Santa Maria del Fiore

Bubbling with excitement  in anticipation of finally arriving in Florence, finally seeing the dome!,we arrived in the city by train  from Pisa, disembarking at the Novella Station. As the train makes its way to the station, the icon of Florence, Brunelleschi's beautiful dome covering the Santa Maria del Fiore can be spotted in the distance, hoverng above the terracotta rooftops. Be warned!, it's not just eye candy - it takes your breath away too.

During a stay in Florence there's alot to be seen and experienced, but as was the case for me, everyday had to start with a visit to del Fiore (fortunatley bus  22 from the Hotel we stayed at , happened to have its end station here) to breath in the atmosphere of the giant symbol of the renaissance...still standing today 500 years after its completion.

Santa Maria del Fiori as seen from Palazzo Vecchio

Although it is the fourth largest Cathedral in Europe, it does in fact reache "only" 116 m (380.58 ft)   not much in comparison to the Cologne Cathedral at 157 m (515 ft) or the Eiffel tower in Paris which reaches 324.00 m (1,063 ft), nonetheless it  is taller than Big Ben in London 316' (96 m) and since the buildings in its vicinity were lowered at the  time of its construction to make it stand out more, it does stand out quite a lot. However it's more impressive due to it's beauty in construction than it's height or it's volume. The Dome spans  38 meters (125 ft) across and reaches 33 meters (108 Feet) above the drum 8tambour), it's construction was only possible by coming up with a series for truthful

discoveries in construction - the real secret to it's magnificence. As John Keats wrote in Ode to a Grecian Urn,“  …that which is true is beautiful, that which is beautiful must be true”.

Santa Maria Del Fiori is not just the physical reference point of Florence, but it's very conception in the 13th century, not knowing the roadmap of its final  completion in the 15th century (the golden sphere with its cross on top was only added in 1600), represent a fantastic optimism in the improved quality of the next generations of citizens to come who were to complete it. It sort of ends with Michelangelo climbing it to inspect it's construction to see if he could surpass it's wonder for the contract of the construction of the St. Peters Cathedral in Rome - he concluded he could not, so Brunelleschi's Dome stands today as a reference point of not just Florence, but the renaissance itself and a symbol of the science of architecture.

Inside the Dome

When looking at the biblical paintings by Vasari inside the you get a real sensation of just how big the dome is, especially from standing at the raling. Remember there were no motorized engines as we know them today, only a oxe-driven wooden one.

Santa Maria Del Fiori, with Gioto Belltower in the front.

Walking around the Cathedral is nice and quiet these days, because the car-traffic has been banned. The vibration of the daily traffic was causing the cathedral to be destabilized.