A Month in Bella Italia

[Flutterby]

Great!

I assume one can't build new buildings in just any style there...no skyscrapers?

Ja, definitely no skyscrapers here!

What a beautiful city, Flutterby,

and soon I do have Dan Brown in my mind

Yes, you must definitely go!

[Flutterby]

Our next stop was Il Duomo. Entrance is free and every other time we had walked past, the queue went right around the cathedral but today it was relatively short so we decided to take advantage and go inside.

The front facade.

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The exterior of the Cathedral is quite spectacular but the inside it is actually rather plain, and doesn't look nearly as big as it does from the outside.

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One of many very fancy candelabras inside the cathedral.

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After a hundred years of construction, the structure was still missing its dome. The original model of the cathedral called for an octagonal dome higher and wider than any that had ever been built, with no external buttresses to keep it from spreading and falling under its own weight. Italian architects regarded Gothic flying buttresses as ugly makeshifts. Furthermore, the use of buttresses was forbidden in Florence, as the style was favored by central Italy's traditional enemies to the north. It was Brunelleschi who came up with the correct forumulation to build such a huge dome with no visible external supports. Up until the development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world and it still remains the largest brick dome ever constructed. The total height of the dome (including a lantern and copper ball) is 114.5 metres!

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[Lisbeth]

It is really spectacular

I never managed to get inside; the queue was always too long

A side entrance, where they let you in

Close up

It is not a wonder that it took a hundred years to build it.

[Richprins]

Aha! The great buttress war of 1681!

Looks pretty big to me!

I wonder what they spend on candles every day - or do the tourists buy them?

How did the Da Vinci code stuff work there again?

Flutts!

[Lisbeth]

It's a book/film (fantasy with some history thrown in)

[Richprins]

Ja, but this place was in the film?

[Lisbeth]

Which place

[Richprins]

Duomo!

[Lisbeth]

If you talk about Florence, the Duomo will always have an important role in whatever the subject is

[Pumbaa]

Once again breathtaking, Flutterby - Like the fancy candelabra