First Day in Florence

At first I was going to limit this trip to just Rome, because I seem to have no trouble filling endless days with interesting things there. But pretty soon I decided that I just had to go to Florence. Because I love Florence. Plus, the side trip would give me an excuse to ride the train. And I love trains.

For me, Rome is power, civilization, spirituality, stone, grey, and the smell of church incense, human sweat, and pavement. Florence is grace, artistry, brick, pink and green stripes, the smell of leather and, sometimes, a gentle hint of the sewer.

This first glimpse of the Duomo (Florence's big Gothic cathedral and one of its claims to fame) always drops my heart rate and makes me feel like gravity is pulling on me a little bit more than usual.

What a feast for the eyes. See? Pink and green stripes. Compare the pedestrians with the church for a little size perspective.

Time for a lunch break: 1/4 Liter of wine and panna cotta with hot chocolate (you consume hot chocolate with a spoon here, it's the consistency of really runny pudding). Don't worry, Mom, I had more than wine and pudding for lunch.

Five minutes after lunch: a little digestion break in the sun. Soooo Happeeeee...

Ordinarily after such a lunch I would go home and lapse into a food coma. But that's not an option today so, hey, I hear it's 463 steps to the top of the Duomo. Let's go climb it!

It cost 8 Euros to climb the dome, but the view is priceless. (That "little" church that I'm looking out on is San Lorenzo, official church of the famous Medici family).

View of the Duomo's nave, the bell tower, and the square below.

When this dome was constructed, it was the largest self-supporting dome since the Pantheon (which, after all, has a hole in the top of it). People were a little bit nervous about it collapsing in on itself. Brunelleschi, the architect who designed the dome, conquered this challenge by building two domes, one inside the other, and laying the brickwork in an interlocking, herringbone pattern. When you climb the Duomo, you actually climb between the inner and outer domes and get to see the neat brickwork. Cool!

Another view of San Lorenzo from inside the dome

And finally, the Ponte Vecchio! Well, it's a bridge. It's lined with gold and silver shops. And there's a covered passageway across the top of it that the Medici princes could flee through if they were in peril. And, look! It's the Arno River!

Hmm, now what to do? Let's open up the old guidebook and get some ideas. Gee, how odd... it fell open right at the "Gelato" page.