Saturday, May 21, 2011

Chan Brothers 12 Days Europe Tour- The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Day 4)-Part 1


This morning, our tour group headed for a relaxing tour of the city of Florence! First, we headed to The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore!

The aforementioned church as well as our city tour are located in Piazza del Duomo, located in the heart of the historic center of Florence, (Tuscany - Italy), where one can find the Florence Cathedral with the Cupola del Brunelleschi, the Giotto's Campanile, the Florence Baptistery, the Loggia del Bigallo, the Opera del Duomo Museum, and the Arcivescovile and Canonici's palace. The west zone of this square is called San Giovanni square.



The church, also called the Duomo (a generic Italian term of a cathedral church) of Florence, is famous for its dome design and its polychrome of marble panels bordered by white. When we arrived there, a long queue has been formed at the entrance of the church. Having had a long journey and a heavy breakfast, many of us went to use the toilet at a cofffee cafe but we were disallowed to use, hence we paid for the use of a toilet which permits entry through a "gantry" system.

After using the toilet, we were guided by a local tour guide, who is also coincidentally called Florence! Yeah, Florence took us to learn more about Florence!

We entered into the grand cathedral church. The church is so big that we cannot capture it fully into our photos!