Brunelleschi's dome
History's largest brick dome — raised without supporting formwork, by a trick that stayed mysterious for centuries.
Petar Milošević — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dllu — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rhododendrites — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rhododendrites — CC BY-SA 4.0
Santa Maria del Fiore — the Duomo — is Florence itself: a mountain of white, green and pink marble crowned by Brunelleschi's red dome, still after six centuries the largest brick dome ever built. Its builder solved a problem the age had declared impossible — roofing a forty-five-metre span without supports — and his answer changed architecture and opened the Renaissance. Entry to the nave is free, and the interior is far plainer than the astonishing shell — except for the vast Last Judgement inside the dome. The great experience is climbing the dome itself: 463 steps between its double walls up to the lantern, touching Brunelleschi's trick from within before emerging onto Tuscany's most famous view. The whole complex — dome, baptistery, Giotto's tower, museum — runs on tiered combination passes, and the dome climb is always by booked time slot.
History's largest brick dome — raised without supporting formwork, by a trick that stayed mysterious for centuries.
463 steps inside the dome's own body to the lantern and its view.
Five thousand square metres of fresco wheeling overhead inside the dome.
Carrara white, Prato green, Maremma pink — Florence in its own colours.
Piazza del Duomo, 50122 Florence
Giotto's CampanileGiotto's Campanile is the cathedral's freestanding bell tower: some eighty-five 1 minute walk4.9
Opera del Duomo MuseumThe Opera museum is the Duomo's treasury: every masterpiece once on the cathedra1 minute walk4.5
Florence BaptisteryThe Baptistery is the square's oldest building and the one Florentines hold holi2 minutes walk4.5
Dante's House MuseumDante Alighieri never spent a single night in this house. The stone building you3 minutes walk3.7
Palazzo Medici RiccardiThis is the first Medici palace — the house that invented the Florentine palazzo3 minutes walk4.6The dome for the experience: you walk inside its body past the frescoes, and its view is higher — but it needs booking, fitness, and no claustrophobia. The tower queues less and its view puts the dome itself in frame. Ideal: dome for the experience, tower for the picture.
It is deliberately austere, and most treasures moved to the Opera museum — if the line is long, skip guiltlessly: the shell and dome are the event, and the museum shows the originals better than the nave does.
Three tiers: Ghiberti (baptistery and museum), Giotto (adds the tower), Brunelleschi (adds the dome) — each valid three days from first use, so spread the monuments comfortably over two days.