Florence Duomo

Florence is an Italian city full of works of art. Michaelangelo's statue of David is just one of many statues to be seen here, though the original is now indoors in a museum whilst a replica stands outside. The city's cathedral or basilica is Il Duomo Officially, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (...of Saint Mary of the Flowers).

This is the impressive facade of Il Duomo. It has one of the most impressive domes of the medieval world. A church was first consecrated here by St Ambrose of Milan in the year 393 CE. This ancient structure, added to, damaged and repaired no doubt several times, needed replacing entirely by the late 1200s. Building commenced on September 9 1296 and was to last another 170 years, interrupted or set back at times by earthquakes, various project managers growing old and dying and a small matter called the Black Death in 1348.

The facade is relatively new. Almost all of Florence seems to be constructed of white, green and red marble and the present facade was added only in 1876/87.

The original facade had never been finished, never having gotten above the lower portion of the basilica and by the Renaissance was very old-fashioned in appearance. It was pulled down in 1587-88 and the front of the basilica remained bare for the next 300 years.

Some say it is excessively decorated. We just thought it was excessively dirty. It was in dire need of a good wash and brush up.

The guide took an incredible 3/4 hours to tell us all this, adding many names and dates that meant absolutely nothing to me and, to judge from the intense boredom on the face of our fellow travellers, to no one else either. If you were a scholar of Italian artists and architects it may have been interesting...

We were, however, stuck in the queue to go in! Whilst outside we caught a glimpse of the dome. This is on an octagonal supporting tower and was an architectural marvel for its time. The laws of Florence forbade the use of any external buttresses simply because their enemies in central Italy used them as an architectural tool. A bit like an army refusing to use guns because that's what their enemy was using... Instead it had to be supported from the inside with an eight-sided rail of concrete with a chain embedded. At least that was the idea - magnetic examination has failed to find any evidence of the chain. Either it doesn't exist or it is buried very deep within the concrete.

Once inside we could see up into the interior of the dome. The figures were painted elongated so that they appear in the correct perspective when viewed from below. It doesn't look that big from below but it's a long way up to it! In fact the painting covers a massive 3600 square metres and took 11 years to complete. The original artist Giorgio Vasari started in 1568 and then selfishly died in 1574, leaving Federico Zuccari and a few friends to finish it off.

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