Italy > The Duomo of Florence

It was warm in the room last night. The window is open, and the fan was running overtime. There is no air conditioning. The bed and breakfast has eight rooms but only two showers. It’s always a bit of a gamble whether one is free. I’m lucky. At the showers, I also meet one of the staff members. In the kitchen, he prepares breakfast. Shortly after, he serves coffee, croissants, toast, and juice on a tray to our room. A fine, though somewhat sparse, breakfast. There is only one plate and one knife. We ask for an extra plate. Today, we want to visit the cathedral and the Accademia Gallery museum. Because the Accademia can often be busy, we decide to start there. When we step outside, we notice it’s going to be a bright day. The forecast for this afternoon is a maximum of thirty-six degrees Celsius. Between the houses and on the squares, the temperature can reach forty degrees. We walk through some streets we didn’t visit last night. The enormous cathedral can easily be used as a landmark. The church can be seen from many directions. The Accademia Gallery museum is next to the San Marco square. When we turn the corner, we see long lines waiting at the museum entrance. Everyone seems to have the same plan. Should we join the queue? Entry is by timed slots every fifteen minutes. The ten o’clock group is just going inside. At the ticket office, we learn that tickets are only available for 1:15 PM. We decide to reserve two tickets for that slot. First, we go to the cathedral. We only have to walk out of the museum street for this. Here we also encounter a long queue. When we ask if this is the line for the cathedral, they nod yes. We join the line, which is over a hundred meters long. Is it going to be that kind of day — queues everywhere? While waiting in line, we check online the options for visiting the baptistery and the dome. There are three different packages available. The dome is included only in the most extensive package. Although this package is valid for multiple days, the cathedral is closed tomorrow, Sunday. We decide to book only the package with the baptistery. This also includes the Crypt of Santa Reparata and the Opera museum. While we order the tickets, the line moves forward considerably. We pass the front of the cathedral. The façade is truly magnificent. Upon entering, everyone is checked by security. This takes most of the time. The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, as the cathedral is officially called, is the third largest church in the world, after St. Peter’s in Vatican City and St. Paul’s in London.

Italy - Construction of the Baptistery San Giovanni began in 1059

Yet the sober interior disappoints us somewhat. As special and beautiful as the cathedral is from the outside, inside it is decorated quite simply. The 91-meter-high dome, on which construction took 150 years in the fifteenth century, is beautifully painted. Beneath the cathedral lie the remains of earlier churches on this site. The oldest remnants of the Basilica of Santa Reparata date back to the first century BC. Our combined ticket also allows us to visit these excavations. A video clearly shows how the cathedral was built over the old walls. It’s a good thing we visited the crypt right away during our cathedral visit. At the special entrance for the crypt outside the church, there is also a long line. To our surprise, there is no queue at the Baptistery, the baptistery itself. We can enter immediately. The construction of the Baptistery of San Giovanni started in 1059, making it the oldest building on the square. Every year on March 21, children born in the past year were baptized here. The interior and ceiling of the baptistery are beautifully decorated and inlaid with gold. This is actually how I had imagined the cathedral as well. We take a moment to absorb the splendor. The combined ticket also includes admission to the Opera del Duomo Museum. Since the museum is open on Sundays, we decide to visit it tomorrow. In front of the museum, right behind the cathedral, we have a drink on a terrace. At the start of the afternoon, we walk back through the streets to the Accademia Gallery museum. On the way, we pass the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata. When we step inside, we find ourselves in a richly decorated church. The ceiling is inlaid with gold. We don’t have much time to enjoy this beautiful church. We are asked to leave because the church is closing. It will reopen at four o’clock, we are told.

Italy - The over fivemeterhigh statue was carved by Michelangelo Buonarroti from a single piece of marble in 1501

At the Accademia Gallery, it is still busy. We join the queue for the 1:15 PM slot. I estimate that over a hundred people are let in every quarter hour. This is noticeable inside too. It is very crowded. Most visitors come to see Michelangelo’s famous David. The statue, over five meters tall, was carved from a single block of marble by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1501. It is impressive to see this famous sculpture in real life. Originally, the statue stood on Piazza Vecchio. At the end of the nineteenth century, it was decided to place the statue in the museum to better protect it from the weather. A replica now stands on the square. The museum also holds beautiful paintings, mostly from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. When we walk outside again, the heat really strikes us. The air conditioning had made the museum comfortable. We stroll past the market stalls and enter the covered market building. On the first floor of the market hall, there are stalls everywhere and tables to eat at. We don’t find a nice combination of a free table and something we want to eat. Just outside the market hall, we order a sandwich on a terrace. It’s already three o’clock. We decide to skip the San Lorenzo church. The Medici family tombs are there. We have had enough culture for today.

Italy - On the bridge over the Arno stand silver and gold sellers

We walk towards the Arno River and cross the Ponte Vecchio back to the hotel. On the terrace where we sat yesterday, we order a beer. For the evening, we walk to the other side of the Arno River. Here are narrow streets with sometimes small terraces in the alleys. It all seems a bit less crowded. When we want to take a seat, it turns out the tables are only for a minimum of three people. We are allowed to sit at a small table in the very back. This doesn’t look nice, so we don’t do it. We walk past the Palazzo Pitti and come to the cozy Piazza San Felice. The square is filled with nice terraces. Here they don’t make a fuss about the number of people. A table set for four is quickly rearranged for two.