I woke up early to the sound of thunder around 5 am. I didn't feel rough seas in the night but there was a good thunderstorm as we docked in Livorno. I could see lighting bolts hit the ground through the window. We got up early and ate breakfast and got on our transfer bus. We took our rain jackets and it rained most of the way. In Florence it was still raining but we could see blue skies so we took a chance and left jackets on the bus. We had a short walk to Santa Croce and it was blue skies by the time we got there. -James
An iffy start to the day...
We headed straight to the Duomo and walked up a street that ended at the altar end of the church so as we came around the corner we could see the dome end come into view. It's really unique to sneak up on it like this. A lot of big churches are at the top of the hill or visible from far away. The Duomo is enormous but buried in the middle of the city. Once you are down in the streets you might not see it.
The altar end has small domes around the side that you see first. These are bigger than the dome in the Rose Church in Corsica. Covered in white, green, and pink marble these small domes are impressive enough and Brady thought the first of these he saw was the Duomo and let out a "whoaa..." Keep in mind these are probably about 1/5 scale of the actual dome, so when he took a few more steps around the corner I don't think he really knew what to think! -James
We went straight to the Duomo from there and found two lines. Despite asking and reading signs and already reading the tour books, we stayed in the wrong line. We went inside then realized that we needed to be in a different line to climb the dome.
This was so frustrating, and James and I were really torn. Climbing up into the dome was one of the highlights of our previous trip, but we also knew it would meant sacrificing seeing most everything else in Florence in our extremely limited time. We decided to go for it and divided to conquer - James went to buy the tickets and the kids and I hustled out to get in line.
(mostly) patiently waiting...
James and I took turns waiting in lines so the other could take the boys to explore around the church a bit.
All the time in line gave us plenty of time to appreciate some of the amazing detail on ths church. The colors are all natural marble colors.
Each of the squares at the top had a different pattern:
We finally got in an did the dome climb. The kids were duly impressed, so I think it was worth it.
This is not an activity for the claustrophobic! I don't consider myself claustrophobic at all, but sometimes I realize that the earthquake did more of a number on me than I usually care to admit. It took a lot of self-control to suppress the "what if" thoughts while I was crammed in the dome with a crowd of other people and only 1-way access...
The painting inside the dome is quite graphic and really very disturbing. Jesus is supposedly doing a thumbs up / thumbs down kind of thing and, trust me, you don't want to find yourself on the thumbs down side!
Views from the cupola:
When they started building Santa Maria del Fiore (now commonly called the Duomo), they didn't know how to build the dome itself. With true Renaissance optimism they shoved that concern aside, assuming they'd figure it out when the time came, and spent over 100 years from 1296 to 1418 building the church itself. In 1418, they held a contest to see who could come up with a plan for completing the dome. Brunelleschi won over his rival Ghiberti, and the dome was completed in 1436. There is so much fascinating history surrounding this building and the Renaissance in Florence that you could easily fill several books!
We had to hoof it to the Uffizi after the Duomo to meet Mom and Dad. We did the fastest tour ever, but thankfully the kids had been studying up. - James
A quick picture of the replica David on the way to the Uffizi:
I had checked an Uffizi book out from the library. On the way up and back from Ohio, I'd read about one of the paintings from an Uffizi walking tour and then have the kids find the painting in the book. It wasn't a particularly in depth background, but I think it made everything make at least a little bit of sense once we got to the museum. The Uffizi is unique in that you can really focus on the evolution of Renaissance art. In the first rooms, the only topic of the art is biblical and the paintings are rather flat and drab. As you move through the rooms, you can see increasing variety in the work with the addition of ancient Greek and Roman characters as well as portraits of wealthy individuals. You can also easily see the trajectory towards more realistic painting and sculpture, better understanding of anatomy and the human form, and vibrant more lifelike colors.
Art went from these stark, rather ugly Marys ...
To a little more richness in color and dimension...
To a beautiful Marys with vibrant colors and lots of visual depth...
Just one of the many stunning ceilings in the Uffizi:
We walked out of the museum about 2:45 and had to be back at Sante Croce at 3:30. We still hadn't really seen the Arno or the Ponte Vecchio. It's pretty hard to get off the beaten path in this area of Florence, so we grabbed a couple of sandwiches and expensive (but huge!) gelatos as we walked from the Uffizi to Ponte Vecchio and along the river back to the meeting point.
We were the last group to arrive but we were right on time. We got back to the bus just as it started raining again. Literally within 30 seconds of Mom and Dad getting on the bus, the skies opened up. So we had the only sunny 6 hours in Florence that day.
Back on the boat we watched some of sailaway from the Crows Nest, and we lucked into yet another gorgeous end of the day.
Today we were in Livorno and took a bus to Florence and went to Santa Croce then from there we went to the Duomo and climbed 463 stairs to the top of the dome. The cupola is the top we were really high. Then we went to the Uffizi we saw lots of Madonnas over the ages it was pretty cool. Then we went to get gelatos and paninis. That lunch was good. Then we went to the Ponte Vecchio a famous bridge. Then we went back to the bus just in time. It started to downpour just as we got on the bus then we got back on the ship watched sailaway and ate dinner and went to bed.
Today we went to Florence, Italy and headed straight for the Duomo. We waited in a long but fast line to get in and the inside is gigantic! Then we waited in line to go up the 463 stairs to the cupola where you saw the whole city! Then you had to walk down another 463 stairs and then you got out. Then we walked to the Uffizi and Nana and Popsie got me a Barcelona FC jersey. Yay! We saw the Birth of Venus painting and Madonna and the Goldfinch and a bunch of cool paintings. Then we ate a late lunch of paninis and giant gelato cones. I slept on the way back and was tired when we got on the ship. We ate at the Italian restaurant at 8:00 and finished at 10:00. I'm now gonna go to sleep. -Brady
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