to glimmer with resplendent gold. But Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici decided to have the dome painted with a representation of The Last Judgment. This enormous work, over 38,000 square feet, was started in 1568 by Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari and was not completed until 1579. The entire work was completely restored in the early 1990s, and a photographic record made with specially designed equipment.

When I took the picture at right, which is just about a quarter of the entire work, I was using a light setting that I had selected for the pictures we took from the catwalk of the floor of the cathedral below. As a result, my pictures of the huge fresco have a decidedly reddish cast. This was not actually how the fresco appeared to us; it was much grayer with the colors standing out much more. To show you what I mean, I want you to see a picture that Fred took with his zoom lens of a small portion of my picture at right. If you will click on the group of three figures, almost in the exact center of my picture, you will see what I mean.

To show you another example, in the lower right-hand corner, click on the group of five figures just beyond the end of the outstretched arm, and you'll see Fred's closeup of that area of the fresco.

Fred took some other pictures of the fresco that I want to include here. Some of them are similar, but all are of different portions of the artistic work. I have put clickable thumbnails for these pictures below;

The views from the catwalk were pretty amazing, although I will admit to being nervous standing on it, for I could look across the open space underneath the dome to the other side to see exactly how little support there was between myself and a 200-foot drop to the marble floor. This prevented me from leaning over the lucite railing to get better shots; most of our look through that lucite barrier.

In any case, you might want to see some of the additional pictures we took from here on our catwalk perch, and you can use the clickable thumbnails at left to have a look at them.

The other pictures we took of the interior of the cathedral are much better, for we took them once we returned to the ground after our trip up to the dome. In the back of the middle of the three apses is the altar of Saint Zanobius, first bishop of Florence. Its silver shrine, a masterpiece of Ghiberti, contains the urn with his relics. The central compartment shows us one his miracles, the reviving of a dead child. Above this shrine is the painting Last Supper by the lesser-known Giovanni Balducci. If you'd like to see some of the other interior pictures we took from the ground floor, just use the clickable thumbnails below:

Our visit to the Florence Cathedral was pretty amazing. Once we were done here, we stopped next door to see the Florence Baptistery.

The Baptistery of St. John

The Florence Baptistery (Baptistery of St. John) is an octagonal basilica that stands next to the Duomo cathedral and Giotto's Campanile. It is one of the oldest buildings in the city, built between 1059 and 1128. The Florentine Romanesque building is renowned for its three sets of artistically important bronze doors with relief sculptures.

The Baptistery

The Italian poet Dante Alighieri and many other notable Renaissance figures, including members of the Medici family, were baptized in this baptistry. In fact, until the end of the nineteenth century, all Catholic Florentines were baptized here.

For a long time, it was believed that the Baptistry was originally a Roman temple dedicated to Mars, but 20th-century excavations have revealed that the site had earlier been a Roman wall guard tower. It is certain, however, that a first octagonal baptistry was erected here in the late fourth or early fifth century. This earlier baptistry was the city's second basilica after San Lorenzo, outside the northern city wall. The present much larger Baptistry was built in Romanesque style around 1059, evidence of the growing economic and political importance of Florence. It was reconsecrated in 1059 by Pope Nicholas II, a Florentine. An octagonal lantern was added to the pavilion roof around 1150, and it was enlarged with a rectangular apse on the west side in 1202. Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, three bronze double doors were added, with bronze and marble statues above them.

The sides, originally in sandstone, are clad in geometrically patterned colored marble, white Carrara marble with green Prato marble inlay, reworked in Romanesque style between 1059 and 1128. The pilasters on each corner, originally in grey stone, were decorated with white and dark green marble in a zebra-like pattern by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1293.

