Florence - Part 1

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Today we went to Florence and Pisa. It was a beautiful day in Tuscany - the region or state in Italy - sunny and warm, just like you would expect in that part of Italy. Our tour guide, Angelo, is taught us a little Italian as we drove the hour or more to Florence. It was another day where we walked for hours; from the time we got off the bus until we got back on to go to Pisa - about 4-5 hours. He was a very good guide in that he knew the history of the city, the monuments, the churches, even the old markets. We went to the Cathedral of Florence (or Duomo) and the Baptistery - not in most them, but to them. We felt like we were in Fast Forward all day long. Angelo said the interesting part of each was the outside and the history of the structure; he told us the inside of the cathedral was pretty plain, but I think we missed some good stuff. Guess you can’t see everything in 8 hours.
The Baptistery is octagonal and was built in the 11th and 12th century to honor St. John the Baptist. The outside walls of the Baptistery are covered with covered with green and white marble, but the doors are the wonderful part, especially the east door. The gilded bronze doors, designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti are so magnificent that Michelangelo considered them to be “The Gates of Paradise”. The panels of the door helped to launch the Renaissance, representing the first true example of dimension, depth and proportion in art.
Ghiberti beat out Brunelleschi in a famous competition to build Il Duomo (Catterdrale di Santa Maria del Fiore), next door to the Baptistery. The Dome of the cathedral was an architectural wonder in its time and even now. The committee, who awarded the contest for the construction to Ghiberti, was worried that he couldn’t really do the job, so they put in Brunelleschi in as a “consultant”. Ghiberti finally got disgusted with Brunelleschi and “called in sick” for years; and the construction halted because Brunelleschi didn’t have a clue how to build the dome. Finally Brunelleschi got fired and Ghiberti came back to work and finished the dome itself. You can get to the top of the Dome, by climbing 463 steps - we didn’t, but only because our guide said we didn’t have time - like we would have done it anyway??
Construction continued on the cathedral from 1294 to 1436. Once the inside of the cathedral was done, the people of Florence weren’t sure how to finish the façade so they waited a while - like 600 years. It wasn’t “completed” until the 19th century when the multicolored marble façade, which looked like candy canes, was added. There was and still is huge controversy, because the people of Florence are much more “plain” and the façade is almost tacky-looking. It certainly is different from any other church we have ever seen.
There is a matching bell tower, Campanile di Giotto with the same marble design, built by Giotto, Andrea Pisano and Francesco Talenti. Its bells are beautiful to hear, and are called Grossa, Beona, Completa, Cheirica and Suqilla (or Big, Tipsy, Finished, Priestling and Shrieker). There are another 414 steps to get to the top of the bell tower. We didn’t climb it, either.

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Photos

Florence
Baptistery

Florence
The magnificent doors

Florence
Cathedral - Duomo - bell tower and Ken