The Fugates are coming! Part 2 - The Dome (inside)

A day or two before, I had gone into the Duomo for the first time. Finally. I'd been inside almost every other large church in Florence, except for the most famous one. Now Sarah, her dad Steve, and I were going to climb up to the top of the dome. I had climbed to the top of the dome at St. Peter's in Rome, so I figured I knew what to expect. It's a tough climb but well worth it.


First you climb up to the point where the walls of the church meet the dome, which is pretty high. At this point you walk part of the way around the dome to the steps up to the top. While you're at this level you can get a much better look at the 38,750 square feet of painted space on the inside of the dome. I think that most of it was done by Giorgio Vasari and other collaborators.


There's a Last Judgment scene, choirs of angels, scenes of hell...you know, typical stuff. It looks different though, since it's so huge and you're so high up.


I don't know why, but I'm always fascinated by medieval and Renaissance scenes of hell. The artists would no doubt be upset by this since the images were meant to scare people into being good.


Most of them are pretty gross and scary, but I think some of them are humorous. Funny little demons poking people.


In order to get to the top you have to walk by some scary things. Only the brave shall pass. And me. I made it.


On second thought, these images do still have the desired affect.


Dad and daughter contemplate the demons.


Oh yeah, then there's also a church down below.


Way down below. But we still had farther to go.


Now we had to start walking up inside the dome. It's 375 feet to the top. We didn't meet much opposition on the way up. Later, on the way down, we constantly had to stand aside and wait for the stairs to clear because up and down traffic were using the same narrow stairs. You often have to walk at an angle since the roof is angling in towards the top.


Almost there...