Day 1: Florence. After getting up earlier than we ever have while we have been gone, we boarded a train to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance of Michelangelo. I think we all slept the hour and a half ride. Our seats were double booked, but at least we got to half of them before the other people did. We found others and made it to Florence without incident. A shock I know.

 This building is called the Duomo, officialy the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, and is a Gothic cathedral that has the third-longest nave in all Christendom. The facade is covered in pink, green and white Tuscan marble. Renaissance churches are easily recognizable because they used these three colors of marble to decorate. The colors represent certain virtues, pink or red is for charity, white is for faith, and green is for hope.

 The building is so massive it is impossible to get it in one shot. The detail is spectacular.

 To the center of the picture is the bell tower which is seperate from the Duomo. Interestingly, when they were building it, they wanted to have the windows on the bottom, but the when they reached the second level, the tower started to tilt like the leaning Tower of Pizza so they switched the windows to the top to lessen the load and stop the lean.

 This building with the red dome is straight across from The Duomo and is the baptistry. All baptistries are made in an octogonal shape to represent the most important day for Catholicism. The world was created in seven days, but the eighth day is the day you receive eternal life. The day you are baptized gives you entry into eternal life represented by the eight-sided building.

 Notice too that all the domes are the same octogonal shape reminding the viewer of eternal life which is usually what is represented in the domed frescos anyway. This dome was painted by Vasari and  Zuccari and is called the Last Judgement. If  you look closely, you can see the three levels of heaven, pergatory, and hell. We were trying to figure out what was represented on the ceiling and low and behold, the twelve year old little boy sees it right away. So much for our college education. 

 A closeup of part of a stained glass window. There are forty-nine stained glass windows adorning this cathedral.

 The kids and I infront of the front doors.