Dad's End Time in Firenze

The End Time in Firenze

Our final day in Florence was divided between Jean’s “Walking Tour A”: The Baptistery and the Duomo and “Walking Tour C”: the Bargello (Museo Nazionale) which housed many of the sculpted works of Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo, and four different David’s. Standing on the steps of the Duomo between the 3-D sculpted bronze paneled doors of the Baptistery and the huge white-green-pink marble façade of the cathedral gives one the sense of the majesty and mystery of the medieval man’s god and the courage and confidence the Florentine’s had in themselves, more about this later.

Becca and I decided to see the cathedral from above, climbing to the top of the dome, some 464 steps, 330 feet high. The first half of the climb took us up to a circular landing inside the church, which is the base for both the inner and outer dome. Looking down at the apse (those of you who do crossword puzzles should recognize that word) with the alter in the center we see teeny-tiny people, like they had just fallen through the rabbit hole. Looking up on the inside of the inner dome we see painted the dualistic belief in Heaven above with a radiant Christ in judgment and Hell below with Satan torturing and devouring the damned.

Looking at these images one would want to correct any corruption in one’s soul quickly. A death bed conversation may not cut it.

We continue our climb on top of the inner dome and at its center spiral up and out on to the dome itself. What an AWE-FILLED view, looking across the roof tops past the many church and piazzas out into the hilly countryside with row upon row of vineyards and olive groves.

San Lorenzo Market-The Italian merchants like you to try whatever you want before you buy. You can actually make a lunch out of all the free tasting. We stopped to taste balsamic vinegar, aged 12 years that you could die for, so tart and sweet you could top off your ice cream with it. I asked, “Quanto costa??” And hearing the price, I decided to live another day instead.

As we leave Florence, I am amazed at the men and women of the Renaissance, their confidence and courage to do great things. They start a cathedral without the knowledge, nor technology to finish it, leaving a 140 foot hole in the church for the better part of a century until someone could do the math to hold the scaffolding to complete the dome.

Let me finish this on a political note: all that we saw in Florence was just not done by the Pope and the church, the D’Medici’s and the nobility, but also by Joe the Stone Carver, Joe the Mason, Joe the Weaver, and Joe the Potterer. They did so by forming guilds, translate, unionizing, and in solidarity they created a middle class, sharing in the wealth and the power and the glory. I could never understand the concept or desire for small government; they can only give us small steps for mankind. It’s a larger government that enables us to create a renaissance; this is what our taxes pay for. I believe by paying my taxes I am able to still change the world. Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes is quoted as saying, “I like paying taxes. With them, I buy civilization.”