Florence 2018: Cathedral Museum

The main part of the Florence Cathedral had closed for the day when we got down from climbing the dome so we unfortunately missed out on seeing the church’s interior, other than the brief glimpses we saw before going up the dome. Being late November the days were shorter and the city’s sightseeing attractions were on reduced hours, but we wanted to do one more thing to wrap up the day. I checked my phone and saw that the cathedral museum was still open for another hour so we went there. The museum is just behind the cathedral on the east side and holds a lot of art that’s been removed from the cathedral and its baptistery for preservation. Among other things it holds Ghiberti’s original bronze doors for the baptistery and a pieta by Michelangelo. If you had gone inside the cathedral and were wondering why the interior seemed rather plain compared to a lot of other churches you’d discover that all the missing art is hanging out in the cathedral museum.