Florence part 3....

The actual church is too big to fit!

Crowds around the Ghiberti doors. I wonder how many of them know these are copies?

The interior of the Duomo (actually Santa Maria Del Fiori) is spacious and grand, but stern and not uplifting.

Brunnelesci's famous dome. It is famous for many reasons. It was some hundred years after the church was built that they figured out how to build the done; it is so large that it could not be built with scaffolding. One idea was support it during construction by a giant pile of dirt filled with coins inside the church so that when it was finished, the poor would haul the dirt out for nothing. There was a competition between Ghiberti and Brunnelesci to produce the Baptistry doors, and Ghiberti won. So Brunnelesci went to Rome (with Donatello in tow) and learned how to build the dome, returning to Florence in triumph. Everybody wins!


The Duomo is impressive, but not beautiful. We remarked how St. Peter's, which is of course much, much larger in every dimension, had been designed (by Michelangelo), to appear more intimate, by making the statuary and lettering huge. This church appears to be trying to impress us with its size and engineering accomplishment, probably exactly the effect the Medicis were after.

Rick Steves's guide has turned into our bible, telling us which sights to focus on, how much time to allow, and whether the audio tour is worth the investment. So far he has saved us at least 100 euros in tours since he provides us with a written tour, or in some cases, an ipod tour available on his site or itunes.



The Museum has been recently renovated. I often find the buildings and the displays as interesting as the objects they were built to show.

Gotta love those triptychs.

This is the highlight of the Museum -- a pieta done by Michelangelo at age 80, for his own tomb. We gather that he is entombed in Rome (note to selves -- check it out on return swing through Rome!), so I wonder how he feels with his funerary work displayed in Florence? The central figure of Christ is the only one polished; the larger male figure is Nicodemus, but a self-portrait of Michelangelo. The story goes that he was being pestered about when he would finish the Sistine Chapel and so he broke the arm and damaged the leg of Christ, saying, "Now it is done!" The arm was repaired by his assistant, but the break marks and cuts on the leg are quite visible.

One of the main attractions of the museum is the silver altar. It was off exhibit, being repaired, but your trusty tourists found it...or at least pieces of it being worked on in a lab on the top floor.



Tom is off to work, then we are off to dinner!