Giotto's Campanile

Before heading out to Giotto's Campanile, I stopped by the local record store to find that the much anticipated PlayStation Move had launched here in Europe:

Pretty cool!

Adjacent to the colossus Duomo, lies the tower Giotto's Campanile (bell tower).



















Giotto's bell tower was constructed in 1359 with three different architects working on the dynamic architecture. Today it stands at a daunting 278 feet high and towers above all of Florence.

Etched throughout the exterior of the building are numerous symbolic and religious icons:



















Every hour, it rings its gigantic bells that can be heard throughout the city. It's an iconic structure that makes a for a great companion piece to the Duomo. I just had to check it out.

The first thing I encountered was this sign:















It wasn't exactly the most encouraging thing to see before climbing.

As I started, déjà vu from climbing the Duomo began appearing. Endless flights of stairs with no foreseeable end.

I than however, began to see some refreshing light in the distance simmer through. Finally, I'd made it. It wasn't so bad....

No.

This was just the first level. Damn, I was tricked like this last time. Who knew the church has a sense of humor...

I went through about 3 levels before I finally reached the top. Here are some shots of the different levels as I was spiraling to the peak.

I also ran into this very familiar sign:

Ummm, moving on....

After about 234 breaks, 18 bottles of water and some hyperventilation, I crawled my way to the top of Giotto's Tower.

Here are a couple of videos I captured while atop:

Part 1
Part 2

Although the sight was incredibly impressive, the Duomo provided a much more fleshed out panoramic view.















It was still great to experience Florence from a different vantage point and look onto the Duomo, eye-to-eye.

Here's a rather humorous shot of a Japanese tourist trying to wave to opposing sightseers on top of the Duomo.

After properly experiencing the full 360 view of the Giotto's bell tower, I slowly made my descent towards ground level.

On the way down, I ran to a quite mysterious door that looked like something straight out of a horror film.

Fearing what could lie behind it (a hunchback?), I hurriedly continued on.

Before reaching the floor, I did capture a very interesting shot of some repair work being done in the interior of the tower.

Gave a rare insight into some of the behind the scenes work that's done on these ancient structures.

After the long trek down, I eventually hit rock bottom and gingerly strolled home.

On the way home, I saw a fairly fascinating race between a horse and a car, nature vs. technology:

The horse won...Take that Einstein!