The Amazing Duomo

We slept well last night but in spite of that we decided to change rooms today because of our sink stopper was stuck down and clogging the drain.  We now have a nicer, larger, and quieter room in which we hope the sink stopper will work as needed.  This hotel is the only one that we did not schedule a hotel breakfast so we were on our own for breakfast.  We looked up a bakery near us and when we went outside, Bill was using his phone to try and get directions to one and all he had to do was look up and there were two across the street from the hotel.  Now we know where to go tomorrow because the pastries were very good.

We had a tour of the Duomo scheduled for 11 o'clock so we started off  walking in that direction.  It was getting warm but a breeze provided some natural air conditioning.  


On our way to the Duomo.

The Florence Duomo Cathedral opened on March 25, 1436 and is one of the largest churches in the world. It stands nearly 302 ft. high and 300 ft. wide and measures 502 ft. in length.  The walls are are covered in white, red and green marble.  No way we can we get a picture but here are a few.  It is amazingly beautiful and unique.

The bell tower is 278 ft. tall and 49 ft. in breath.



The Baptistry of St. John stands in front of the cathedral whose doors are bronze. Each scene on the panels depicts scenes from the Old Testament, including Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath, God's creation of Adam and Eve, Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac and Moses on the mountain, receiving God's commandments.  This door is called the Door to Paradise.  

Let's go inside.




The ceiling of the dome covers 38,750 sq. ft. of frescoes representing 700 characters of Christendom and its symbols. It represents one of the largest paintings un the history of art.

Another wonderful Italian lunch at a restaurant in the Piazza del Capitola.  Afterwards we walked around the inside of city hall and various streets on the way back to the hotel to relax in A/C. 

Going into City Hall.


City Hall ceilings.


Walking back to the hotel.

It's 3:30pm which means only one thing - time for gelato!  This time we went to Venchi chocolate and gelato shop well known in Italy.


Do we have to eat again?



Nice salad.



Temperature today was 90 and now (8pm) it's 80 with a mild breeze.



Before heading in, we decided to walk along the other side of the river on a beautiful night.

 


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