Handpicked experience · Florence
Florence, Italy
Why the bell tower beats the dome for the view, the competition whose loser went on to build it, and why every original work here has been moved indoors.
A guided circuit of the cathedral complex with a local professional
Admission to the baptistery, the cathedral and the cathedral museum
A ticket to climb the bell tower, taken at your own pace
Headsets provided for groups of four or more so the commentary carries
Four hours covering three buildings and a museum around the cathedral square in Florence, with someone explaining the interiors and, at the end, entry to the campanile stairs whenever you feel like taking them. The dome is deliberately not part of it, which is worth understanding rather than regretting.
From the top of the dome you get a magnificent view of Florence with one thing missing from it: the dome. From the bell tower you get the same city and the cathedral's dome filling half the frame, which is the photograph everyone actually wants. Expect 414 steps and no lift, tackled whenever you like after the guided part finishes.
In 1401 the city ran a contest to design a new set of bronze doors for the baptistery. Two young finalists submitted trial panels: Ghiberti won, and the man who lost went off to Rome to study ancient building instead. That was Brunelleschi, and the decades he spent measuring Roman structures are the reason he could later roof the cathedral. Both trial panels survive and hang in another museum in the city, a few minutes' walk away.
The gilded panels on the baptistery are copies. Ghiberti spent twenty-seven years on the originals, and they are now indoors in the cathedral museum on this itinerary, kept in a sealed case filled with inert gas so the gilding stops degrading. Seeing them at eye level, out of the weather, is the single strongest argument for the museum being included here.
On 4 November 1966 the river burst into the city and water reached well above head height across this square. It tore several of the door panels off their frames and carried them into the mud, from which they were recovered over the following days. Restoration of the doors then took decades. The flood is the reason almost every original work from the outside of these buildings now lives under a roof.
The baptistery predates the cathedral beside it by centuries and was long believed, wrongly, to be a converted Roman temple. Dante was baptised in it and wrote about it fondly from exile. Its ceiling carries around a thousand square metres of thirteenth-century mosaic, including a hell scene of considerable imagination whose devils and torments almost certainly shaped what he later described.
In the museum stands a late marble group he worked on for his own tomb and then broke apart in frustration, hammering at Christ's arm and leg before a servant persuaded him to stop. A pupil reassembled it. The hooded figure supporting the body is a self-portrait, and it is the most personal thing he left behind.
Interiors come first with someone explaining them; the stairs come later and alone, so ration your legs accordingly. Shoulders and knees must be covered throughout the complex, and this is enforced. The campanile has no lift, and you walk from one building to the next: everything here stands within a few minutes on foot. 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.
It is a separate ticket, but you lose less than you think. From the dome the view is missing the dome itself; from the bell tower the cathedral fills half the frame, which is the picture most people are after.
414 steps with no lift, done at your own pace after the guided section ends. Landings break it up, so it is manageable for most people who take it slowly.
A contest to design new bronze doors for the baptistery. Ghiberti won it; the losing finalist, Brunelleschi, went to Rome to study ancient construction, which is why he could later roof the cathedral.
No, those are copies. The originals took Ghiberti twenty-seven years and now sit indoors in the cathedral museum, in a sealed case filled with inert gas to protect the gilding.
Because of the flood of 4 November 1966, when the river rose above head height across the square, tore panels from their frames and left them in the mud. Recovery and restoration then took decades.
Around a thousand square metres of thirteenth-century mosaic, including an inventive hell scene. Dante was baptised in the building, and those devils very probably shaped the imagery he later wrote.
A late marble group intended for his own tomb, which he broke apart himself in frustration before a pupil reassembled it. The hooded figure holding Christ is a self-portrait.