Florence Cathedral: A Little Peek on Florence

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IMPORTANT NOTE: The time you select on the order form is your preferred time. The closest available time, which can be anytime during opening hours on the selected date, will be automatically confirmed if your preferred time is no longer available.

Visitors are asked to respect some simple rules. Your pre-purchased ticket DOES NOT guarantee access or the possibility to stay inside the monument. You may be asked to leave if you choose not to respect the following:

• Appropriate clothing is required – no bare arms/shoulders or bare legs. Please note that access to the Cathedral, the Baptistery and the Crypt will be denied without appropriate clothing.
• Please respect the silence
• Please turn your mobile phones and other electronic devices off
• Do not eat nor drink
• Pets are not allowed
• Works of art must not be touched
• No smoking
• No flash photography or tripod
• Access not allowed with large suitcases
• Wardrobe not present

Please note that the various places of worship may always be subject to closure without notice for masses, concerts, and extraordinary events.

Discover the greatest works of art within the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore - such as the clock by Paolo Uccello, the fresco by Zuccari and Vasari and the marble choir created by Baccio Bandinelli. The tour will also take you for a climb up to the panoramic terrace on the north side of the Cathedral, where you'll enjoy an extraordinary view over the roofs of Florence and Brunelleschi's Dome.

After an exciting climb, you'll reach the panoramic terraces of the Cathedral that tower over thirty meters high above ground (almost 100 feet!), just below the roof of Santa Maria del Fiore. See the beautiful surroundings of Florence from an exclusive vantage point, as well as all the monuments of the city. Above all, enjoy the close presence of the cupola. The walk around the Cathedral offers you the opportunity to appreciate the marble decorations, virtually untouched by time.

Formed by two interconnected domes, the octagonal cupola of the Cathedral of Florence was built between 1418 and 1434 based on the proposal Filippo Brunelleschi presented at the 1418 competition. Dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore (Saint Mary of the Flower), the temple consecrated on March 25, 1436 is still the largest dome ever built with bricks.

The Duomo is a wonder of the world of architecture, and its execution is in many regards still a mystery. With its octagonal dome higher and wider than any that had ever been built, with no external buttresses to keep it from spreading and falling under its own weight, the technical difficulties were some of the greatest ever faced – and overcome – in the history of architecture.

During your visit, you have the opportunity to see the details of this work created by the genius Filippo Brunelleschi. Take the walkways, corridors, and the spiral staircases that lead to the top of the panoramic terrace (92 meters/301 feet), and travel back in time.

The cupola is 45.5 meters (1,492 feet) in diameter, equalling the entire Baptistery. Brunelleschi’s astonishing innovation was that of vaulting the cupola without a skeleton by using a double vault separated by an air space. The bricks of the internal vault (2 meters/6 feet thick), laid in a herringbone pattern, are self-supporting, while the external vault is only a covering.



At the top of the cupola rises the lantern with its cone-shaped covering after a design by Brunelleschi, realized after the artist’s death (1446). Verrocchio's gilded copper ball with cross containing holy relics sits atop it since 1466. 


The fresco decoration covering over three thousand square meters of the inside of Brunelleschi’s cupola was realized between 1572 and 1579 by Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari. With depictions of the Last Judgment, it shares the iconographic theme with the Baptistery. The frescoes in the cupola were completely restored between 1978 and 1994.

Once the visit is confirmed, you can not cancel or modify.