Life's a Journey: The Duomo in Florence

As we were traveling from Venice to Florence via the train,

we were just waiting for time, and so I grabbed the tripod, set up the camera for some playful photos.. and voila! ...

People who travel to Italy often make a point of stopping in Florence.

This bustling town, with its luxury chain stores side-by-side with medieval and renaissance architecture and art of the Old Masters. And in the center of all this, is...
Tantanaaanaaaann....ttaaaannnaaannn.. (tambol, tambol, tambol 6x)... The McDonald's. Yep, das ryt, we stopped by at the McLovin'it to use “il banyo”

(that’s Italian for “The pisser”, or tagalog for takobets, ewww, ehehe). I bought strawberry sundae, bcos.. well, I like strawberry sundae; and also some bread with pork

After that, we thought Hmn.. since we're already here, why not hit one of the architectural and artistic wonders of the world: The gigantic Florence Duomo. I mean, da ba? hmnn, pwede na rin...

Firenze or Florence is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Located in the heart of Tuscany, a stunning province of hills and mountains,

the Renaissance capital of the world -- a period that began in 1300 and lasted 300 years, with famous sons like Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael... and NO, they're NOT the ninja turtles! ;0)

This was a stop off on the way to Pisa. In Florence you don't have to seek out the art. Just walk around and you'll end up in a beautiful piazza full of sculptures and beautiful churches. The best way to see the city is on foot.

So from the train station

we headed straight to find the nearest famous landmark. Although we walked a little bit too far trying to get there, we did manage to find one of the large landmarks of the city,

a huge and elaborately decorated cathedral -- the world famous Florence's Duomo, aptly called the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. The 4th largest Basilica in the world, it was definitely something I wanna check out.

Building the cathedral started in 1296 and was completed in 1469!

But the facade was still unfinished and would remain so until the 19th century. Another [ ! ]. Niweis, the square itself was beautiful, with not only the Duomo but there also sat a few other buildings of the same magnitude and architecture.

We didn’t go inside cos it turned out though that the Duomo was closed that day. Either way, we took some pictures from the outside.

And the outside looked nice. In fact, you might even say that it is of the best outsides of churches in the world. ;)

Yeah, ryt. But it could be true, y'know.

We also had a look at one of the world's most beautiful squares - just scattered around the Duomo. Wonderful mediterranean piazzas where you will like spending hours sitting down, looking out on windows,

having a caffe'

and just watching people pissing passing by.

A city of bikes - which seemed like the preferred mode of transportation, sensible as most of the streets are pretty "skinny" ;o)

As we were looking for Florence souvenirs, actually fridge magnets ;) and also postcards we almost completely encircled the Duomo.

Speaking of fridge magnets, if there were things that people love to collect, for us -- that would be FRIDGE MAGNETS,

we just love 'em. Why?? Don't ask why, we just do.
Niweis, naturally my wife didn't mind taking the long way. It served as part of our tour of the exterior of the Duomo.

The Duomo is huge, yet it's also overwhelming in its intricacy and fine detail. At nearly 12,000 feet, the Duomo is also one of the largest cathedrals in the world.

Adjoining it are the campanile, or belltower,

and the baptistery (or Baptistry).

The baptistery actually predates the Duomo, the earliest version of it having been built in the 4th century.

The brass main door of the Baptistery known as The Gates of Paradise,

was sculpted by the genius of Ghiberti and took him 21 years to complete. Together, the baptistery, campanile, and Duomo, as a cathedral, is one of the oldest architectural structures still well-preserved and intact. The Duomo is a fine example of Renaissance art and architecture, and surely one of the man-made wonders of the world.

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While walking along Florence's narrow streets, staring up at the dome, I felt nearly overwhelmed;

the passage of time takes on a different meaning in the Old World.

Finally, we stopped at a little place called Spizzico, at what looked to be the McDonalds equivalent of pizza (and yes, we went to McDonalds b4 that ;0) and had some pizza prosciutto and some drinks. Twas really good.