Facade with the Gates of Paradise

The three sets of doors to the baptistery are famous, Andrea Pisano designed the first set of doors in 1329, and they were completed in 1336. Lorenzo Ghiberti was commissioned to do a second set of doors, which were not completed until 1425. Each of these sets of doors show 28 scenes involving the life of Christ, Florentine History and other topics. Ghiberti's success won him the commission for the third set of doors- the east doors of the baptistery. These doors took 27 years to complete. They have ten panels depicting scenes from the Old Testament. Michelangelo referred to these doors as fit to be the "Gates of Paradise" and they are still invariably referred to by this name. Over the years, they were damaged by exposure, and so in 1990 were restored and moved inside the baptistery; today, a reproduction has taken their place.

The Gates of Paradise have scenes depicting Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham (top), Isaac with Esau and Jacob, Joseph (bottom), Moses, Joshua, David, and Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. You can see another view of the top four panels (clockwise from upper left are Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, and Abraham) here.

The Gates of Paradise are surmounted by a copy of a group of statues portraying the The Baptism of Christ by Andrea Sansovino. He only partially completed them by 1430 before leaving for Rome. Work continued by Danti until his death in 1576, but were not actually completed until the addition of the angel (Innocenzo Spinazzi) in 1792. The originals are in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.

As we were leaving the Baptistery, we passed by two large sculptures that looked like prominent Florentines, but I didn't get close enough to read the little cards that presumably identified them. You can have a look at them here and here.

Our visit to the Duomo complete, we headed back to Casa Rovai to relax and talk about tomorrow's activities.

An Afternoon Walk to Parco delle Cascine

We left Greg at Casa Rovai and went out for an afternoon walk. We'd picked out Parco delle Cascine which was further west along the Arno- beyond Pont del Vecchio- as our destination (so we'd be back in time to go to dinner with Greg).

As I have done before with walks we have taken, I'd like to provide you with the opportunity to follow us along by using an aerial view of the portion of Florence that we covered. I've put one together, and on it have marked our approximate route and some of the stops we made. If you will click on the button at left, that view will open in a separate window so you can both follow us along and read these album pages. When we get back to Casa Rovai, I'll remind you so you can close the window. When you open the window, scroll all the way to the right and you will see Casa Rovai and the beginning of our walk.

Generally, our walk took us back by the Duomo, although we did make a detour back to Palazzo Vecchio to get some additional pictures of the fountain of Neptune. Eventually, we went south to the Arno to a point well west of the Pont del Vecchio.

Pont del Vecchio

Then, as you can see if you are following along on the aerial view, we walked west down the street one block off the Arno towards the park. Along the way, we took the occasional picture- a street here or a facade there. There are clickable thumbnails below for a selection of our pictures on the way to the park:

About a mile from Palazzo Vecchio, we crossed a wide boulevard (which seemed to have a set of trolley tracks embedded in it) and came into Parco delle Cascine.

Parco delle Cascine

The nucleus of what was to become the Isola Estate, known today as the Parco delle Cascine, was bought by Archduke Alessandro in the mid-1500's. The estate was subsequently expanded by Cosimo I. The park's present name derives from the farms on the estate, which were primarily dedicated to cattle raising (a cascina is a barn).

Since the beginning of the 17th century the park has been dominated by a majestic tree-lined lane, first known as the Stradone dei Pini and subsequently as the Stradone del Re. Under Pietro Leopoldo the park was reorganized, with the addition of gardening facilities and a guardhouse. It was also opened to the public, but only for special events and Ascension Day. It was conceived of as an essentially wild area whose only fixed structure was a hunting lodge built by G. Manetti in 1786, where the Archduke and his family could stay. The following year, in occasion of Archduchess Maria Teresa's wedding, all the old buildings were demolished.

In the second half of the 18th century Archduchess Elisa made the park public, thus giving the city a vast green area very different from the gardens within the courtyards of the city's palaces. The Archduchess also had a new entrance added to the park at Porta al Prato, where the Baluardo del Serpe was breached and a wide road avenue built to the Arno. At the same time, the street that paralleled the river was straightened and paved. We walked a short ways down that road, which is now a single-lane park road, and could look back at the light rail bridge over the river.

