We are planning an upcoming trip to Florence and wanted to take an English tour of the restoration work happening on the baptistery’s ceiling mosaics. Originally, the tour was being offered on Fridays and Saturdays, but now seems limited to Saturdays only throughout the summer. Unfortunately, this does not work with our plans. The website also references Friday and Saturday tours. Any idea if Fridays will once again be added in the future?
Posted by
Saint Paul, Minnesota
1640 posts
No idea whether Fridays will be available again for you (I hope so!), but I did want to tell you that we did that tour in November and found it well worth it. Highly, highly recommended --- and I am sort of a cheapskate who also dislikes tours. You cannot believe the detail in the mosaics that nobody can see from the floor. And the little "band-aids" that the restorers have applied in places to keep some tiles from falling out.
The only thing I wish I'd done is to ask more questions and to ask the guide to slow down a bit and let us look at the mosaics longer --- I think she would have slowed down, too, but like so many tours, it was geared toward tourists in a big hurry to do many things in one day. I had a similar experience at the Palazzo Davanzati and the guide there let me go around the house again for free when she saw I was truly interested and had the time.
Posted by
7 posts
The Duomo website says the tour is available in English on Friday and Saturday at 11am
https://duomo.firenze.it/en/exclusive-tours/8532/guided-tour-of-restoration-site-of-the-baptistery
However I see when you click through the Friday tours drop off before your dates. I do find other tours that enter the Baptistry on Viator and Get Your Guide. You could email them to see if they also ascend the scaffolding or if they can direct you to a tour that does. It is possible the Duomo's English Language guide simply isn't available to do it on Fridays, or the Friday tours may have been bought up by some tour agency. It may also be they have other reasons for not offering on Fridays such as it interferes with the workers. No harm in asking around. I can definitely highly recommend this tour.
Posted by
nova scotia
101 posts
Hello
How do you access the mosaics? I see the shoe restriction - Do you have to climb?
Thanks
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16851 posts
The website says this:
The restoration site is 17 m high, 6 floors. It consists of 11 flights of stairs, in total 110 steps of 17
cm . There is no elevator.
The ascent is not recommended for people with heart, cardiovascular, respiratory disease, who
suffers of vertigo, claustrophobia and pregnant women.
Posted by
nova scotia
101 posts
Thank you for the link. The video shows the stairs - so this is very helpful
Posted by
Saint Paul, Minnesota
1640 posts
Another video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKmIA2iiDzM
The scaffolding itself is beautiful and you go up the stairs fairly slowly and carefully, so it's not strenuous --- I had no problem and I was not in good shape when I did it. It's a good idea to meet with the guide earlier than the stated time because you have to fill out and sign a waiver in a building across from the baptistery.
Posted by
OP
Western New York
22 posts
Thank you for the help!