Tuesday's Duomo Day! Luckily, I just figured out that I can look at a "stats" page for this blog and see how many people are visiting and when during the day they come, so that have provided quite a bit of procrastination fodder. To the 21 people who looked at my blog today, you are my true friends. Or, to the one person who looked at my blog 21 times, you are either my mother, or you need to get a job.
Anyways, Tuesday was beautiful so I decided that it would be the day I did probably the most physically demanding thing on my list of tourist activities: climbing the Duomo's Dome. My guidebook (shout out to Rick Steves, it really is an amazing book) said that it wasn't worth it to do the climb (it is 463 some odd steps) but I really wanted to do it, so I decided today was the day. However, when I arrived at the Duomo, the line was super long, so I figured that I would come back in the afternoon.
To pass the time until my torturous climb, I did other things around the Duomo. First, I went to the Duomo Museum, which has all of the originals for many of the statues that were on the Duomo and the famous Doors of Paradise to the Baptistry. They have a gorgeous Michelangelo Pieta (which is unfinished and which apparently he designed for his own tomb, more on that later). They also have two of the old choir balconies from the Duomo, one designed by Donatello, one by Della Robbia. I really liked the Della Robia one. Apparently he knew that he would never be able to top it, so after that starting working more in terra cotta which is usually what he's known for. They also have the original panels from the Campanile (or bell tower). These were designed by Giotto, but likely executed by another sculptor (Pisano) and there are two sets of them. One set, which was diamond shaped with blue glazed background, was supposed to show religious virtues. The other, which I found much more interesting, were in marble and they showed the wonders of technology and civilization. Each has a different subject, like architecture, navigation, animal domestication, geometry, etc.
Here are pictures I took (first museum to actually allow photography!!!):
From left to right: Campanile panel showing "Medicine", Della Robbia's choir balcony, and Michelangelo's Pieta.
Very sadly, the Baptistry doors were out for conservation, so I didn't get to see them. So, instead of the real thing, I went to look at reconstructions that are the current doors to the Baptistry and then to go inside. The Baptistry was, for Florentines at the beginning of the Renaissance, a symbol of the Classical era. In fact, they thought that the church has been built by the Romans (in fact is was constructed sometime in the 11th or 12th centuries). The contest for who would get to design the doors (more on this later) is often thought of as the beginning of the Renaissance.
Here are, from left to right, the outside of the Baptistry, a close up of the reconstructed doors, and the ceiling inside:
After all of that, the line was still too long, so I decided to enter into the actual church of the Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) which is not only cool, but also FREE! There isn't too much to talk about here. It was just a humongous church with beautiful stained glass.
Then I got tired of the Duomo and decided to go for lunch. For the past couple of days, I'd gone to nicer trattoria-ish places. Today I wanted something quick and cheap, so I followed the advice of my guidebook and found a place near the Duomo. It made me super happy because the food (while not super amazing) was all of the things that I remember from coming to Italy when I was younger (friend zucchini flowers, polenta, etc. YUM!). I will likely go there again before I leave.
Still the line was too long, so I went to the Medici-Riccardi Palace (see, this day really was exhausting!! even writing about it I remember how long it was). This Palace used to be the home of the Medicis, then it was bought by the Riccardi family. Besides being a beautiful place, it has two works of note. One is Fra Fillipo Lippi's Madonna and Child (Sara and Seguin, I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was to see this!) and the Chapel of the Magi. The chapel was amazing. I've liked seeing the churches and the sculptures here, but I think this was the first time that I was just overwhelmed by how awesome the art was. The chapel is wall-to-wall this gorgeous work by Gozzoli showing all three Magi on their way to visit the baby Jesus. It was completely stunning and I stayed there for maybe half an hour.
Feeing refreshed by my awesome art experience, I finally braved the Duomo climb. Since it was late in the afternoon, the line with super short (success!) and the climb was not as bad and I had anticipated. The view from the top was so so so worth it that I'm totally glad that I made the effort. It was a gorgeous day and the late afternoon sun just made it all the better.
Here's a picture I took from the top showing the surrounding country. I wish that my camera had a panorama setting, because it would have been nice to get it all in one shot. I took short videos as well, but they take too long to upload.
