The Baptistery of Saint John

 When I visited Florence 15 years ago I recall the visiting the Baptistery, the 1000 year old octagonal building next to the main cathedral,  as being an impactful event - I still remember the remarkable gold mosaics adorning the ceiling.

Baptistery of St. John

So when we got to Florence, I wanted to repeat the visit, to see how a different time and perspective had changed my perception of it.  Besides, I thought Mary would appreciate it, especially compared to the famous, but less impressive, church behind it.

Photo of the ceiling from 15 years ago

Like just about everything in Italy, you need to pay to get in.  Sadly, you can't just buy a ticket for the Baptistery: that would be too easy.  Instead, admittance is part of a "combo" ticket, of which there are many to choose from, depending upon which 3 or 5 other pay-to-get-in sites are part of the combo.  So I bought one of them.  The confusing part for me (perhaps I can blame Google Translate?) was that although the ticket for all the sights was, in theory,  good for three days, there was a timed 10 minute window to use the ticket.  Hmm.

Complicating matters even more, there was "renovation" work going on, so you couldn't see everything.  Since nothing I could find described what was and wasn't still visible, I didn't know if we should use our 10 minute window on the Baptistery, or on something else in case the ceiling was obscured.

So we chose the only (seemingly at the time) rational option: we stood by the exit and asked people as they walked out what they could or couldn't see.  The first people to exit, an Italian couple, told us ... well I'm not sure since their English was about as good as my Italian.  I think they said there was scaffolding in the way, but they liked it anyway.

The next couple - Americans from the mid-west (judging from their accent) were thrilled.  Although the scaffolding covered the window at the top of the ceiling - the rest of the mosaics were beautiful! They also mentioned that no one checked for the entry times, so that although our ticket wasn't for a couple of hours, we should just go!

So we went, only to be told there were no backpacks allowed: they had to be checked at the museum coat-check, on the opposite side of the Piazza, after waiting our turn starting from the back of the line.  Halfway there, we (Mary actually) made the observation that we didn't have much in our backpacks - we donned our spare jackets and emptied the backpacks and their contents into our pockets.  Problem solved.

With bulging pockets we entered the Baptistery only to discover the the ceiling was entirely obscured by a drop-cloth: not a single mosaic was visible.  What the american couple saw was an likeness of the mosaics silk-screened onto the cloth!

As it turns out, the Italian couple was right - with the ceiling covered, we could notice the other interesting facets of this 1000 year old building.  For example, as a quilter, Mary noticed all the classic quilt patterns as mosaics on the floor

Floor Mosaics

Thanks to an early afternoon rain-storm that scattered the bulk of the tourists, we were able to see all the "combo" sights that afternoon.