In the 19th century the gardens of the Cascine were laid out in a romantic style, and looked very different than they do now. Also, in the course of the 19th century large areas of the park were transformed into sporting facilities, including racetracks. Just inside the park, at its east end, there is an equestrian statue of Vittorio Emmanuele II. Nearby, there was an interesting pyramidal fountain- actually more of a water source for animals.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) The Light Rail Going Through Parco Cascine

We did not go a long distance into the park, even though the main, tree‑lined avenue that stretched ahead of us was very inviting. We did notice that there was a light rail line that passed through the east end of the park, and we later saw that this rail line crossed the Arno.

After looking at a map of the rail line there in the park, we thought it might be interesting to take it to the end of the line and then back into Florence just to see what we could see. So we walked across the light rail bridge (there was a sidewalk for us to use) where we had a good view east along the Arno towards the center of Florence, and ended up just on the other side of the Arno at the Via Sansovino station. There we bought an hour ticket and waited for an outbound train.

If you have been following us on the aerial view, you can see the path we've been following; it's the yellow line. Just to keep things straight, I changed to a red line for the portion of our afternoon excursion that was on the light rail. We ended up riding from San Sansovino all the way to the end of the line, and then all the way back to the other end of the line right next to the main train station.

A light rail train came along in just a few minutes, and we hopped on. We rode the train all the way to the end of the line- about twenty minutes- just looking at the suburban Florence scenery and watching the folks get on and off.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Turnaround at the End of the Line

As we rode along on the train, we took some pictures of each other; the train was very modern and there were plenty of seats (although I spent most of my time standing just behind the conductor so I could look out at the track ahead). You can see my picture of Fred here, and Fred's picture of me here.

When the train got to the end of the line, we were among the last few people aboard, and we all got off. The train continued down the track a bit further, stopped and waited for a switch to be changed, and then started back in the direction of town. While the train was waiting at the end, we crossed the tracks to the inbound platform to wait for it. I made a movie of the turnaround procedure, and you can watch it with the player at left.

After the train had come to our side of the dual tracks, we hopped on and waited for the return trip into Florence to begin.

On the ride back into Florence, I again took up a position behind the conductor and made a series of short movies of interesting segments of the trip. I was looking over his shoulder through the front window. I took four movies on the way back to Parco delle Ciscine, and you can watch them with the players below:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) We Cross a Highway Bridge

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Wildflowers Along the Tracks

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) We Go Through a Short Tunnel

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Crossing the Arno to Parco delle Cascine

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Twists as We Leave Parco delle Cascine

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Arriving Near the Main Train Station

I also took some still pictures of trackside scenes and scenes as we went through Florence on the way to the city terminus of the line, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at them:

When we got off the train, we headed back to Casa Rovai to meet up with Greg again. On the way, we once again passed the Duomo, and got another view of it in the fading afternoon sunshine. We met up with Greg and sat on the little balcony to have some wine before heading out for some dinner.

NOTE:
If you have been following along with us on the aerial view, you can close that window now.

Dinner in Florence

Greg and Fred at Dinner

We took a short walk before dinner, just wandering around the neighborhood, and ended up at a little restaurant a few blocks away that looked inviting (and had been recommended by the lady at Casa Rovai). I was tempted to say that it was an Italian restaurant, but then that would be redundant, I suppose.

In any event, we had a really nice dinner. Food is a bit expensive in Florence (and Italy in general), but no more so, I suppose, than at any nice restaurant in any large American city. Fred got to try a different wine, and we had pizza and pasta dishes.

The evening was spent at Casa Rovai planning another excursion out of Florence for tomorrow, and working on moving all our pictures to the laptop and preparing the day's email update to send to everyone back home.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	May 31, 2012: Florence and Fiesole
	May 29, 2012: Siena and San Gimignano, Italy
	Return to the Index for Our Week in Florence and Rome