Have you ever just added a place to your travel itinerary — not because you have any real desire to see it, but because it’s close? It’s the mindset of, “Well, I don’t know when or if I’ll make it back this way again, so it’d be silly not to”. It’s a thought process that plagues me every time I plan a trip.
And that’s how on my trip to Italy, I found myself in Florence – staring in absolute awe of the Duomo.
Few things have ever simultaneously made me want to stop in my tracks so I can just stare and made me want to walk faster so I can get closer and see more. But that’s exactly what the sight of the world-famous Duomo did to me when I turned that last street corner and entered the square.
It loomed in front of me. Up, up, up my neck went to soak in the amazing site. A massive building with astounding details on every surface my eye landed on, I was hypnotized by the beauty before me. Beauty that was accentuated by the suns unfiltered rays highlighting the front and top of the cathedral.
Everywhere I looked, I noticed something new. Even the scaffolding that usually mars what would otherwise be a WORD WORD WORD sight, revealed something other than the usual of renovations—the Duomo was being cleaned. The pink and green details on the outside are truly unique to anything I’ve seen before, at least on a building of this scale. The tiled roof and massive dome, the many circular windows and the impossibly skinny Bell Tower that climbs up to the sky. My eyes were jumping from detail to detail, trying to take in everything that I was seeing.
When I think back to the sight the Duomo—I realize part of what made the visual so powerful is that it wasn’t just one thing that was amazing—it was all the details: the size, the colors, the lighting, and the combination of the three buildings – the Duomo, the Bell Tower, and the Baptistry. All of those parts added up to create, what was for me, a memorable and surprisingly impactful sight.
I’ve never once regretted adding more to my trips—even if it’s been more work. Sometimes, it’s through these last-minute additions that I’ve found and experienced the highlights of my trips. So, I say: Keep that “Meh, might as well go see it since it’s so close” mentality and see what other treasures I happen upon!
