The spiritual heart of Florence has some wonderful architecture and the supremely beautiful "Gates of Paradise" Baptistry doors. On Easter Sunday a centuries-old tradition - the Explosion of the Cart - culminates in the Piazza del Duomo.
Florence is a most beautiful city, with many fine churches, monuments, museums, and of course restaurants and gelaterie! Probably the first spot that most people visit is the Piazza del Duomo and the cathedral itself. In fact, on this visit, for the whole week we were there, there was a huge queue to get into the cathedral, probably not surprising as it was Easter. As we'd visited previously we didn't bother queuing to get in. The Duomo is certainly worth going into, though, especially to climb up into Brunelleschi's amazing dome, an incredible feat of engineering.
The cathedral - Santa Maria del Fiore - as it now stands was begun in the late thirteenth century but was still unfinished in the early fifteenth century with the problem of how to build the dome. The problem was thrown open to competition, which was won by Filippo Brunelleschi with his innovative design of two masonry shells of stacked rings, diminishing in size as they ascended, and separated by lightweight brickwork. The shells were secured with hidden stone beams and enormous chains.
The neo-gothic facade of the cathedral was not created until the 19th century, replacing unsatisfactory earlier decoration.
The Duomo also has a very famous painting, original now in the Opera del Duomo, of Dante explaining the Divine Comedy by Domenico di Michelino, dating from 1465. In it we see Dante outside the walls of Florence (symbolising his banishment from the city for political reasons) with a copy of the Divine Comedy in his hands. The Divine Comedy is divided into three sections: inferno (hell), purgatory, and paradise (heaven), each of which is depicted in the painting.
An emotional Pieta by Michelangelo Buonarotti once stood in the Duomo but is now in the Opera del Duomo. The description of the sculpture describes how Michelangelo had intended this to adorn and altar near where he was to be buried in a Roman church. He began it around 1647 but abandoned it in 1655, taking a hammer or chisel to it, on discovering that the marble block was flawed. It was eventually put back together and purchased by Cosimo de' Medici III. He had it placed in the crypt of the Basilica San Lorenzo from where it was transferred to the Duomo in 1722. The face of Nicodemus, who helped remove Jesus from the cross, is a self-portrait.
To the side of the facade of the cathedral is Giotto's Bell Tower - the Campanile begun by Giotto in 1334. This can also be climbed, though we haven't done that. The lovely reliefs on the tower (these are copies, the originals are in the Opera del Duomo) illustrate humanity's progress from a state of original sin to divine grace through manual labour, the arts and sacraments.
The piazza itself is home not only to the Duomo but also to the beautiful octagonal Baptistry. This is probably the oldest building in Florence, dating from the sixth or seventh century, and it has, for me, the most beautiful adornments in the whole piazza: the Ghiberti doors. These are the north and east doors of the three entrances to the Baptistry.
The south doors were installed in 1339 and were created by Andrea Pisano and depict scenes from the life of John the Baptist, Florence's patron saint and to whom the Baptistry is dedicated.
As was often the case, the choice of who would create the remaining two sets of doors was decided by competition. In this case, in 1401, the entrants were tasked with the creation of a panel depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac. The judges could not decide between Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti and asked that they share the creation of the doors. When Brunelleschi refused to work on the doors unless he worked alone, the judges gave the commission outright to Ghiberti.
Ghiberti's east doors in particular are very beautiful. they have been dubbed the Gates of Paradise - supposedly because Michelangelo once said that they were so beautiful they deserved to be the portals of heaven.
Ghiberti's original north and east doors are now in the Opera del Duomo with replicas in place in the Baptistry.
A remarkably modern-looking wooden sculpture by Donatello of the Penitent St Mary Magdalene was created for the Baptistry, now kept in the Opera del Duomo.
The interior currently has quite a bit of scaffolding as the 13th century mosaics continue to be restored, but it is still possible to see the lovely black and white marble cladding.
The piazza is invariably busy but attractive in itself.
The Caffe Duomo, on the north side of the Duomo, has one of Florence's famous wine windows in its door. The tradition of selling wine through these wine windows was begun in 1559 when Cosimo de' Medici I decreed that noble families could sell excess wine from the vineyards in small amounts at their city palazzi - an added bonus was that this kind of sale would be tax-free. The original wine windows were installed in doors, only later, as the idea caught on, were they put into walls. As walls were generally over a metre thick this was an expensive and difficult option. They came into their own during plague years when wine could be sold "at a distance", and for the same reason many were revived during the years of the covid pandemic.1
On the south east side of the piazza is Gelateria Edoardo, very popular being so close to the duomo. It sells organic ice cream and we thought they were very good.
