When I started exploring Italy and the cities we might be interested in visiting Florence made our initial list. After a bit of reading about Italian history it seems that Florence was connected to the Renaissance, but after spending time in Florence with guides that were able to explain to me how art reflected some of the changes that were taking place, I grew to have a fonder appreciation for Firenze or Florence.

Our first evening in Florence we found the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which is a marvel of white, green, and red marble. They started building this cathedral in 1296 and it wasn’t finished until 1436. One of the charms of this breath-taking building is that when they started building it, they had no idea how to make a dome that would cover the top.

Filippo Brunelleschi won the competition to design the dome and it was constructed between 1420 and 1461. The dome has an inner dome which supports the outer dome, which protects the whole dome from weather. The dome was the largest in the world at that time, and many subsequent domes, like the US Capitol are modeled after this building. Brunelleschi didn’t leave any drawing or plans behind to show how he came up with this brilliant plan.

How did people build such magnificent structures in the thirteenth and fourteenth century? Just amazing. Think about what that does for your sense of history to grow up around buildings that were built six hundred years ago…