Giotto’s Bell Tower
A blond helmet and a charming smile: two girls who, at age 3 and 4, climbed Giotto’s Bell Tower in the Piazza del Duomo in Florence.
The little girl with the blond helmet was me, accompanied by my brother and my father, on a winter day in 1984 when we climbed up one of the more exciting climbs of Florence to admire the incredible landscape of the city.
More than 30 years later, I climbed with my daughter, Caterina, the 414 steps that lead to the top of Giotto’s Bell Tower, at a height of 85 meters/278 feet.
At age 67 and already a master of painting, Giotto showed his skill in architecture when he was commissioned in 1334 to build the Bell tower for the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Originally, the tower was to be 115 meters high, but three years after beginning construction on the tower, Giotto died and a decision was reached to reduce the height of the tower to 85 meters, as it stands today.
With the wind blowing at the top of the Bell Tower, Caterina and I were immersed in a 360-degree panorama studded with domes, palaces and other towers on a warm late-summer day. A feeling of freedom suppressed the fear of dizzying heights, allowing us to look down at Piazza del Duomo where people—tiny to our eyes—scurried about. The nearby Dome of the Cathedral and the Baptistry seemed almost close enough to touch.
Then a thought caught Caterina’s attention and she peered over the balcony, seeking to spot her grandparents, among the crowd of people in the piazza. They were downstairs, sitting in a café, waiting for us, but it was so hard to find them!
