Thursday March 19th, we started our day walking across the river Arno from our rented apartment to the downtown area.
We had a beautiful view of Ponte Vecchio--the old bridge.
These were some of the sights along our path. It seemed like every turn and every street was picture-worthy. If you get past the dirty streets, and look upwards, it really is beautiful and charming.
We were looking for a place to have breakfast and this store caught our eye: Eataly--say it out loud and you'll hear it. We walked through the story--they had all kinds of food to buy, all kinds of kitchen utensils, as well as a bakery and food counter. We ordered breakfast--a croissant filled with pear ice cream-- and ate it on the outside patio.
Next we bought our Firenze Pass card--it gave us admittance into museums, churches and all kinds of places here in Florence, or Firenze as they call it. Then we were in the heart of Florence, in Piazza di San Giovanni where the famous duomo is located.
We first went inside the large octagonal baptistery right next to the cathedral. The ceiling was beautiful and all kinds of scripture and apostolic events and stories depicted in mosaic on it. Pictures really don't do it justice. We really loved looking up at the artwork and finding stories we recognized. But after awhile, our necks began to hurt.
There are doors on the north and east side of the building. The east doors are called the Gates of Paradise by artist Lorenzo Ghiberti. They depict scenes from the Old Testament.
It's amazing to know that this artwork was done so long ago and still are here for us to enjoy!
Next we went inside the cathedral.
Glenn, sitting on a little shelf on the exterior of the building.
Again, my pictures can't capture the beautiful artwork and amazing craftsmanship that went into this old and beautiful building.
I was amazed at the ability of the artist, Federico Zuccari, to paint the men looking as if their feet were coming out of the painting, actually hanging off the wall! I am not artistic and don't have that ability at all and I am always amazed at people's ability to make something look so lifelike and realistic! The ceiling certainly was an interesting display of art!
We walked around the exterior of the cathedral again, going back in line to climb inside the duomo. I wanted to take this picture to show how much better it looks after being cleaned. I wonder how often they have to do that. I imagine with all the exhaust from cars and the smoking and just grime, it needs to happen a lot. Isn't that such a difference though? If I didn't see the cleaned side, I would think the cathedral had dark/black stones instead of white ones!
We had to wait awhile before we got to start our climb. We passed the time playing "My Father had a grocery store". It was fun. I guessed Cheryl's every time--we were on the same wavelength or something!
When we had been inside the cathedral, I noticed a little walkway up inside the duomo. When we started climbing, I thought that that was just where we were going to. So when we got up there, I thought it was pretty amazing. I don't like heights though and it was only a small walkway with some plastic keeping us from falling. But I did enjoy the closer view of the painted duomo.
After we walked through it, I thought we would be heading down. But we didn't. We kept climbing. Oh, maybe we are going to the upper walkway that I noticed from the lower one. Okay.
But we kept climbing and climbing and climbing. No way we were just going to the upper walkway--so where we were going?! The next thing I knew we were OUTSIDE, on the VERY TOP of the duomo!! I really didn't know we were going that high! Glenn was such a trooper and climbed up each step. We counted over 500, but Cheryl's guidebook said something like 460 or so. Either way, it was a lot of steps! And we were very high!
We had great views of the city from up there! It was amazing!!
I had forgotten to take a picture while climbing, but this showed the narrow and steep steps that we climbed.
Upon coming out of the cathedral, we had a great view of the bell tower that is adjacent to the building. Our Firenze pass included going inside and climbing to the top of that as well. But we had just climbed to the top of the duomo and it was taller and therefore we figured we would've had about the same view--except we would've seen the top of the duomo better. Oh well, we didn't make it and that's okay.
After all that climbing, we needed some water and something to eat. Just across the square and across from where we ate breakfast, we got some water and a few pastries to share. Glenn loved the giant donuts.
We thought the money wall behind us was pretty cool. It was fun seeing money from all over the world!
After that we walked to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, or the Medici Palace. It was built between 1444 and 1484. Even though I've seen old buildings, it still amazes me that all over Europe there are buildings this old still standing and being used!
I didn't take many pictures inside the museum, but I did take a few. The Medici family is very famous in Florence and was the main family for many, many years.
Then we walked down to the Orsan Michele Church and Museum.
This church was originally built as a grain market in 1337, but as later converted into a church as a chapel used for the craft and trade guilds in Florence. The guilds were charged by the city to commission statues of their patron saints to decorate the exterior of the building.
This was called Four Crowned Martyrs and represented the wood and stone workers.
This was Saint Mark, carved by Donatello, and represented the linen-weavers and peddlers.
Inside the church was a beautiful tabernacle done in the Gothic style.
Then we walked to Piazza della Signoria. We saw the Loggia dei Lanzi--the outdoor art gallery. It has several famous statues, but most of them really didn't have the best titles/theme being shown, so I didn't take pictures. But things like rape and cutting off of heads...fine to look at once, but I don't need a picture of it. :D
Also in that square is the Palazzo Vecchio, or the Old Palace. It is now the town hall of Florence. It also houses a museum. We didn't go inside the museum that day, but did later on.
We did go into one more museum--the Galileo Museum.
We thought Glenn would enjoy that, and he did. This museum houses all kinds of scientific instruments and things used throughout history. The most interesting thing to me was Galileo's finger. Yup, I wrote that right. They had his finger! Kind of gross, but kind of cool at the same time.
Then we walked along the River Arno to the Ponte Vecchio. We walked along the bridge and saw the shops. They are too expensive to even look at, but it was interesting to walk through.
And that was our first full day in Florence!
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