Florence - The Duomo

Florence, unlike Rome, didn't really grow into an important city until the Renaissance, at which point exponential advances in art and architecture intermingled with Medici money to form the primary core of the city we know today.

The embodiment of this growth can be best understood by the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, better known as "The Duomo".  This massive church was begun in the late 13th century and finished in the mid 1400s.  It remains the dominant structure in Florence's skyline, is a primary tourist attraction, and has either been worked on, or displays the art of, prominent individuals of the Renaissance (Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello (of ninja turtle fame), etc).

As with the other billion tourists, we took a considerable number of photos of both the interior and the exterior.  I am going to split this into two different posts to make it easier to view.

EXTREME closeup!

Even the big guy makes an appearance!

Wait, what's that building in the front?!??

So that building in the front in the last picture?  That's the Battistero di San Giovanni (aka Baptistry of St. John).  It's where all Florentines where baptised until about the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries.  This includes people like Dante and Medici family members.

More importantly, it's also home to Ghiberti's gilded bronze doors that were dubbed by Michelangelo (also of TMNT) as "The Gates of Paradise".  This was home to more tourists per square inch than any other place I saw in Italy, but I was able to get a few photos in.

Making my approach. Notice tourists lurking in the shadows.

After being overrun by another tour group, we turned around to enter the Basilica and noticed the considerate amount of detail that went in to every part of the facade.

What a relief!

And then, we entered the Basilica (notice somebody's hands on the bottom-center for sense of scale).