The Duomo

Number two - the Duomo (cathedral and it's famous dome). Won't bore you with details but the story behind it is pretty interesting. They started the cathedral without knowing how to actually build the dome. The wool merchants' guild held a competition to find someone to figure out how to build the structure by posing the problem of making an egg stand upright on marble. The winner was Bruneschelli (who was actually a goldsmith, not an architect). He kept it secret so no one else knew how he was building the dome. Also there wouldn't have been enough wood in all of Tuscany for the scaffolding so he came up with newer, better styles of scaffolding. Clever guy!

Got our tickets and got in line - again wasn't really long because our tickets were for the 4pm slot so was fine. Inside was nice in the brief glimpses we got. Then it was up a fair few narrow stairs to come out inside the dome and see the impressive frescoes and stained glass windows. Followed by more stairs (very narrow and required Wade to stoop in parts - Radi had no problems) and finally we made it out to the top of the dome.

Amazing. The views over Florence were stunning. Sunny day (was warmer than it has been) and just great views from being up so high, made the experience awesome.

Also visited the Baptistry - a smaller eight sided dome like church behind the main cathedral. Also very impressive looking up at the painted frescoes. Some of the images were a tad terrifying (eg. the devil with a half-eaten man sticking out its mouth). The rest was beautiful though - especially the depictions of the angels.

Home time and got some average takeaway pizza. And some nice dessert from a bakery.Read more