An early start again this morning as we wanted to see inside the Cathedral. The entrance is free, but there always seems to be a long, snaking queue outside. After waiting to enter the Accademia the other day, we didn’t feel much like standing in line again, but thought we couldn’t come to Florence and not go inside the Duomo.
So 9.30 saw us joining a 150m line for a 10.00 opening. (We thought we were early). Oh well, it only took us one-and-a-half hours to get inside this time.
Once inside, we were fairly underwhelmed. It is large, but plain (apart from the inside of the dome which I think is magnificent). When built, the Cathedral was the largest in the world, but has now been overtaken by St Peter’s in Rome and St Paul’s in London.
I don’t know what the reason was for the white screen.
The outside of the Cathedral is wonderful, faced with three different marbles, Carrara (white) Prato (green) and Siena (Red) but was only added in the nineteenth century.
After the cathedral, we were in need of a hot drink as we had got chilled while standing in the queue. Spurning the expensive cafes round the piazza, we headed a few minutes down the road to the Oblate library, the central library in Florence, housed in a former convent. It is a very welcoming space, free for all to enter (and says anyone can join too, but we haven’t tested this out).
Heading up to the second floor, you pass through a large covered terrace which is full of school students in the afternoon doing schoolwork (and chatting) and come to a lovely, and inexpensive, cafe, complete with wonderful views of the Cathedral dome.
Down on the first floor of the same building is a small Pre-history museum (small charge). The explanations are in Italian, but they have an English translation. You do have to ask though (in my experience things like that are seldom offered). The alternative to using the translated script provided by the museum, is to use an app on your phone, google translate. It can scan a piece of text and translate it for you with variable results (depending on the style of text and amount of glare).
I found the section on ‘cave art’, which has reproductions of drawings and paintings from Europe and Africa, particularly fascinating.
It is surprising how quickly you can move from a packed piazza, teeming with tourists, to an oasis of calm, where you are the only foreigners.
Tortoise Travel 