Florence!!!

Looking down on the nave of Santa Maria del Fiore: they all look so helpless and innocent from up here...

This is what the fresco on the ceiling of the dome looks like up close.



Last year I rented a PBS documentary about the Medici Family (a couple times, actually, it was a thriller!). It included a section about Brunelleschi and the fantastic dome he built for the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence. Why is it so special? Well, for one thing, it's huge! For another, it was a huge moment in Renaissance architecture since, apparently, the technique for building a self-supporting dome got lost during the Middle Ages. Yep. Way to go, Western Society. So poor Brunelleschi had to reinvent the wheel so to speak.
Now, tourists can climb to the top of the dome, which means you get to climb in between the outer and inner shells of the dome just like Brunelleschi's construction crew did. Cool!

Incidentally, I now own a copy of the Medici documentary, thanks to a snaffu with Netflix. So when I get back home, you can all come over and watch it with me! We'll have popcorn, Vanilla Coke, and waffles with peanut butter. Yippee!

above left: stairs inside the dome; right: herringbone brick pattern-nifty!