Firenze: Birthplace of the Renaissance

Today was our first full day in Florence. We arrived in Florence yesterday (April 2) around 3pm and had to wait for our place to be cleaned before we could actually dump our bags off. To be fair we were told the room wouldn't be ready until 5pm, but we kind of hoped it might be ready earlier and foolishly didn't dump our stuff off in a locker at the train station. We camped out on a little patch of dirt with some trees and a few benches in the square outside our place. It actually wasn't too bad until it started dumping rain on us. I was in a Dönner shop (that's what they call Gyro in Italy) grabbing a snack when the rain hit. Libby acted quickly and grabbed the rain shields we've used one other time and hastily wrapped our bags in them. I didn't have a great opportunity to get my jacket so I dealt with the rain. Libby, on the other hand, was saved by her rain jacket. The rain continued sporadically for a few hours. There was thunder and lightning as well, to Libby's enjoyment.

Libby called the host (we'll pay the extra, Maria! :-) ) and they said we could stay in one of the restaurants. Many of the restaurants have little glass enclosed platforms outside their shops that you can sit in. It's like being outside but not. The glass around the platforms slides to one side when it's nice, and if it's not they close them up and turn on the heat lamps. We jumped in one and bought some drinks. I decided to buy a cocktail to make it worth it to the restaurant harboring us from the squall.

Today we went to the duomo museum that contains much of the more important sculpture and artwork that was originally in the actual duomo and on the facade, the duomo itself, the baptistry, San Lorenzo Bascilica, and the Medici-Riccardi Palace. We ate dinner, and capped our evening with a stroll to the Ponte Vecchio just after sundown, and strolled to Palazzo Vecchio before heading home.

After grabbing our pricey Fiernze cards we headed over to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. Most of the museums we've been to have been fairly busy. More busy than we are used to. This one was no different. The museum has the surviving original sculptures from the facade of the duomo, a decent amount of other art work, and relics (bones and other items linked to saints in fancy old boxes), the original bronze doors to the baptistry, and a section on Brunnelleschi, the engineering mind behind the dome-within-a-dome technique used to create the cupola (dome) of the duomo. 

The official name of the duomo is Santa Maria del Fiore. Before we went to the museum we noticed the line to the duomo was dishearteningly long, but by the time we got out of the museum it wasn't a problem at all. There was a line, but we got in without waiting much at all. The duomo is massive. Construction began September 9, 1296, but it took Cosimo de Medici (the finding and backing Filippo Brunneleschi to finish the dome beginning in 1418 and finishing in March 25, 1436 when it was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV.

The inside of the church is surprisingly unadorned. There aren't numerous grave references for the deceased who also able to be interred there. There are a few paintings, an a couple of sculptures attached to two of the main sequoia sized pillars toward the east end of the nave. The fresco on the inside of the dome is amazing, and headache inducing just because of how high it is and how much you want to keep looking. 

We are making the climb tomorrow at high noon! All the spots were sold out for today.

We went under the duomo to a maze of remains from older structures on the same spot and headed to the baptistry. 

The team responsible  for the mosaic in the baptistry is the same that did the inside of St. Marks in Venice. By seeing the pictures of it you'll get a tiny glimpse of what we saw there.

From the baptistry we walked to San Lorenzo's Bascilica. The first Christian church in Florence was built on the site San Lorenzo's resides. That church was consecrated in 393 C.E. The current building was rebuilt in the 1400s. Brunelleschi and Donatello both worked on it. The inside of the bascilica has a much brighter, airy feel. The columns are thinner because it's not as big as the duomo, and are made of grey sandstone. The inside is mostly grey and white with a number of chapels along the nave. They were working on restoring one of the pulpits that Donatello created which was interesting. There's a cloister and crypt where Cosimo the Elder (the one responsible for the getting Brunneleschi on board for the cupola of the duomo), and Donatello are interred. 

Finally we went to the Medici-Riccardi Palace. There are only a few rooms open to look at, and some of the building is still actually used for official city governmental stuff, but it was fun to look at "The Hunt" tapestries, and the rooms with fancy furniture, chandeliers, and ceiling frescoes. 

This is inside the market we are staying next to, Tommy wanted to try an Italian beer. 

After dinner we went to the Ponte Vecchio where we caught the last rays of light and some beautiful skies over the Arno river, double-backed to the Plazzo Vecchio (where official city governmental work has been done since before the Medici's were in power), and headed home. 

Tommy had pasta with boar meat in the sauce, I had minestrone soup