Petersontravels

I noted that in my last post regarding The Duomo that I didn’t have any photos showing the actual dome!  The issue is when you are up close you can barely see it.  There are just too many buildings in the way, including the church itself.  Therefore, here is an excellent shot from an elevated spot on our last day in Florence.

After our visit to The Duomo we made our way to the Basilica of San Lorenzo, maybe a 5 minute walk.  This church is one of the oldest in Florence, consecrated in 393.  It was rebuilt in the Romanesque style from 1045 to 1060, and then further expanded upon by the Medici in the 1400’s.  I love the very plain exterior.

The first thing you see when you enter makes it obvious what family was THE major influence of the church.

You couldn’t sling a cat in any direction and not hit a Medici Coat of Arms.  Here is a shot looking towards the altar.

The dome above the altar is of course gorgeous.

Spread across the ceiling are more strategically placed Medici Coat of Arms.  Here is a closeup of one of them.  As I said, they are everywhere.

Off to the side of the main church is the Old Sacristy, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi (a name you should be familiar with by now) and built in 1419 via a commission from the Medici family.  Brunelleschi designed this in Renaissance style based on stringent geometric harmony (that’s straight from the brochure).  In the center of the sacristy (under a table?) is the tomb of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici (settle on a last name already!) and his wife.  Giovanni di Bicci was the founder of the Medici Bank and the catalyst of the families meteoric rise to fame in Tuscany!

So why is the tomb under a table?  My brief research suggests that this was for “maximizing prayers”.  The sacristy was the busiest part of the church, with every priest preparing for Mass laying out their vestments and liturgical items on the table, and maybe giving a quick prayer to Giovanni’s soul?  Makes you wonder what the hell he did to be so worried that he needed all of this extra priestly attention?!?

These circular discs on the floor next to the tomb are where Giovanni and his wife’s bodies actually lay.  The tomb is just a memorial monument, with a table.  The things you learn with a little research!  BTW, the employee stationed in this room knew none of this.  I know because I asked her.

Also inside the sacristy is this dome depicting the night sky over Florence on the 4th of July 1442, in a gold and lapis-lazuli fresco.

Here is a closeup of the very cool fresco, with pretty seashells in each corner.  Makes me marvel at how dark the sky was back then!  It’s nearly impossible to find a dark sky location these days, but back then it was literally everywhere!

We exited the Basilica and I lead our group around to the back side so we could enter the Medici Chapels (yet another ticket).  At first I was confused because I had read great things about the chapels, but just saw some basic crypt-like burial sites.  After exploring for a bit we happened upon the Cappella dei Principi, the mausoleum of the Medici Family.  What a sight to behold!

It’s hard to fathom how much time and money was spent in making such a work of art!  It was started in 1604 and mostly completed in 1640.

Work has continued on the chapel for years, with the flooring of semi-precious stone inlay “recently” completed in 1962.  That’s quite the ornate Coat of Arms!  You can distinctly see the fleur-de-lis here.

There are tombs of the various important Medici family members aligned along the walls.  It was interesting to note that there were two tombs with sculptures above them,  but they stopped making them as the cost of the sculptures was prohibitively high.  They still have space for the sculptures of course (see below right side).  The Medici were worried about money??

The chapel is an amazing sight.  Definitely put this on your bucket list if you come to Florence!

There were some restoration workers by the altar.  I didn’t notice the “no photos” sign until after I took the shot.  Not sure why it mattered!

Directly adjacent to the church is a leather market.  I think they have other stuff for sale as well, but it was pretty much all leather goods, and all overpriced and run by aggressive hagglers.  Not sure why this is a Florence thing?  Avoid.

On our last night with William and Myra we had dinner at a seafood place called “Golden View”, which sits right on the Arno River and in view of Ponte Vecchio Bridge.  It was pricey but good.  The best part was Kim ordered this plate of seafood and when Kim was done Myra pretty much decimated every shell to extract every last morsel of food!  It was something to behold!  If you are starving on a desert island Myra is somebody you want to have around!

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to William and Myra after dinner as they had an early morning flight.  We had one day left in Florence, and that is coming up!!

During our prior walking tour we saw the exterior of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which should just be called “The Duomo”. You can buy one ticket that includes the interior of the Duomo, the crypt and ruins under the Duomo, the Duomo Museum and the Baptistry.

We bought our tickets the day prior, and when we made our way back the next morning and I was surprised with how long the line was to get in, even if you had tickets. The issue was we had arrived right when The Duomo was opening. Once inside the first thing I saw was this odd looking clock. This is the Paolo Uccello Clock, a 15th century monumental timepiece.

