This
Campanile Is Curiously Inlaid And Incrusted On Its Outside With Red,
White And Black Marble.
The Baptistery is another building on the same
Piazza.
It is in the same stile of building as the Duomo, but incloses
much less space, and was formerly a separate church, called the church of
St John the Baptist. The immense bronze doors or rather gates, both of the
Duomo and Battisterio, attracted my peculiar notice. On them are figured
bas-reliefs of exquisite and admirable workmanship, representing Scripture
histories. It was the symmetry and perfection of these gates that induced
Michel Angelo to call them in a fit of enthusiasm The Gates of Paradise.
At the door of the Battisterio are the columns in red granite, which once
adorned the gates of the city at Pisa, and were carried off by the
Florentines in one of their wars. Chains are fastened round these columns,
as a memorial of the conquest. The cupolas both of the Duomo and
Battisterio are octangular. There is a stone seat on the Piazza del Duomo
where they pretend that Dante used occasionally to sit; hence it is called
to this day Il Sasso di Dante.
You will now no doubt expect me to give some account of the theatres. At
the Pergola, which is a large and splendid theatre, I have seen two
operas; the one, L'Italiana in Algieri, which I saw before at Milan last
year; the other, the Barbieri di Seviglia by Rossini, which afforded to
my ears the most delightful musical feast they ever enjoyed.
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