Duomo... Take Two!

I climbed the Duomo again. Dharyll paid me six euro to let Taya put eyeshaddow on me and I used my winnins' to climb the Duomo with them. Money and time well spent.

Climbing the stairs... again.

A shot of Florence through one of the wacky windows.. or holes on the way up.We got to the roof and I took some pictures of people taking pictures of other people. Very fun, very secret-agent.

Here are some pictures of just a fraction of the graffiti on the walls on the roof of the Duomo. The interesting bits, that is...
Yeah I do!


Someone is very, very lost...

SVEN cheese!
Yeah... I'm sure he was.

That is one VAIN sun... looking in the mirror allllll day.

Silly sun.

Duomo Roof

A video of Florence from the top of the Duomo!

Danger Dome

We climbed the Duomo today.

The end.

The backside of the Duomo. Not as clean as the front... but that's generally how the backsides of things go anyway, now isn't it?
The line. It was a healthy length... it took us about an hour to get from the very end, into the church/cathedral.

(Rebecca and I just had a talk about which the Duomo actually is... church or cathedral. It's up to you to decide. Tomatoe/tomahto).

The "impressive" entrance into the Duomo to climb all those stairs. The pretty doors are reserved for people who actually go to church here, and the people who want to see the front half of the church.
Graffiti!
A pope. Specifically, a stone Pope. Even better!
Stairs. Some of many...
The wall.. or A wall. Not THE wall. Whatever.

The ceiling of the Duomo... we think Michelangelo painted it.
Please take the time to click on these pictures and make them their real size... there's all sorts of crazy things happening on this ceiling and it's worth it. Trust me.
There's a crazy toad-person in hell, just waiting to chase you with a hammer.

Don't write on the walls.

Dont. Do. It.
A shot looking straight above my head. The inner shell is at the bottom of the photo and the outer shell is at the top, you can see how close and yet how far apart they are. It was a crazy moment when I realized we had gotten in between the shells of the dome... you don't immediately realize it until you noticed this curved, giant egg of a wall next to you.
This is a shot of the unique herringbone brickwork used by Fillippo Brunelleschi, one of many unique inventions he employed to build this crazy masterpiece.
Mmmmmm... steps. A few of the 463 we climbed today.

The crazy thing about this picture, and the reason why I posted it, is that the doorway you see Rebecca through is actually crooked. My picture is straight, everything else is a little wonky because we're curving around and over the dome at the same time. It was a little disorienting after climbing so far and being in such a cramped space.

PLUS this stairway is open for two-way traffic, so there were people cramming past other people going in different directions. I'm not claustrophobic, but I was beginning to panic a couple of times.
At one point in the climb you're actually walking on top of the dome... this is a picture of said activity. It was pretty steep, something not totally translated in this picture.
Finally at the top!

A view of the rooftop, hanging over the city.
Our apartment, behind the hospital. Our apartment... closer.

The tower.
The tower, and Piazza de Republica in the background (it has a massive arch that is a couple hundred years old but still considered new here).
Florence was founded with two straight streets... one going to the east and one to the west. This may be one of them, however I'm completely directionally impaired so it could not. But it was one of about three straight streets we could see in all of Florence. And it's pointing straight up to Fiesole in the hills.
A shot of San Lorenzo (the dome), San Lorenzo market (just to the right of the dome on the street) and the train station (the flat building to the left/behind the dome).
One of the arches periodically placed around the roof.

Rebecca... given me a look. I inspire some very odd looks sometimes....
Part of the roof of the dome.
Santa Croce and, in the distance on the right (the white line) is Piazzale Michelangelo across the Arno. Shadow time!
A shot out of a hole the dome on the way back down.

The climb wasn't as hard, it's got a bad reputation because all these fat tourists insist on climbing up there and then freak out when they figure out it's actual work and not instant gratification. For 6 euros and a 10-15 minute climb you could see the of the dome up close, walk inside the shell, see some statues and the old wooden machines they used to build the dome and then get a chance to spend however long you wanted on the roof, looking out over Florence. Infinitely worth it.

My Name's "Ima Tourist!"

Today was the first day I explored Florence on my own, so I decided to play tourist and hit a couple of hot spots.

The Duomo... obviously. We live pretty close to it, about three blocks to the East and we just about walk by it to get to the school.

Plazza della Signoria where a replica of the all so famous David statue resides. Trust me, he's in here too, don't you worry your pretty little head.

Cosimo I

Horsies! Part of the Fountain of Neptune, along with...

This guy. He's having some sort of fit but I couldn't get close enough to really see what sort of face he's making, but he definitely doesn't look like he's have a tremendous amount of fun.

Or is he?

Crazy hernia-genie-scroll man who wears a turban. Who knew?
The death of Medusa.Hercules and Cacus.... obviously not afraid to be a little gay.
You know... just a little.

Hercules and the Centaur.

The Rape of Sabines.

... which I have to say was my favorite. Not so much because of the theme, but how beautiful the shapes are and... you just can't put everything into words and the pictures don't even remotely do it justice.

Aaaaannndddd of course the David... or at least a copy.

And a close up of the dog head on the Hercules statue... the pigeons usually kind of mute the awesome effect of these huge statues... but this time it's just hilarious. So fearsome!