It looks very cool, and covers a full 24 hours, which was quite unusual for something this old. The clock moves in a counter-clockwise direction, and the dial is calibrated to an ancient system called “Ora Italica”, where the 24th hour strikes at sunset. So the 24th hour is “Happy Hour”!

This is the view toward the altar after entering the church. I was surprised the interior wasn’t more ornate since the Medici were so involved in it’s completion.

This is a view of the famous Duomo (quite ornate), designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, an architect way ahead of his time. When this cathedral was first built in the 1300’s it was planned to have the largest dome in the world, but once the building was completed nobody knew how to build a dome of this size. The cathedral sat without a dome for decades!! They even held services here without a dome, unless it rained. The size was simply too large to use traditional wooden reinforcement since the dome would just be too heavy. Not a good plan by those in charge….much like high-speed rail in California!

It wasn’t until the Medici family held a bidding process in 1420 that Brunelleschi came forward with a plan that had never been tried before, to build a dome within a dome, the smaller one supporting the outer larger one. Both domes were built using a herringbone pattern to reinforce each subsequent layer. It took 16 years to complete, and remains the largest masonry vault in the world.

Under The Duomo is the Crypt of Santa Reparta, the site of an ancient basilica that was discovered during an archeological dig in 1972. The basilica under The Duomo stood for more than eight centuries, dating from the 4th century until it’s demolition in 1379.

The old mosaics of the old basilica’s floors are in very good shape! This mosaic lists the names of some old benefactors, long lost to history.

This mosaic of a peacock has some incredible detail considering how old it is!

Here is a closeup of the peacock mosaic.

I loved the stairs to nowhere here. Remember, the ceiling of the crypt is the floor of The Duomo.

There were numerous burial vaults found in the crypt.

This extremely old fresco was found on the wall of the crypt.

Surprisingly, Brunelleschi’s tomb was placed in the crypt after his death in 1446, only to be discovered in 1972, so the crypt was used even after the basilica’s demolition.

A plaque on the wall identifies the tomb. I would have thought they’d bury him under his famous dome!

Part 3 of our Duomo ticket was for the museum. This is where they have moved the original doors of the Baptistery of The Duomo, a masterpiece created by sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti between 1425 and 1452. He used gilded bronze covered in gold leaf. Michelangelo famously declared that these doors were the “Gates of Paradise”, and that name stuck.

The doors have amazing detail! The artist Ghiberti uses the newly discovered technique of linear perspective which depicts a realistic sense of depth and three-dimensional space. Perspective was discovered by Filippo Brunelleschi (of Duomo fame) around 1415-1420, just before the doors were started (dude was impressive!).

Yet another panel of gorgeous artwork on the door.

The museum has a mock-up of the front facade of The Duomo so you can see and identify all of the Mutant Teenage Ninja Turtles on display.

William pointed out this interesting “Madonna of the Glass Eyes” on the display.

Created around 1300-1305 by Arnolfo di Cambio, Mary has glass eyes to make her look more lifelike. Why they didn’t include any for baby Jesus is beyond me. Maybe because he’s a God?

Inside the museum is this rather creepy rendition of Mary Magdalene by Donatello, created in the mid 1400’s. Pretty sure I saw her on The Walking Dead…more than once!

The museum also has several reliquaries, objects of biblical historic significance. This one is supposed to be a jaw-bone of Saint John the Baptist.

As the Big Bad Wolf would say, “the better to chew you with”! Creepy!

This one was the finger of Saint John the Baptist. WTF? Poor dude is on display all over the place! Is that a middle finger?? I kinda hope so!

Ok, back to serious artwork. This is Michelangelo’s “Pieta”, sculpted in 1547-1555. I’ve gotta say if you come to Florence definitely include the Duomo Museum, despite the various body parts of poor Saint John.

One last shot from The Duomo compound, this one from the Baptistery (also included in the ticket). Unfortunately they are undergoing a lot of renovations, so this was really not worth the visit right now. The section of the ceiling in the photo is visible, and beautiful, but the really cool part of this building is the ceiling that is higher up and it was covered with construction materials. Oh well!

With that we made our way towards our next target, the Basilica di San Lorenzo, where the Medici reigned supreme. That is coming up. In the meantime, here is another wine window that William and I hit while the ladies were shopping!

As always, if you made it this far, you are likely the only one! Congrats!