Is Baptistery of San Giovanni worth it as a couple?
Worth itAs a couple
As a couple, Baptistery of San Giovanni works.
Walk in, tip your head back, and the entire octagonal ceiling is a single shimmering field of 13th-century gold mosaic — a Last Judgement with a giant Christ and a devil devouring the damned, the kind of thing that stops a room of jaded visitors mid-sentence. It rewards a slow look the way a planetarium does: stand under the lantern, let your eyes adjust, and the gold reads as light rather than decoration. Ten quiet minutes here outclass far longer waits elsewhere. The downside is purely that the famous bronze doors outside are replicas (the originals are in the Opera museum next door).
The gold-ground mosaic ceiling (with its giant Christ as World Judge and Last Judgment) was created c.1225–1330 by Venetian mosaicists to designs by Florentine painters including Coppo di Marcovaldo and probably Cimabue. · en.wikipedia.org
The Baptistery of San Giovanni, dedicated to St John the Baptist, was consecrated in 1059 and is among Florence's oldest buildings; entry is via the Brunelleschi Pass. · duomo.firenze.it