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Florence Baptistry open?

Posted by on

I will be in Florence at the end of May and have a question about visiting the Baptistry. It is my understanding that the mosaics are under restoration right now. On the official site it doesn't explicitly say the Baptistry is closed. There is a 1 hour didactic tour that will take you up on the scaffolding to see the mosaics up close and personal. Is this the only way to currently see the Baptistry, or can we still go in without this special tour? Does the scaffolding block the view of the mosaics?

I ask because the scaffold tour is only offered on Thurs/Fri (if I am reading the website correctly). We will be leaving Florence on Thursday, and had intended to stop in Padua to see the Scrovegni Chapel on our way to Venice. However, if we take the Baptistry tour we will end up skipping Padua on this trip.

Posted by
16624 posts

The website still lists the hours that the baptistry is open, and clicking random dates on the website doesn't show any closed dates so you should be able to get in for a look. Someone over on TA posted that they'd been there recently (earlier this month) and it was open, although they couldn't really see the ceiling for the scaffolding.

It may look like the photo on this site (4th of 6):
https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/other/the-restoration-of-the-mosaics-of-the-florence-baptistery-dome-photos/ss-AA17kEqj#image=4

The website's calendar shows the close-up restoration tours in English as only available on Fridays and Saturdays. :O(
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Posted by
22 posts

Oh no, I read the internet wrong again! You are correct Kathy, the tours are only available on Friday and Saturday. Even though it clearly shows the week starting on a Monday in their calendar my brain starts them on Sunday.

Well, that makes the decision easy :-) We'll go to the Baptistry earlier in the week and see whatever we can see, and will go to Scrovegni Chapel on Thursday.

Thanks for the answers, and great pictures of what to expect in the Baptistry.

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