The Florence Cathedral, commonly referred to as the Duomo di Firenze, is one of the world's largest…read morechurches and probably the most stunning building I've ever seen. It is the beautiful crown jewel of the beautiful city of Florence, a gothic cathedral built between 1296 and 1436. The dome, envisioned at the project's inception, was only completed over a century later. It remains, in 2025, the largest masonry dome ever constructed.
We made a point of visiting the Duomo almost as soon as we arrived in Florence, then ran across it several more times over the course of our two-and-a-half-day stay. It felt like the spiritual and practical center of the city. I don't think you can avoid the Duomo on foot any more than you can miss it in Florence's skyline--not that you would want to.
The exterior is exquisite. The dome, the gothic architecture, the extravagant details. All that pink, green, and white marble. You get a lot out of the Duomo just by staring at it whenever you happen to walk by.
The cathedral is free to enter, but there is almost always a line. We waited in it twice, once just to grab a postcard from the gift shop. It wasn't bad, maybe five to ten minutes, but that was in mid-November.
The interior was gorgeous, too, vast and intentionally bare relative to, say, St. Peter's or the Duomo's own exterior. No gold, but a wealth of stained glass and God knows how many tons of marble.
There was a small gift shop downstairs, where we purchased a magnet and a postcard for our kids, left at home. I thought about getting the nice Christmas ornament of the dome, but it cost almost €80.
We wanted to go to the Opera del Duomo museum on our last afternoon in town, but the window was too tight, and we realized we would've been better served buying a pass for a few of the standalone attractions--the museum as well as the baptistry or the belltower. In any case, I'm pretty sure we'll be back to Florence, and I look forward to revisiting the Duomo.
