Museo dell’Opera del Duomo

Light, airy and surprisingly overlooked by the crowds, the Cathedral Museum, behind the cathedral, safeguards works that once adorned the Duomo, Battistero and campanile. The museum begins with a history of the Duomo told in the best English-language signage in Florence. Under the glass-topped courtyard you’ll find the original version of Ghiberti’s awe-inspiring masterpiece – the Porta del Paradiso (Doors of Paradise). Designed for the Battistero, the doors took 27 painstaking years to complete and are considered a seminal work of the early Renaissance for their naturalism and innovative use of perspective. Other masterworks in the museum include Michelangelo’s Pietà, a work he intended for his own tomb, and Donatello’s wooden representation of a gaunt and desolate Mary Magdalene. Upstairs, you can also see the original machines Brunelleschi designed to build his revolutionary dome.