"The universe is composed of five elements Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Florentines". This quote from Pope Boniface VIII pretty much sums up the respect the city of Florence commanded in ancient Italy. There has to be some kind of solid foundation behind this kind of statement and when you are talking about a city which has been the birthplace and workplace of some of the most illustrious painters, sculptors, writers, poets and statesman in the history of mankind, this level of presumptuousness can be certainly accepted.
If you are wondering why I am raving about Florence, thats because I had the fortune to visit this magical and fascinating city when I went to attend a conference there in October 2010 (one of the few good things about doing a PhD, atleast you get to travel). This series of posts is my tribute to the city and the wonderful sights that abound in and around the place. My journey began from Singapore on a warm October evening from where I was flying to Florence via Paris. After a 13 hour flight to Paris and a delayed connecting flight to Florence, I was beginning to feel a bit drowsy. However, I finally boarded the flight to Florence. It was a bright sunny day and the views through the flight window were gorgeous. As we were flying from Paris to Florence, the journey took us over the Alps which were clearly visible in all their snow capped glory. After a short flight, I finally touched down at the Amerigo Vespucci airport in Florence.
After the baggage claim and immigration formalities, I hopped on to the airport shuttle bus and was off to the city center to my hotel. The city center of Florence is based around the main train station (Santa Maria Novella). As luck would have it, I confused the directions and got lost while trying to locate my hotel. Spotting a policeman nearby, I went ahead and asked him (in my broken Italian) for help. He looked at me and my map sympathetically and then replied in crisp English "It's the street on the left side of the station". So much for trying to be smart and asking directions in Italian. Nevertheless, I located the hotel easily after that. The lady at the reception was very welcoming and her broad smile helped make up for any linguistic barriers (she did not speak a word of English). After taking some rest, I decided to head for the main sight of Florence - the Duomo. The Duomo or the Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore is one of the major attractions of Florence. Armed with a map, I set out to locate the cathedral. As I looked around to find my bearings, I realized that the map was useless. For there, shining like a beacon in the balmy sunlight was the enormous dome of the cathedral, dominating the horizon as it kept a perpetual vigil over this city and her inhabitants.
The task of locating the cathedral was now simplified to just keep walking towards the dome hoping that it would lead you directly to your destination. I believe these domes are constructed for this very purpose - to give the faithful a vision of their destination from afar and remind them that their long and arduous journey will not be in vain. Nevertheless, this approach seemed to work for a tourist as well and I set off on my mission. One thing which strikes you in Florence is that everybody on the streets is quite fashionable and are extremely well dressed from head to toe. I guess that's why so many of the major fashion houses are based in Italy. However, I guessed I should not be gawking at people (I was going to a church after all) and focus on the destination. After quite some twists and turns and navigating a narrow winding lane, I finally reached. However, I was not at all prepared for the spectacle which unfolded in front of me and it took me a few seconds to regain my composure. Everything else seemed to vanish and the splendid Neo-gothic facade of the Duomo shimmering in the beautiful dusk light unfolded in all its glory before my eyes.
A little bit of history would not be amiss here. The cathedral was constructed in order to showcase the might of Florence in the whole of Tuscany region and took almost 200 years to complete. The crowning glory of the cathedral (pun intended) is the dome. It is an architectural and engineering marvel, considering the time when it was constructed and remains to this day, the largest brick dome in the world. Anyways, once I regained my senses, it struck me that the facade of the cathedral looked like a gigantic cake with the exquisite marble paneling in white, pink and green showcasing the best of the Tuscan marble quarries. The square in which the Duomo is located is called the Piazza del Duomo and includes the cathedral, a bell tower and a baptistery. I decided to visit the baptistery first as the cathedral would take a long time to explore and I did not have the requisite energy. So, after buying a ticket (the man at the ticket counter looked like an old testament prophet), I entered the baptistery. It was quite dark inside as the only light there was the one filtering through the windows. The interiors were quite tasteful done up in marble and featured gilded altars and several tombs. The real thing to see however was the magnificent mosaic ceiling which featured stories from the Bible. The main theme was the last judgement with Christ casting sinners in a quite scary looking hell featuring all sorts of gruesome tortures. The artists working here definitely had fertile imaginations with regards to their vision of hell.
The baptistery has been the setting for the baptism of many notable Florentines including Dante and the members of the illustrious Medici family. After spending quite some time inside the baptistery, my jet lag finally caught up with me. Although there was lots more to see (the actual highlight of the baptistery building are its doors but more on that later), I decided to call it a day. After admiring the facade of the Duomo which had now taken on a mystical hue with the last rays of the setting sun, I set off to my hotel feeling tired yet upbeat thinking about the magical experience that lay ahead as I would discover this wondrous city of Florence.