Our hotel was quite close to the Piazza del Duomo - the Brunelleschi. It was an excellent place to stay, so central we could walk everywhere, even over to Ortrano on the other side of the river.
The Pagliazzi Tower is part of the hotel. Dating back to the 9th or 10th century it nevertheless is more characteristic of the Roman period rather than the Medieval. Excavations suggest it was once part of a Roman baths complex. In the 13th century it was used as a women's prison - this was how it got its current name, "paglia" being Italian for "straw", "pagliazza" - "straw mat", which was probably used for bedding.
There are the remains of a Roman caldarium in the cellars of the tower, part of a 1st-2nd century baths complex, which extends beyond the footprint of the tower.. There is a very interesting little museum there around the features of the caldarium, mostly displaying ceramics discovered during excavations. Apart for a few Roman fragments, the rest date from the medieval period and a valuable collection of Renaissance pottery.
The Harlequin pottery dates from the 17th century and was probably made in Montelupo.
The tower has been restored to its appearance in the 15th century when it was no longer a prison but had shops on the ground floor with storage rooms and apartments on the upper floors.
We had two excellent meals in restaurants very close to the hotel.
Right opposite the hotel entrance is Ristorante il Paiolo. We started with local meats followed by Fiorentina and a glass of Brunello di Montalcino, finishing with Cantucci and Vin Santo. The espressos came with free limoncello which was a perfect end to an excellent meal.
At Osteria del Corso, just around the corner on Via del Corso, we had almost the same meal a few evenings later. No starter but the rest - Fiorentina served with the same type of potatoes, Brunello, Cantucci, Vin Santo - was the same.
No free limoncello here though and the vin santo wasn't as generous but the Fiorentina was just as good.
A block south of these two restaurants, on Piazza dei Cimatori, is the Gelateria Bella Italia. We had very good lemon and chocolate ice creams here.
At the east end of the Duomo is the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. This is housed in the same building where the Opera del Duomo (work of the Cathedral), which was established in 1296 to oversee the maintenance of the cathedral, has been housed since the early fifteenth century.
The museum is extensive, stretching over three floors. The main attraction for me were the Ghiberti Baptistry doors - described above - but there are some stunning exhibits alongside these. A reconstruction of the Arnofo di Cambio cathedral facade has niches with many of the original sculptures; it was dismantled in 1587.
There are works from the inside of the Duomo and Baptistry (see above) and sculptures and reliefs from the Campanile, five of the sculptures are by Donatello - his Jeremiah and Habbakuk are especially wonderful..
Other highlights include Luca della Robbia's wonderfully carved choir loft, and another by Donatello.
There is also a fabulous silver altar front which took over a century to complete and was the work of a number of artists including Michelozzo, Antonio del Pollaiuolo and Verrocchio. The bas relief panels depict scenes from the life of John the Baptist.
On Easter Sunday there is the ceremony of the Explosion of the Cart - lo Scoppio del Carro. At 11 a.m. a mechanical rocket dove, la colombina, shoots across the piazza from the duomo along a wire delivering a rocket to a wagon where it ignites a multitude of colourful and noisy fireworks on a wooden tower. If the "dove" is returned safely, via the wire, to the Duomo it is said to signify a good harvest for the year.
But the fiesta starts well before this with a procession of historically-dressed city representatives from medieval times progressing through the streets from Via il Prato to the Piazza del Duomo together with white bullocks drawing the firework-laden tower on the wagon.
There were musicians playing medieval trumpets and drums and bands carrying different weapons such as medieval guns, crossbows and pikes. At the rear white bullocks draw a wagon (brindellone) with a firework-decked wooden tower. At the same time a procession of civic dignitaries and priests walk from the Church of Saint Apostoli to meet the cart in the Piazza del Duomo. Santi Apostoli holds fragments of stone from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem which are used to spark the rocket carried by the mechanical dove.
We had an early breakfast and traced the route of il brindellone back towards its starting point until we met up with the procession on Borgo Ognissante. It was absolutely impossible to get to the Piazza del Duomo - people had started to congregate there the evening before! But the bullocks and wagon are a lovely sight. The tradition is said to date from the time of the First Crusade in the 11th century.
