Giotto's Bell Tower — Attraction in Florence

It's a great feeling to stand on the Piazza del Duomo and in peace observe these wonderful works of architecture (Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), Giotto's Campanile and the Baptistry of St. John). This is a unique place where you can see the glow of medieval Gothic architecture. Next to the magnificent Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore is the beautiful Giotto's Campanile. Like the cathedral, the bell tower is sumptuously decorated in white, green and pink marble. The construction of Campanile began in 1334 under the management of Giotto di Bondone. On the death in 1302 of Arnolfo di Cambio, the first Master of the Works of the Cathedral, and after an interruption of more than thirty years, the celebrated painter Giotto di Bondone was nominated as his successor in 1334. At that time he was 67 years old. Giotto concentrated his energy on the design and construction of a campanile (bell tower) for the cathedral. His design was in harmony with the polychromy of the cathedral, as applied by Arnolfo di Cambio, giving the tower a view as if it were painted. Campanile is built on a square plan, with five different levels, of which the lower two most demanding. Giotto imagined that the lower level contained hexagonal plates and reliefs set with diamond "lozenges" depicting the creation of man, planets, virtues, liberal arts and sacraments. But when Giotto died in 1337, he had only finished the lower floor with its marble external revetment, geometric patterns of white marble from Carrara, green marble from Prato and red marble from Siena. Giotto was succeeded as Master of the Works in 1343 by Andrea Pisano,famous already for the South Doors of the Baptistery. He continued the construction of the bell tower, scrupulously following Giotto's design. The second level is decorated with two rows of niches in which there are statues of Bible prophets. Some of these statues were designed by Donatello, while others were attributed to Andrea Pisano and Nanni di Bartolo. Finally Francesco Talenti built the top three levels, with large windows, completing the bell tower in 1359. The top, with its scenic panorama of Florence and the surrounding hills, can be reached by climbing 414 steps. Giotto's campanile there are seven bells, of which Campanone and La Misericordia are...

I'm both a people watcher and would-be Ansel Adams so today's trip up the tower both amused me immensely and irritated me intensely - let me explain why. It's absolutely pointless actually writing reviews here saying stuff like "buy tickets on line", "go early and beat the queues" and "don't expect to get tickets on the day, they run out quickly" because it is clear that hardly anyone reads them and they'll do exactly as follows. Even though there's an orderly queue, they walk up to the front of it and ask the young, polite, courteous Italian man charged with managing the line how to get in. He replies (in a weary but stoic way) in his rehearsed lines "you need to buy tickets from the ticket office over there under the blue flags" and "no sir/madam, there are no tickets left for today" over and over and over and over again. In fact, the look on one women's face when he asked for her ticket and she replied "what, it's not free?" was worth my visit to Florence alone. It was so amusing that I could barely tear myself away from the flagstones to start my own ascent. So after a very decent bit of people watching I swung my trusty box brownie in front of me anticipating city-wide panoramic views at the top. Hmm. They'd be great if it wasn't for the, er, grate. That is, clearly enough people have deposited phones over the edge to ensure that the management now, perhaps unsurprisingly, have had to quite literally plastic tie a whole new meshing system onto the old one so nobody can accidentally wedge a phone through and chuck it out and kill a small child below. Now if you have a camera phone (mostly like the thousands who ascend the tower every year do) your tiny weeny little plastic lens isn't troubled by a 6cm square steel chicken run but my Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR Black has an opening of over 7cm so no photo without dark shady borders interfering with the shot. I'm not asking much - me and the few real camera users left in the world who come and spend big bucks in your beautiful city just want a couple of big holes (you can easily install cage catches like they do on the empire state) to stick our lenses through. Is that too much to ask? My pictures demonstrate clearly this issue if the good people of Florence need help imagining the scale of...

Giotto's Tower is an emblematic building for Florence. It is part of the complex - the tower, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore and the Baptistery. It was built as a bell tower. It is a separate building, built according to the design of Giotto di Bondone. He began the construction itself in 1334, but shortly after, while the tower was still in its beginnings, the first floor, Giotto died in 1337. After his death, the work continued, his assistant Andrea Pisano. /not to be confused with Niccolo Pisano/. In 1348, work on the tower stopped due to the plague. Subsequently, in 1349, the work was continued by Francesco Torrenti and the tower was completed in 1359, but according to other sources, the tower was completed in 1375. From the outside, the tower is quite beautiful. It has seven floors. The architecture is Gothic. Inside, you climb along narrow corridors, where it is a little difficult traffic in both directions. You climb 414 steps to the top. There are several floors from where the views of the city are good, but of course the best view is from the top. The top of the tower has a metal mesh for safety reasons. The height of the tower is 85 meters. The entrance fee is 20 euros. There are options for combined tickets with the Baptistery and Brunelleschi's dome. It is good to buy a ticket online. I didn't have one, but at the ticket office at 9:30, I got one for 14:00. Get in line at least 15 minutes before your ticket time, because the queue sometimes reaches 70-80 meters. Leave your luggage in advance, because when it's your turn, they will tell you that you can't enter with it. The luggage room is at the Opera del Duomo museum. It's free. The tower's working hours are 08:15-18:45, during the winter season it may be different working hours. If possible, climb the tower. GPS:...