Anyways, Tuesday was beautiful so I decided that it would be the day I did probably the most physically demanding thing on my list of tourist activities: climbing the Duomo's Dome. My guidebook (shout out to Rick Steves, it really is an amazing book) said that it wasn't worth it to do the climb (it is 463 some odd steps) but I really wanted to do it, so I decided today was the day. However, when I arrived at the Duomo, the line was super long, so I figured that I would come back in the afternoon.
To pass the time until my torturous climb, I did other things around the Duomo. First, I went to the Duomo Museum, which has all of the originals for many of the statues that were on the Duomo and the famous Doors of Paradise to the Baptistry. They have a gorgeous Michelangelo Pieta (which is unfinished and which apparently he designed for his own tomb, more on that later). They also have two of the old choir balconies from the Duomo, one designed by Donatello, one by Della Robbia. I really liked the Della Robia one. Apparently he knew that he would never be able to top it, so after that starting working more in terra cotta which is usually what he's known for. They also have the original panels from the Campanile (or bell tower). These were designed by Giotto, but likely executed by another sculptor (Pisano) and there are two sets of them. One set, which was diamond shaped with blue glazed background, was supposed to show religious virtues. The other, which I found much more interesting, were in marble and they showed the wonders of technology and civilization. Each has a different subject, like architecture, navigation, animal domestication, geometry, etc.
Here are pictures I took (first museum to actually allow photography!!!):
From left to right: Campanile panel showing "Medicine", Della Robbia's choir balcony, and Michelangelo's Pieta.
Very sadly, the Baptistry doors were out for conservation, so I didn't get to see them. So, instead of the real thing, I went to look at reconstructions that are the current doors to the Baptistry and then to go inside. The Baptistry was, for Florentines at the beginning of the Renaissance, a symbol of the Classical era. In fact, they thought that the church has been built by the Romans (in fact is was constructed sometime in the 11th or 12th centuries). The contest for who would get to design the doors (more on this later) is often thought of as the beginning of the Renaissance.
Here are, from left to right, the outside of the Baptistry, a close up of the reconstructed doors, and the ceiling inside:
After all of that, the line was still too long, so I decided to enter into the actual church of the Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) which is not only cool, but also FREE! There isn't too much to talk about here. It was just a humongous church with beautiful stained glass.
Then I got tired of the Duomo and decided to go for lunch. For the past couple of days, I'd gone to nicer trattoria-ish places. Today I wanted something quick and cheap, so I followed the advice of my guidebook and found a place near the Duomo. It made me super happy because the food (while not super amazing) was all of the things that I remember from coming to Italy when I was younger (friend zucchini flowers, polenta, etc. YUM!). I will likely go there again before I leave.
Still the line was too long, so I went to the Medici-Riccardi Palace (see, this day really was exhausting!! even writing about it I remember how long it was). This Palace used to be the home of the Medicis, then it was bought by the Riccardi family. Besides being a beautiful place, it has two works of note. One is Fra Fillipo Lippi's Madonna and Child (Sara and Seguin, I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was to see this!) and the Chapel of the Magi. The chapel was amazing. I've liked seeing the churches and the sculptures here, but I think this was the first time that I was just overwhelmed by how awesome the art was. The chapel is wall-to-wall this gorgeous work by Gozzoli showing all three Magi on their way to visit the baby Jesus. It was completely stunning and I stayed there for maybe half an hour.
Feeing refreshed by my awesome art experience, I finally braved the Duomo climb. Since it was late in the afternoon, the line with super short (success!) and the climb was not as bad and I had anticipated. The view from the top was so so so worth it that I'm totally glad that I made the effort. It was a gorgeous day and the late afternoon sun just made it all the better.
Here's a picture I took from the top showing the surrounding country. I wish that my camera had a panorama setting, because it would have been nice to get it all in one shot. I took short videos as well, but they take too long to upload.
After that I was pretty much done for. I went to a gelato place on the corner of the square and had my very first gelato here in Florence. It was wonderfully delicious and revived me enough to head back to where I'm staying. That night, I had been invited by the son of the family I'm living with to go to a friend's house for dinner. It was nice hanging out with actual Italians after all of my tourism, but it did make me miss friends back home (especially considering all of you have been posting pictures of RC parties and other Amherst events!).
Anyways, it was a long, tiring, but really satisfying day. I'm starting to finish up with a lot of the stuff that I had on my list to see in Florence. Hopefully the next week will be a little less harried and more relaxing, with day trips to the surrounding area. I'll post updates from today (Wednesday) soon!
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