My girls are young and strong, making me ponder exactly when it was that I got old and decrepit. Was it 40? 50? Oh God, please let me be able to walk to the bathroom on my own when I’m 70…
They pressed on and made it, exclaiming about the incredible views they were afforded from the tippy top. My views were adequate from Level 3 (?) because God whispered in my ear, “Stop before I create new muscles in you for Satan to burn for being so stupid.”
If my children didn’t mock me enough by finishing what I could not, they then proceeded to get in line for the Dome climb. I got in line too succumbing to their hardcore, youthful pressure but chickened out at the last-minute when enough time had passed that sanity was once restored in my oxygen-deprived brain. Did I mention that my lungs nearly collapsed from exertion in that holy place? I completely understand why Quasimodo never left his bell tower loft.
Up they went, while I saw fit to use my time to explore the interior of the cathedral’s ground level. I was safe down there with views of Heaven and Hell from an non-exertive distance. No need to tempt fate and have a heart attack pursuing a view this mortal was clearly not meant to have.
Instead, I found God in my wanderings and through the paintings, art, architecture, and elaborate immensity of this space. And in my own way… I worshipped.
After a time, I meandered to the lower level to visit the Tomb of Brunelleschi and paid my respects to the greatest Florentine architect ever. If we had visited the Church of San Croce, a 20-minute walk away, we’d have seen Michelangelo’s and Galileo’s resting places. But as is the theme with this trip, “there just wasn’t enough time to do all the things!”
The girls took a full 45 minutes to an hour climbing the dome. When they got back down and met up with all of us they said it was VERY challenging to climb, even more so than the Bell Tower. There were places you had to stoop a bit and the staircase itself was slanted upwards or downwards. If you are claustrophobic at all this is NOT a good activity for you. I know that the portion I did made my legs ache for days afterwards even after we got to Naples.
The following are photos of their excursion; the one that’s only for the fit and able.
But the upshot of their tortuous trek was the up-close views of the exquisite paintings depicting The Last Universal Judgment. As such, there are scenes of unspeakable torture inflicted on the evil and nay-sayers. As most citizens could not read, art was used to give teachings and to be sure, these were more than clear. In fact, some are so graphic I am actually uncomfortable posting at least one. I’m sure you can Google some close-ups should you be interested. (Think prison, but worse.)
Re-united, it was unanimously decided that it was time for lunch. But we’ll pick it up there next time before heading off to the Uffizi to see what treasures might lie inside. Stay tuned for more busts than you can handle…..