Handpicked experience · Florence
Florence, Italy
What priority entry actually buys, why the dome climb is not part of it, why the facade is Victorian, and the hooded brotherhood in the second museum.
Get to know one of the most revered cathedrals in Italy in this exciting tour of Florence Duomo.
Get a closer and more intimate look of this beauty when you join this one hour guided exploration.
No need to worry about the long lines as this tour also include skip-the-line access.
Priority entry to the cathedral, past the main queue
An hour of guided introduction to the building's architecture and history
Background on the artists behind its decoration, Vasari and Zuccari among them
Entry to the Museum of the Misericordia included
An hour at the cathedral in Florence with a guide, plus a small second museum most visitors have never heard of. The skip-the-line access you are buying is what makes it worth booking: the church itself admits visitors without a ticket, so what you are paying for is a guide and a route past the queue, which in season wraps around the building.
Not the dome climb. That is a separate timed reservation, sold months ahead, involving 463 steps and no lift, and it is the single most common disappointment attached to bookings like this one. The bell tower and the baptistery are separate too. If climbing is the reason you came to Florence, arrange it before you arrive.
People assume the polychrome marble facade is medieval. The medieval one was pulled down in 1587 and the cathedral stood with a bare brick front for nearly three hundred years. What you photograph today was designed and built between 1871 and 1887, which makes it younger than the Statue of Liberty.
The opening it had to cover was too wide for the usual method, which was to build a timber framework, lay the masonry over it and remove the frame afterwards — no forest in Tuscany could supply beams long enough. Brunelleschi won the commission without fully explaining his solution and built it between 1420 and 1436 with no supporting frame at all, laying the brick in a herringbone pattern that locks each course into the last and lets the structure hold itself up as it rises. He left no complete set of drawings. Four million bricks later, it is still the largest masonry dome ever raised.
The gilded copper sphere at the summit was made in Verrocchio's workshop and hoisted into place in 1471, watched closely by a young apprentice named Leonardo, who sketched the lifting machinery. Lightning struck it in 1601 and it fell. A marble disc set into the pavement outside marks where it landed.
Visitors used to the great Roman churches often find the interior disappointing. That is because most of the sculpture that belonged here was long ago moved into the cathedral's own museum across the square for protection, which is not the museum included in this booking. What remains is scale, brickwork and the enormous painted judgement covering the inside of the dome, begun by Vasari and finished after his death by Zuccari.
On the inner wall of the entrance is a clock painted by Uccello in 1443, with one hand, running anticlockwise, marked in twenty-four hours ending at sunset rather than midnight. It has been keeping that older Italian time for nearly six centuries and still works.
The Misericordia was founded in 1244 and has been operating continuously ever since, which makes it one of the oldest volunteer organisations anywhere in the world. Its members carried the sick and buried the dead wearing black hoods that covered the face, so that the person being helped could never identify their helper and no one could take credit for charity. They still run ambulances in this city, and the hoods still come out on formal occasions.
Shoulders and knees must be covered, and this is checked at the door. Large bags are refused. Commentary runs in English and Spanish, and cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
A guide and priority entry. The cathedral admits visitors without a ticket, but the queue in season runs around the building, so the value is in bypassing it with someone explaining what you are looking at.
No, and this is the commonest misunderstanding. The climb is a separate timed reservation released months ahead, with 463 steps and no lift. The bell tower and baptistery are also booked separately.
No. The medieval facade was demolished in 1587 and the cathedral stood in bare brick for nearly three centuries. The present polychrome front was built between 1871 and 1887.
Without the timber framework the span would normally require, because no beams long enough existed. Brunelleschi laid brick in a herringbone bond that locks each course to the last, letting the structure support itself as it rose.
It marks where the gilded ball from the lantern landed after lightning struck it in 1601. The ball had been made in Verrocchio's workshop and raised in 1471, watched by a young Leonardo who drew the hoisting gear.
Because most of its sculpture was moved for protection into the cathedral's own museum across the square, which is a different museum from the one included here. What remains is scale, brick and the painted judgement inside the dome.
A lay brotherhood founded in 1244 and running ever since, whose members worked hooded so that those they helped could never identify them. It still operates ambulances in Florence today.