Scala per il Paradiso

I shall add fourteenth century cathedral dome maintenance stairways to my list of Italian features that are a little small for me.

The cramped conditions did not deter me though, and we reached the top of the Duomo for 360° views of a city centre that physically and spiritually embodies the Renaissance.

Brunelleschi's dome, atop the magnificent structure in the centre of Florence, is absolutely impressive and stunning no matter how irreligious you might be. Whether it's from directly below while you wait your turn to climb it, from the top of Piazzale Michelangelo during breakfast at sunrise, or when you're within the interior and feeling dwarfed by the immense fresco that covers the inside.

Pretty much every ceiling in Florence has a fresco for you to appreciate when you remember to look up. I feel like middle age parents with young renaissance children must have constantly complained that they were looking up at ceilings instead of focusing on where they were going.

The apartments and halls of Palazzo Vecchio only reinforced this view, and the strain in my neck.

Also on the schedule today was Galileo's museum, tiramisu on the Ponte Vecchio, and the Duomo Museum. Purely by its institutions you can really feel how a few centuries ago this was a place where science, architecture, and ideas merged.

A seventeenth century globe

Even the artwork showed signs of moving from religious and mythological iconography to the new understanding that Earth was part of a much wider universe.

Yes, this is a ceiling

All of this exploration probably did not justify the white lasagna I ate in Piazza del Carmine for dinner. It was possibly the only disappointing food I've had so far. The gigantic gelato for €2.5 afterwards made up for it though.