Florence

There she is- the great dome. After building the dome of the Pantheon and then the dark ages that followed the fall of the Roman Empire, people forgot how to build domes! Until Brunelieschi came along. He studied the Pantheon dome and decided to give it a try. It was difficult. The roof had a diameter of 42 meters and seemed impossible to attempt a dome. No wood center could bear the weight of that large of a vault. He decided to create an octagonal self-supporting dome with no center. He used various materials- stones below where the curve was minimum to give greater resistance and bricks above, which were lighter. He created two spherical parallel vaults. The internal was 2 meters thick and served as the real roofing. The external was 80 cm thick and functioned to protect from water leakage and to thicken the dome to make it more visible. It became the symbol of the new Renaissance city and was big enough to be seen from afar.

Inside the dome.

When building the dome, the workers did not appreciate taking orders form an architect. Previously projects were not written out in detail but they trusted in the workers judgement. The workers also found it hard to understand Brunelieschi, so he built models in wood, clay, straw and wax. Still they resisted him, so one day he fired them all and hired new workers. Pride hurt, but needing a job, they begged for their jobs back. He complied, but paid them lower salaries! This famous incident is known as the Worker's Strike.

We went to Sunday Mass at the Duomo and appreciated that they closed the Church to tourist during Holy Mass. It's the first Cathedral we've been to that has done that and made the service so much more meaningful. There were ELEVEN priests! It was a beautiful Mass.

Though we couldn't take pictures, we also saws Michelangelo's David. This was important to me since Colleen and I missed it last time due to a train misunderstanding! It was every bit as magnificent as expected. It is known as one of the greatest masterpieces of the Renaissance and was said to take the voice away from other statues. It represented the spirit of the new republic. Michelangelo was in his twenties when he made it and the reaction was so popular that the Pope called him to Rome to paint the Sistene Chapel. He used an abandomed block of marble that was rejected by other sculpters. When revealed the public was shocked. It was the first large nude (4.5 meters) since ancient times, as nobody dared challenge the Greek and Roman masterpieces. It's genious shows David at an unspecified moment- perhaps right before his victory against Goliath- perhaps after. Michelangelo doesn't want to show the action, but the ability of carrying it out. There is strength in his challenging look on one side of his face, yet apprehension on the other. His hands and face represent the virtues of the universal man- physical strength and intellectual reasoning, the perfect synthesis of the Fl;orentine Renaissance.
On our drive back to Germay we passed Lake Como! I've always wanted to go there and it is just as beautiful as I pictured. Maybe we can squeeze it in before I leave!

Look hard and you can see a double rainbow! The lower one was incredibly brilliant and you could see each color distinctly. It was beautiful!