Our tour started here, at this place. Of course I don’t remember it’s name, but I can tell you that it’s an important peice of architectural history.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate history–I do. I love history. It’s just that I don’t like to memorize facts. It seems to me that memorization wastes good brain-space. I like to relate to something before I admit it into my psyche.
Take, for example, the church below. This is one of the most interesting churches I saw in all of Florence (ok, I only saw four), and I didn’t even go inside…. Well, actually, I only went inside one church: the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore…..
ANYWAY, this is the front of the Basilica di San Lorenzo, and the story behind its rough-looking facade is what made it so interesting to me. Pope Leo X (a Medici) commissioned Michelangelo to design a beautiful, white marble facade for this church, which was very important to his family. But before construction began, the pope abruptly cancelled the commission. One theory is that the Medici family fell out of power, and that the ensuing turmoil made it very difficult for the Medicis to resume the project. The facade was never completed, and to this day it remains evidence of their fall from power.
The facade reminded me of the unfinished Duomo di Siena. It’s the kind of place that can give you a valuable glimpse into the true inner workings of both a building and a society. It seems frozen in time, in mid-action.
All around the Basilica are carts and shops hawking leather goods. It smelled awesome. I wish I had money. I thought the shops were cool because they were subterranean. In the picture below, you can see the strangely-shaped orange ceiling of one of the shops behind the girl who is running up the stairs. The ceiling actually undulates!
Many of the oldest buildings in Florence are subtly fenced off from the street and sidewalk, probably to prevent deterioration. The picture below shows a small detail on the façade of the Orsanmichele. I was amazed at how much the elements wore the stone down over time. I’m sure people touching it would just cause further erosion.
Nothing frames a scene like a Vespa
Here is a picture of some tourists taking a picture of us. See them under the arches on the bridge?
After the initial bataan-tourist-march through Florence, I was able to break away from the main group along with Carlos, Joel, and Alex. It was nice to hang out with some laid-back people. I had a good time with them.
You can kind of see them in the two pictures below. I was trying to frame the view with bicycles, but bicycles just don’t frame a scene like a Vespa.
We went to see the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore and Brunelleschi’s dome. Awesome story, and an engineering masterpiece. You should read about it.
The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore falls into the same awe-inspiring category as the Pantheon. It’s not quite as sinister-looking, but it’s absolutely massive….. I found the picture below on the web.
We climbed to the viewing platform at the tippy-top of the dome.
There are all manner of stairs in the Basilica. 463 steps of all shapes and sizes.
There was graffiti all over the place in Italy. Sometimes I felt like I’d been transported back to the bathroom of the Brunswick Square Mall circa 1985.
My favorite graffiti in the Basilica –perhaps in all of Italy– was written on one of the 463 steps leading to the top of Brunelleschi’s dome. It read: “Fuck steps.”
Twice during the climb, we needed to walk along a partially-enclosed catwalk that hugged the inside of the dome.
It is very high up. This is the view down to the people below.
Here’s a close-up of the people:
In the dome, we were surrounded by frescoes of Heaven and Hell.
This was interesting. A tilted door and what looked like a washing-machine beyond it.
The view from the top of the dome was amazing:
Carlos and Joel…..
Honestly, Alex, why couldn’t you have just sat still. It could have been such a good picture.
I enjoyed the view.
A shot through one of the portals on the way back down:
Poor guys. They felt tired after the climb.
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