This morning we climbed up the 463 steps to the top of the dome of the cathedral, where we could see spectacular views of Florence. The steps are quite steep in places and very narrow - I thought it was one way until we headed downwards, and we ran into loads of people climbing up! Half way up you come out of the stairwell right under the dome itself, making it much easier to see the beautiful paintings close up. The dome was designed and built by Filippo Brunelleschi who completed it in only 16 years (the cathedral was started in 1296, and the apses were finished in the early 1400s, so 16 years to do the dome was pretty fast!). He used more than 4 million bricks in its design.

For 'aesthetic' reasons, the dome had to be designed so that it did not have flying buttresses to keep it from spreading and falling under its own weight, and that created a major construction challenge in those days . The city did not want flying buttresses because Florence's enemies in the North used buttresses! We found out today that Brunelleschi and Ghiberti both competed to design the north doors of the baptistery, and when Ghiberti won the competition, Brunelleschi went to Rome to study the Pantheon dome, so that he could design the dome for the Duomo in Florence. So in this case, it was a stroke of luck that he lost the competition for the doors, given how beautiful the dome is! He apparently did not use any scaffolding when he constructed the dome, which is a serious engineering feat.

After climbing up the Dome, we visited the inside of the Baptistery (built in the 1100s) again ( we visited it last year) and once again stood in amazement. It is a domed space, with the entire ceiling a giant mosaic of great beauty. There is a giant figure of Christ in the middle, with images of Hell on one side (with the devil munching up naughty people) and Heaven on the other side complete with saints and the righteous supposedly having more fun than those on the side of Hell ! I took a video and even though it's pretty poor quality, you can get an idea of the scale of the mosaics .

Just because we hadn't climbed enough stairs, we then climbed up the 410 steps inside Giotto's beautiful Campanile (bell tower). This tower overlooks the dome of the cathedral so you get a great view of the lantern (which is the bit on the top of the dome that looks like a giant lantern!) as well as the gold orb and cross (which sits on top of the lantern).

We also visited the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, which is another Medici Palace with huge stones set in walls, a large porticoed courtyard and loggia, great furniture, as well as frescoes covering a chapel, and a fair bit of glitter and mirrors in the Galleria. The Palace was built by Michelozzo for Cosimo the Elder. He also designed the Chapel which has a fabulous fresco, the Procession of the Magi, by Benozzo Gozzoli. Every time we see the marble in walls (doesn't matter whether it's on cathedrals or palaces or chapels....) we are blown away at how intricate the designs are, and can't imagine how someone has cut out the marble into such tiny patterns. Breathtaking!

Finally, found another couple of great road-signs.