A Visit to Florence

On our way to Rome, we stopped in a city in Tuscany: Florence, home of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. During our time in Florence, I had three "wow" moments. 

The first happened as we were walking through the shaded streets of the city and came around a corner. In an open square, a huge marble cathedral soared above me. With a dome shaped steeple, white and green marble siding, and at least a hundred feet of height, it was amazing. On closer inspection, I realized it was meticulously carved with little scenes, people, and creatures from the Bible. The facade was amazing. Seeing it was the most dramatic "wow" moment. 

The second moment was also coming around a corner, but this time in an art museum. After seeing what seemed like one hundred Madonna With Child paintings, I was hoping the next room would contain something new. I was not disappointed. A series of small statues by Michelangelo led up to a huge figure, David. He was right there. The nearly perfect statue dominated the hall, drawing the eye. 

The final wow moment was in a museum about the cathedral. A video described the architectural complications of the massive dome. It was amazing to learn about the checks, balances, and weight distribution techniques throughout the structure. I am no architect, but I could still see the problems a massive dome might cause to a structure over hundreds of years, and yet the Duomo still stands, in all of its wow-inspiring glory.

There was one additional runner-up wow moment. It came while visiting the da Vinci museum. Looking at all the models made from the pictures in his codex, it struck me how smart this guy really was. He had invented flying machines that work with modern materials, automatons that were used to entertain nobles, and devices whose designs are still in use today. His understanding and mastery of human anatomy, as demonstrated in the Vitruvian Man, helped not just physicians but artists as well. He was also a master in another art, painting one of the most famous paintings, the Mona Lisa. To top it off he was the tactician for the defense of a city, a battle he helped win.

Here is a picture summary of our day in Florence. Sit back and scroll through the pictures and captions.

This image barely captures a tiny portion of the facade. You can also just see the tiny detail. The door is the original, preserved from when the cathedral was built.

 Next to the cathedral was a baptistery, a massive circular building, and a huge tower, the same height as the dome. Here we are, cooling down after what felt like millions of stairs. From the top, there was a stunning view of terracotta roof tops. Roads ran between the buildings like trenches. The height was a touch more than I liked. I was also conscious that the balcony that ran around the top of the tower was one meter thick followed by open air.

 Here Jack stands on a grate over the huge drop through the top half of the interior of the tower. It took a lot to get me to walk across the grate. I hurried straight off.

 This bell is just sitting two thirds of the way up the tower. Behind it you can see the dome of the main Cathedral.

 Here Rabbit and I tiredly stop for a picture on the way down. The narrow staircase made the passage warm and uncomfortable. The windows on the side also showed the occasional great view.

Another view of the dome from the tower

 This is the interior of the dome. Starting at the bottom, it goes from hell to purgatory, then to heaven and finally to the saints watching over everything. The ceiling continued around all 360 degrees.

 After another long climb, we reached the top of the dome, where we had another great view of the city. In this picture, you can also see the tower, whose stairs we had climbed earlier.

 Jack takes advantage of the light breeze to cool off.

 Here is the famous David.

 While walking around the city, we came across this statue fountain of a boar. If you put a coin in its mouth and let the water of the fountain pull it into the gutter, you will have good luck for a year. Jack gives it a shot. We don't know if it works, but we'll find out through the next year!

Midway through the day, we stopped at this Italian sandwich shop. After slowly squeezing our way through the line, we reached the samples. First we tasted bread, then meats, and finally cheese. After hearing the stories of nine different foods, we selected the three that we wanted. After that we chose from zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, onions, and greens to go on our sandwich. Then a short visit to the toaster and our sandwich was served. It was very good and the sampling, which is a standard part of the deal, made it fun,

Here Jack is trying out one of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions in the da Vinci Museum. This converts a spinning motion into a hammering one. The museum had many "try it yourself" contraptions like this.

Here is a clock that da Vinci invented. It keeps okay time, though it occasionally skips a second.

An eight sided room of mirrors. It was designed so that you could view all sides of an object without moving. How it comes in useful for more than doing your hair or looking at your dress, I do not know. Even so, after spinning yourself around, you had trouble finding the door.

On our way back to the hotel, we passed the Dome. This gives you a sense of its grandeur.

Our visit to Florence was a very fun one. For many reasons, I liked it more than Rome. It had a bit of a cozy feel, there was good gelato, and there were interesting places to see.-Porter