The Duomo

Since I have been here, I have yet to go inside or to the top of the Duomo. I have walked around it a few times, sat on the front steps, and I've been in the Baptistery, but not the Duomo. Today, I decided I am going. I told Matt I was going and he decided, so long with studio.

We took the bus to the downtown and walked to the Duomo. Since it is Wednesday and not many tourists, there was no line and we walked right in and climbed to the top of Brunelleschi's dome. Climbing up through the dome was pretty claustrophobic. It consists of two shelled layers of brick, the stairs were between them. The dome was enormous and incredible. The views of Florence were great and there were only about 10 people up the whole time. I spent maybe an hour to two checking out the views of Florence of where I have been and haven't. The painting on the underside of the dome was very graphic and freaky at moments with their depictions of hell. The church was absolutely enormous. It was hard to actually understand the scale of it.

When we go to St. Peters in Rome this weekend I plan to climb to the top of that dome. That's why I went today, because I want to compare Michelangelo and Brunelleschi. They say the Florence church can fit inside of St. Peters, not the dome though.