Yesterday, I promised Satan munching on human snacks. The day has come. The Satan pic is directly below the Jesus picture in the upper right corner of the mosaic below. Enjoy.

When as I was going through these pictures, I was reminded of how much I admired the craftsmanship on display at all of the places we visited in Italy. And… it reminded me of how little we strive to make things beautiful in the United States. This seems particularly striking to me while I was driving down Colerain Ave. in Cincinnati. It’s a massive 4 lane road, that somehow also manages to be monstrously congested, and lined with oceans of dingy strip malls. It’s at once boring and chaotic, and particular mix that seems difficult to achieve. It’s disgusting.

And it’s not hard to see why Americans don’t value place. It’s because all the visual queues tell them those spaces are throwaway. The roads and parking lots are made for cars and not people. The buildings are constructed in the cheapest possible way. Construction from the 90’s is already looking dilapidated. Everything thing about this space is constructed for the maximum extraction of value.

I suspect that this is really just an offshoot of a larger truth. Italians value history over progress. They value quality over quantity. They value people over capital. America is in contrast on each of these. And seeing a culture that has chosen differently, reminds me that these are choices rather than forgone conclusions.

This was the ceiling of the Baptistry of the Duomo.

Satan munching on humans! It’s unfortunate that the scaffolding is obscuring him a bit.

St Sabastian is really not having a great time here. I assume this is St Sabastian. Honestly, don’t take my word for it.

This isn’t creepy at all.

I shot this to illustrate how much they need to work on this building. I suspect air pollution causes this, and cleaning it off requires loads of money.

This is Adam having a sad.

And this is Eve shamefully covering her face. It was hard to see that mostly because 100s of years later, women still get paid around 75 percent less than men.

Statues on the facade of the Duomo

This is a particularly resigned pope.

This was the altar in the sanctuary of The Duomo. As I have said elsewhere, the Duomo was not as ornate as I was expecting it to be considering how elaborate the exterior and the inside of The Baptistry are.

You’re welcome Kathy and Claire.

It’s all painted – this is a quote from our tour guide in The Vatican. More on that in future posts. This is the steeple of the Duomo, and it is literally painted.

This mosaic work was stunning.

The craftsmanship in these floors is remarkable.

The deli that we visited in gathering picnic provisions.

Bobby is currently making excellent choices for the meats we enjoyed at Michelangelo park.

Ponte Vecchio from afar.

That’s the old city wall.

The Duomo from afar.

That’s the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi is there too, but not as recognizable.

Ponte Vecchio a bit closer.

Sunset.

The Duomo at sunset.

Ponte Vecchio at sunset.

On our third day in Florence we toured the Duomo Baptistry and the church as well as it’s underground crypt. Then we hunted and gathered deli meats and cheeses, bread, and wine, and headed to Michelangelo Park for an afternoon listening to music and enjoying the view until the sun went down. Yes, that afternoon was just a lovely as it sounds, especially when you consider 6 adults probably drank 3 bottles of wine and 4, perhaps 5 bottles of prosecco.

The Duomo was interesting. The Baptistry was stunning and ornate. The exterior of the Duomo is imposing with all that colored marble. The museum was fascinating, showing the history of the Duomo and the facades that it’s had across the hundreds of years that it’s been standing; it was started in 1200’s and finished in the 1400’s. Which is why it was so confusing that the Duomo itself wasn’t ornately decorated.

The crypt under the Duomo had some of what you might expect, dead people, of some of what you might not, the old sanctuary floor mosaics. When you want to update something in Italy, you just build on top of the old stuff. And that’s apparently exactly what they did with the Duomo. They just built a new floor above the old sanctuary floor, and that was that, new and improved church. This was on the only instance of this happening. Be on the look out for St Clément’s in Rome.

After lots of church time, these heathens when on the hunt for picnic provisions and headed to the park. The weather couldn’t have been nicer to lounge in the sun. We ate drank so many bottles of wine and prosecco, and heard live music. It was a much needed break from walking and absorbing information.

I think I got a great shot of satan chowing down on people, a scene on The Baptistry ceiling. I will leave in suspece for that until tomorrow.

This is the ceiling of the Baptistry. The pictures look unbelievable because the actual space looked unbelievable.

More from The Baptistry.

The amount of gold leaf in this building was hard to process.

One side satan is chowing down on some people. I should think this terrified illiterate people in 1500

This is the altar in The Baptistry

I think there’s a good picture of satan having a person snack in tomorrows pictures.

This is the floor in The Baptistry

Keep in mind how ornate the Baptistry is in just a few pictures.

Just a reminder, this is what the actual church looks like on the outside. Keep that in mind a few photos from this one.

There was a museum that displated replicas and actual statues from older facades that the church had in the past.

This is a replica of the gothic facade that the church used to have prior to the current ornate marble

Behind creepy, glassy-eyed Mary are mosaics that were on a previous fascade

More statues from a previous fascade

I didn’t read the words associated with this thing, but if I had to guess it’s probably the ark of the covenant.

So, yeah, this is the inside of the church. Not what you’d expect considering how ornate the outside and The Baptistry are.

This is the steeple just above the altar.

The steeple

This is the basement. It seems to be common practice in Italy to just build over something when you want an update. Many tour guides referred to Rome as a lasagne. They more you dig the more history you find. The crypts are no exception. These mosaics are the old floor of the church.

This was the floor of the sancturary of the old church.

Floor of the old Duomo

The mosaics were in shockingly good shape.

But also there were dead people.

More mosaics.

More dead people

I believe that’s John the Baptist’s finger there. Joking, but it is some saint’s body part.

This were we hunted and gathered our deli meats.

This was the view we enjoyed at Michelangelo Park.

You can see the Duomo in the background of this picture.

It was a lovely 70 degrees and breezy. It was a lovely day to be outside.

We enjoyed some local music until the sun went down.