This is the top of the cupola on the Duomo. You can take 462 stairs up to the top, and that’s what we did yesterday.

The line starts at a side door and wraps around the Duomo. Eventually, you reach the inside of the church and enter through an inconspicuous door immediately on your left.

And it’s all uphill from there. 🙂 

The stairwell is punctured by the occasional windows that provide fantastic views of Florence as you move onwards and upwards. 

Hey, don’t write on the walls. 🙂 I don’t love graffiti but the variety of languages was pretty cool to see. 

This was our favorite note:

Circular staircase! This was actually a much easier climb than the one to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica. This looks grungy but it’s clean and the Duomo has better traction. St. Peter’s was all tile — shinier but slicker too. 

A lot of tight turns adds to the medieval feel. 

You take one more tight turn and up a set of stairs, and you’re at the top.

View of the city:

Squinty up there:

Climb back down and hop in another (shorter) line to walk through the main floor of the Duomo:

And if you feel so inclined, you can check out the lower level of the Duomo as well, where they’ve done excavations of parts of the original church on the site.