Face to Face with the Renaissance

Santa Maria del Fiore 

Walking through Florence is like taking a walk through the Renaissance. The streets are cobbled, the doors are massive, the buildings are works of Renaissance art and the churches will take your breath away. On Saturday we took a three-hour train ride from Pordenone to Florence. Once we came out of the train station, it was only a short walk to some of the major sights of the city. We passed one dome on the way and wondered if it was the Duomo everyone was making such a fuss about. Even though it was very impressive, it wasn’t the mother of all Renaissance domes.

Just a short walk further and we came upon Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral. We literally let out an audible “wowwwwwww.” Its white, green and pink marble façade is almost unbelievable. Virtually every nook and cranny on the outside of the church has an ornate statue.  The front door is so massive, you could fit the body of a large jet airplane through it. The church towers above the surrounding buildings. There’s the main gothic cathedral and a matching bell tower and baptistery. Toward the back of the cathedral is the main dome called the Duomo. It was the first dome built since ancient Roman times. The dome is still just as amazing as it was hundreds of years ago.

We took a tour of the interior of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral and after climbing up the narrow stairs, we got up close and personal to the paintings on the inside of the dome. The fresco shows the levels of heaven and hell. At the top is Jesus surrounded by golden rays. And since the Medici family (one of the major ruling families of Florence) paid for the art, they are also pictured in heaven. We continued up the narrow, winding corridor stairs to the terraces on the top of the cathedral. From there we cold see all of Florence and it’s straight streets that followed the original Roman grid layout. The view from the top of the terrace was amazing, but it was about to get even more thrilling.

We climbed a total of more than 400 steps that lead to the very top of the Duomo. The corridor of steps we climbed was the space between the inner dome and the outer dome. The inner dome is what’s painted on the inside and the outer dome features the red clay tiles on the outside. Climbing the stairs was almost like caving because the walkway was so skinny. To make it even more crammed, the narrow corridor has to support two-way traffic—people climbing up the stairs and people climbing down the stairs.

From the top of the Renaissance dome, you can see the city and the surrounding hills of Tuscany. We were literally staring down the curve of the dome to the streets below. The church was built with a gaping hole in the middle because architects back then didn’t yet know how to construct the dome. Later, when they figured everything out, the dome was built. Its bricks are arranged in a herringbone pattern so it is self-supporting.

We also looked into the eyes of Renaissance man—the statue of David. The 17-foot tall marble statue looks surprisingly real except for its enlarged hands and feet. The original David is the main event in the Accademia museum. There is a copy of the statue in its original space in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. Many of the statues both at the Accademia museum and in front of the old palace have interesting expressions on their faces. Some of the even seem like they are looking right at you.

There is so much to see in Florence, you could probably stay there a week and look at everything. But for a day, just a stroll through the city and a peek inside its major sights still gives you the feeling of coming face to face with the Renaissance.

The painting on the inside of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral shows scenes from The Last Judgment.