This first section is a brief explanation of my Italy blog posts, which were inspired by my 2-week trip to Italy in May, 2025. Feel free to skip this section if you’ve read it before.
Dear Reader, If you read my Italy posts in the order in which they’ve come out, it may seem as though we hopped back and forth all over the country, but I have decided not to write these posts sequentially. I want to write about the things that interest me most, as the spirit moves me. For some topics, I may even combine cities. I hope that by doing so, you’ll find it a lot more interesting than if I just give you a tedious day by day description of our itinerary, as if I were your Aunt Mabel forcing you to sit down and watch all her Super 8 films of the family road trip to Niagara Falls from 1966.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about how I’m approaching this travelogue-within-a-blog, please let me know in the comments below!
Oh, be honest. How many of you would have known what I was talking about if I had thrown “Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore” in the title? But even if you don’t know its name, you’d know this place. Everyone who has seen a picture of Florence knows this place. At the very least, they know Brunelleschi’s Dome that sits atop it. If you don’t, you need to get out more, or at the very least, watch more PBS. (And we should all do more of that.)
The Cathedral is a part of what is called the “Monumental Complex of the Piazza Duomo,” and there’s way too much going on there to encapsulate in one post. Today I’ll tell you about our exploration of the Cathedral’s interior and the crypt that lies beneath it. In later posts, I’ll discuss the Baptistry, then the exteriors of the Cathedral and the Bell Tower, and then the museum. But first…
The Basics
The most important thing to know is that you’d be a fool not to get advanced tickets to any of the venues that are a part of the Monumental Complex of the Piazza Duomo. If you don’t, you’ll be waiting for as many as 4 hours to enter most of them, if you manage to get into them at all.
The complex includes the following sites:
The Crypt/Ancient Basilica (Santa Reparata) which includes fast access to the Cathedral.
The Duomo Museum (Museo dell’Opera del Duomo)
The Baptistry (Battistero di San Giovanni)
The Bell Tower (Campanile di Giotto)
The Dome (Cupola di Brunelleschi)
Purchase your tickets here. Any other website that tries to sell you these tickets is quite possibly a scam. (Be careful whenever buying advance tickets to anything in Italy. A lot of websites will appear to be official, and some might even sell tickets that will get you in, but at higher prices. Others will be scammers that sell you worthless tickets. Make sure you are on the official website or join a trusted tour group whose tour includes tickets that they obtain from the official source before you make a purchase.) A great way to make sure you’re using an official website is to use the one recommended in the Rick Steves Italy guidebook.
Having said that, there are 3 types of tickets.
The Ghiberti Pass includes the Baptistry, the Duomo Museum, and the Crypt. It’s the one we got. It’s the least expensive, and the one to get if you are not up for any monumental climbs.
The Giotto Pass includes everything that the Ghiberti Pass does, plus the Bell Tower. I’m told the tower has fantastic views of the city and of the dome. It’s nearly 278 feet tall. There are 414 steps to the top, and it takes an average of 25 minutes to get up there. The stairway is narrow, but there are a few spacious platforms on the way up where you can stop and enjoy the view (read: catch your breath).
The Brunelleschi Pass includes everything the Giotto Pass does, plus the Dome. It, of course, is the most expensive pass, and it’s the only way you’ll be able to see the elaborately painted inside of the dome up close. You’ll also get to experience the space between the two shells of the cupola. It’s 463 steps up. The steps were originally built for maintenance, and they’re described as narrow and steep. There is minimal airflow, and, especially in the summer months, the heat increases as you rise. Many people find this climb claustrophobic. When you reach the top it gives you pretty much the same view as the bell tower, with the exception, of course, of a view of the dome itself. The height of the cathedral, to the very tip of the lantern, is 376 feet. You won’t be going to the very tip, but you will be climbing the equivalent of just over 40 stories. You are only allowed an hour to climb all the way up, enjoy the view, and come back down. (I suspect I could spend that much time just looking at the artwork in the dome.)
If, like us, you aren’t up for either of the climbs, but still would appreciate a view of the city, I highly recommend that you get the Ghiberti Pass, and then at some point while you’re in Florence, visit Piazzale Michelangelo. It has an iconic, if not aerial, view of the city, and the parking lot is at the same level as the viewpoint. Easy peasy. I mention it and include a photo in this post. I bet the view is even more spectacular at night.
If, however, you do want to do a climb, each of the two has its pros and cons. The tower—not as high up, but more airflow and resting spots, and a nice view of the dome along with its already nice view of the city. The dome–harder climb, but incredible close-up views of its interior art and architecture, and you get to tell people you climbed the dome. If you want to climb both, for God’s sake, don’t attempt them both on the same day, at least. Based on reviews, those who have done both in one day wished they hadn’t, especially upon waking up the next morning. Ouch.
