Florence - Duomo

Tuesday we did school in the morning and then headed to tour the Duomo in the afternoon. We started our tour going underground to the crypt where we saw remnants of the past that have been uncovered in 4 levels, each for a separate time period, along with much of the history of Florence.

Heading up to the main floor of the Duomo, we learned that the lily is the flower of Florence. We also saw an interesting painting depicting Dante and The Divine Comedy, showing hell, purgatory, and heaven depicted as the city of Florence. We learned that Dante is considered the father of the Italian language as he wrote The Divine Comedy in Italian.

The Comedy Illuminating Florence by Domenico de Michelino

We were all in awe of the amazing fresco on the ceiling of the dome of the duomo. This was painted in 1579 in the octagon dome. The number eight is symbolic religiously as it took 6 days for God to create, on the seventh day He rested, and the eighth day symbolizes the last judgement, which is depicted in this ceiling fresco.

Beautiful fresco ceiling inside the dome depicts the Last Judgement

We climbed the staircase which led to the interior balcony and observed the amazing dome that Brunelleschi completed in 1436, as we also enjoyed a view across the city.  The unique history behind this dome is that in the late 12th Century, the people of Florence began building a magnificent cathedral around the idea of a dome that no one knew how to build, but that they believed could be figured out.  The people of Florence wanted a dome that would soar over the city and cover the 42m wide space they'd left for it in the construction, the problem was that to construct only the scaffolding for a structure such as this, there was not enough wood in all of Tuscany!  Filippo Brunelleschi was able to invent a way to build a self-supporting structure, that many years later remains the tallest building in all of Florence. The dome is far more massive up close than it appears from the ground and seeing it at this level adds to the marvel when looking at it later. This also gave us an interesting perspective to admire the pink, green and white marble used in its design.

Filippo Brunelleschi looking down

Kids in front of Brunelleschi's dome - still difficult to tell the enormity of it - the  dome
is 118m tall and the gold ball at its peak is 3m across

When our tour ended we climbed up to the bell tower for another view of Florence and then ventured over to the museum where we learned more about the history and construction of the Duomo and saw some incredible artifacts from its history. One highlight of the museum was Ghiberti's original Gates of Paradise, depicting Biblical scenes from Creation to Solomon's reign. Another highlight was Michelangelo's unfinished Pieta, where he sculpted his own face under the hood of the Nicodemus figure, with the intent that it would decorate his tomb someday.

The original Gates of Paradise by Lorenzo Ghiberti

Michelangelo's unfinished Pieta with his own face under the hood of the Nicodemus figure

Afterwards we visited yet another paper-making and leather specialty store where our son purchased a leather journal and got his name stamped in gold-leaf on it. That evening Mom and Dad escaped for a very much needed date night.

Having his leather journal personalized