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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A TALE OF TWO CATHEDRALS


Over the last two days we have visited two major cathedrals ... Or Duomos as they are called over here.

Sienna on Tuesday and Florence today ( Wednesday ).

Now I have to tell you when we parked the car and saw how far we had to climb to actually get up to the cathedral in Sienna I almost had a fit.
It is a VERY long way up and I was VERY apprehensive but we set off regardless and then we came to these.....



Modern inventions to the rescue.

One after another, activated by a motion sensor as you stepped on them they went upwards, ever upwards. There must have been six at least.

They finally came out in a narrow street bordered on both sides by very high, very old buildings.
Very stark, quite dingy, not impressive.
We walked on and finally turned a corner to see this !




Absolutely beautiful .... from any angle.

Inside was a-maz-ing !! ( paid entry )


Everywhere you looked there was some wonder to see. 




Amazing floors



And ceilings


Wonderful paintings


Stained glass windows


And the dome !

The carvings were incredible.


Can you see all these heads around the window?
When I started to look they were everywhere.


And just when you thought you had seen it all we stepped into this room


And were completely blown away.





So today we set off to Florence looking forward to the great Florence Cathedral.
This time we caught the bus and, thank Heavens, Florence is Flat !

Much bigger city, much bigger crowd,

Much Bigger Cathedral.


( Sorry about the solar flare !)


Too big to fit into one photo


So pretty - all pnk and green and white.


With great anticipation we hurried inside. (Free entry)
A huge cavernous building but quite bare.


Beautiful floors,


Spectacular dome








So there you are.
Each one beautiful in its own way

But I think my favourite was Sienna's.

Cheers

12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Both so pretty too Louise. Unusual to be pretty from the outside but these were very colourful.

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  2. Oh . MY.Goodness.

    Well worth practically having to climb with ropes and pulleys to the top ...those cathedrals are amazing. I would have spent literally hours in there soaking in all that beauty.

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    1. And that's what we did Shay. Italian churches are spectacular and all about religion, English churches are spectacular but more about history, and the French churches that I have seen tend to be about stained glass but otherwise very bare.

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  3. Such incredible craftsmanship on display. Did you climb to the top of the duomo in Florence? The view from there is spectacular.

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    1. No, gave it a miss YP. Both a bit unwell and dicky knees are beginning to play up after all the stairs. Another 400 might have ruined the holiday. Still more than 2 weeks to go. Have to think ahead!

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  4. The cathedral in Sienna is lovely. I had a chuckle when reading about how far you had to walk in Sienna to get to the cathedral. Hubby said to tell you to drive into the middle of the city like we did, thanks to our fabulous (not) GPS that landed us in all sorts of trouble. I was horrified and so embarrassed as we were clearly driving in streets that were so narrow and clearly meant for local traffic only. I didn't know how to say in Italian "Blame it on the GPS". One fellow even wagged his finger at us to express his displeasure. We didn't actually go inside the Sienna cathedral but we have been inside the one in Florence, happily we walked into the centre of town from our accommodation. The floors are beautiful and all that space is amazing. It's quite difficult to grasp just how these immense structures would have been built all those years ago. It looks like you are having simply the best time and I hope you are feeling better.
    Anne xx

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  5. Stunning! Your mind must be like a kaleidescope right now!

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  6. Found your blog and am so pleased to see these photos! I have been to all of the places you've posted (in Italy) and still am amazed I was actually there to see and experience it. Thanks for the opportunity to see it again!

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  7. I'm just reading some of these Italian posts you have put up. I feel I could do with photography lessons from you. Wonder what kind of camera you have?

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  8. Tony has a DSLR which takes wonderful photos but my little point and shoot does really well too and I use some of his but mainly mine in my posts because it is easier.

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