Throughout the Monumental Complex, terrorism has become a concern, and you may see Carabinieri patrolling the area because of this. (We certainly did.) So, when the ticket instructions say they don’t allow backpacks, and that they will check ID, and that the name on the ticket must match your ID, they aren’t kidding. They won’t hesitate to turn you away if you don’t meet their requirements at any of the complex sites.
Okay, now that the housekeeping chores are over, let’s get on with the fun stuff. In order to validate our tickets so that we’d be able to use them at the other locations over the next day or two, we had to start by visiting the crypt. That was fine by me. I was really intrigued by the place.
The fact that I got into the habit of calling Santa Reparata simply “the crypt” does it a great disservice. It’s actually one of the first Christian temples that Florence ever had. It’s so ancient that even though it was one of the largest churches in all of Tuscany at the time, historians are unsure of the exact date in which its first version was built. It was sometime in the early 400’s. Then it was remodeled in both the High Medieval and Romanesque periods. Construction began on the same site for the much larger current cathedral in 1296, but Santa Reparata continued to serve as Florence’s cathedral for another hundred years as that construction progressed.
To get to Santa Reparata, you head toward the Bell Tower and enter the side door of the current cathedral that is closest to it. That puts you in the right aisle of the cathedral. Then you descend some stairs, pass through a bookshop, and just like that, you’ve gone back in time 1600 years. It’s quite startling. (We did this sort of thing several times during our trip to Italy, and as an American, it is something I’ll never grow accustomed to. But in the best possible way.)
The first thing that strikes you is the wide expanse of elaborate mosaics that covered the floor. The dedication plaque shown indicates that they were made by North African craftsman, and below that is a list of 14 financiers along with the number of Roman feet each one financed. The peacock, symbolizing eternity and resurrection, was near that. (I found that symbolism kind of amusing given its circumstances.)
The first tomb you come across is that of a Medici. No surprise there. Medici aren’t exactly thin on the ground in Florence. They’re as ubiquitous as phalluses in Pompeii. (Phalli, actually, but I didn’t want to confuse you.)
This particular Medici was a big deal (In truth, they all thought they were a big deal.) because he was a city magistrate, and therefore merited a tomb inside the church. Here, you can see some examples of the Medici coat of arms on his tomb. That coat of arms appears to be everywhere you look in Florence. I was amazed to learn in this article that a few branches Medici family still exist and seem to be doing quite well for themselves. In fact, Prince Ottaviano de Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, still lives in Florence.
The extant frescoes with their bright colors really sparked my imagination. There was a time when all these walls would have been covered with such frescoes. I’m sure they were a sight to behold.
There were a lot of instructional signs that described how the building expanded over the years, and how the use of various parts of the church changed as time went on. There were areas behind walls and beneath the floors that lead me to believe that the archeologists could continue to excavate this site for another century and still not uncover everything it has to offer.
But what really fascinated me were the various tombs. Many of them had full-length carvings of the deceased. Others included coats of arms or heraldic seals. All I can say is, we don’t make ‘em like we used to.
Heading back up a short flight of stairs brought us back into the modern (relatively speaking) cathedral. On the way to Santa Reparata, we walked past the front entrance with its extremely long line of impatient tourists. Little did they know that if they had gone to see Santa Reparata, they could have gotten in immediately afterward without standing in line at all.
Now, Rick Steves says in his guidebook that the exterior of this church is much more interesting than the interior. I will admit, an exterior like that would be a tough act to follow. But Steves comes right out and says that the church itself is rather empty and plain and if you skip it, you won’t have missed much. While I wouldn’t want to stand in line for 4 hours to see this church, especially after seeing so many other Italian cathedrals that were 100 times more breathtaking, I could never say it isn’t worth seeing at all.
See it, if only for the dome. The paintings are beyond belief. The close up view of those paintings is the only reason I struggled with not attempting the dome climb, if I’m honest. But my back was in excruciating pain, so I contented myself with taking nice clear pictures and zooming in when I got home.
And then there is some beautiful stained glass, marble flooring, sculptures and frescoes to admire as well. If the dome art was not a part of this building, then, yeah, it wouldn’t rank in the top ten cathedrals I’ve seen in Italy. But the dome alone puts it into the top five. And if you’re throwing exteriors into the mix, it might just be in the top 3. So this is one of those rare occasions when I disagree with Steves. It’s well worth a visit. Just combine it with Santa Reparata so there’s no waiting involved.
I plan to write more posts about this Monumental Complex in the near future. In the meantime, I hope you’ve enjoyed taking this travel through time with me. I’ve certainly enjoyed being your guide.
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