Duomo, Sweet Duomo.....

As if we hadn't already seen enough of amazing & gravity defying & delicate intricacies on grand scales, the Duomo is not surprisingly, of course, no exception.  I would love to return to that first moment we turned the corner to have this sight come into full view.... the feeling that instantly goes from the heart to the face; the smile that starts in one's eyes & goes to mouth gaping as it's all taken into account & it's hardly believable.  My pictures do little justice; both the camera & the photographer in a far lesser league than the mixture of Medieval & Renaissance men & women who endlessly toiled at creating such beauty on this magnificent scale.... though I wouldn't care to live without plumbing, nor in a time when poxes & plagues & infant mortality were common, but it would be amazing to live among people who believed architecture to be the highest form of beauty when used to build the house of God.

And what of the architecture that builds the heart and soul?  I couldn't help but think on this....  If buildings, which do not truly breathe & require years & years of such hard toiling labor, & even many deaths in the process, can be stunning outward expressions of man's creativity & beauty, how much more opportunity is there for creative & stunningly beautiful living... there is much to consider when comparisons are drawn between cathedrals as fixed constructs, and the cathedral of sorts that houses our heart & soul......living out the highest form of beauty in our daily lives....a walking, breathing cathedral that in its entirety is the house of God, and acts accordingly... this would indeed be a pleasing offering & sacrifice to our Lord.

This is a beautifully painted private chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio - it's not actually related to the Duomo picture above, & goes with a couple below, but I can't get the blog program to allow me to move it, so here it sits, out of order, but beautiful nonetheless!

We arrived the night before last on the evening train & eventually found our guest house on a busy, nocturnal corner in Florence.  More tired than we realized, it didn't take long to settle & sleep.  We returned to the train station the next morning to meet new friends - Rob & Mary Beth DiFrancesco, with their three boys.  Amazing how these things can work out; the DiFrancescos are from our Cherry Creek Pres. church & we share many friends in common.  They've moved to Italy for a year & just came from our same lake district area where they spent 2 months, & have now come to a waiting farmhouse in the Tuscan hills right outside of Florence; they will settle into Italian life there for the next 7 months.  They've been in Europe since June, & arrived here on Monday along with the 17 boxes they've been waiting for, for months!  We were thrilled to meet up with their family & share our first day of experiences in Florence.  Their oldest, Drew, is 10 & their twins, Austin & Avery are  6; perfect match up for the Wright boys.... they would have all been far more satisfied with the day had we simply gone to a park, or their farmhouse so they could "really" play to their heart's content.  Mom's explanation about only being in Florence for 2 days & that we needed to see all we could see was of no consolation to Camden, who was particularly exasperated with such a "typical adult" kind of comment!

We tried to ease the disappointment with gelato!

The "Gates of Paradise" open the way to the eastern side of the 11th century Baptistry which is a separate building next to the Duomo.  Again, these are far more intricate than my picture can capture.  Each square details a scene or multiple scenes from the Bible & did so in a way that astonished it's 15th century audience, including all his artistic contemporaries.  This kind of 3-dimensional art used techniques perfected by Lorenzo Ghiberti, who won a public contest in 1401 making his doors the most celebrated in Europe for all time.

The Campanile, meaning, The Tower,  was designed by Giotto in 1334, but he died before it was completed.   We would have loved the view of the Duomo that the tower offers from the top, but our schedule didn't allow both.  After the very steep climb up 463 steps to the top of the Duomo, & 463 steps down, it would have been tough to make it another 414 steep steps up & down, had we done the tower too.  No doubt worth it, but we needed to move on.  There's so much to see & 2 days isn't quite enough, so Lord willing, we'll return again some day!

We climbed the 463 steps to the top of the cathedral dome & were rewarded with a view that tops any I've seen.  The cathedral itself was begun in 1296, but they left the top open because although they knew they wanted a dome to finish it, they didn't have the engineering or technology to actually build it....until Brunelleschi came along.  In total, it took almost 150 years to complete the cathedral.  There was no supportive frame used in the dome's construction; it's 2 concentric domes built from red brick, according to my guidebook.  I don't know how high it is, but it is by far the highest I've been, on something other than a mountain or in a skyscraper.   

We actually began our day with a wonderful tour of the Palazzo Vecchio - the palace of the Medici families - that was catered especially to our kids - we were now a party of 10, with 6 children.  We went through a secret passage in the map room, that led us to meet up with the Duchess herself (Mrs. Cosimo d'Medici).  She found us a bit odd, & strangely dressed, but entertained us with information about her family & her times.  It was the perfect way to begin our time in Florence!

While learning in the map room, our guide, Florinda, helped the kids discover a key hole in one of the corners with hinges on the opposite side.... it was a secret passageway, which comes in very handy when you live in such a massive palace.

Side view of the cathedral & Duomo & a gorgeous sky - the sun came through the clouds to shine on the cross ever so slightly, at just the moment I clicked the camera.  It's one of my favorite shots for that reason.

This was my favorite painting in the private chapel of  Duchess Elenora; two mothers, adoring their children.  Of course, they are no ordinary mothers (& yet they are!), Mary & Elizabeth with no ordinary sons, (& they weren't!) John the Baptist & Christ.

Ponte Vecchio - built in 1345: the only bridge in Florence that Hitler & the retreating Germans did not destroy on their flight out of Italy at the close of WWII in 1944.  Throughout the 1400s however, & maybe earlier as well, it had housed the city's butcheries, but the stench was too rank for the likes of Fernando d' Medici, so he cleared them out in the 1500s & goldsmiths & other jewelers have been there ever since - and it IS an amazing spot for jewelry; the windows of every shop beckoned, but Chris pointed out that they were only calling out to the tourists behind me...sigh.

Gorgeous way to close a gorgeous day!!