Day 20 - The Duomo

Today has been my favorite day in Florence thus far and it is only half way over! (Remember, I am still 7 hours ahead of everyone in the states!) We woke up early to head straight to La Duomo (The Dome). One of the books we were required to read for the trip was Brunelleschi's Dome which portrays the building of Santa Maria del Fiore which florentine's call La Duomo. Flippo Brunelleschi was a well known artist at the time and was hired to build the massive dome and cupola after winning a competition on just how to build it. The coolest part about this dome is that Brunelleschi built the entire thing without centering. What is centering? It is the elaborate wooden scaffolding that all other domes before this one used to hold the structure in place until the dome was complete and mortar had cured allowing it to be self-supporting. Some thought Brunelleschi was an idiot however, the Opera del Duomo (governing body overseeing the dome's construction) found his methods ingenious. So low and behold, La Duomo:

You can see a small bit of the outside view of La Duomo in the left corner:

Yes, that facade is made entirely of marble. And we thought we had impressive marble in Sylacauga...

Take a look at the images of hell that circles the bottom of the interior dome:

Can you imagine that kind of scene in Trinity Presbyterian Opelika or FPC Sylacauga? Yeah, me either.

We climbed all the way to the top cupola. I am not sure on the number of stairs but I am seriously over spiral stair cases... 

You all may be seriously tired of the doors and ceilings I post on here but I honestly cannot get enough of them. American's really need to get with ornate ceilings and doors.

Lorenzo Ghiberti's bronze doors on The Baptistery of San Giovanni. Michelangelo described these doors as "Paradise". They are now called The Doors of Paradise.

Ponte Vecchio across the Arno River:

There are about three roads full of outdoor shops with all sorts of leather things, scarves, jewelry and knickknacks. Slap in the middle of all that is an indoor food market. Of course this was my favorite part of the market.

I will hate to leave Florence tomorrow. Life is pretty sweet here. Tomorrow, we are headed to Venice and I am pretty excited about that. Why couldn't we take a few days off London and Paris to stay in Barcelona, Rapallo, Florence and Venice a little longer Anoop?

Thank you everyone who is religiously reading my blog! It helps me stay on top of it! 

I think for the rest of the afternoon, I will catch up on some reading, maybe take a nap and enjoy some quite time.