Florence at Night

Another night photo, this time in Florence. I did the same thing here that I did in Venice because I was not traveling with a tripod and just placed the camera on the ground. This photo is of the Baptistery of St. John which is part of the main cathedral of Florence, which is called Santa Maria del Fiore (St. Mary of the Flower). The Baptistery is one of the oldest buildings in Florence and one of the most famous. Its purpose was to allow people to be baptized without entering the church because in that time you had to be baptized in order to enter the church but before the invention of the baptistery one could only be baptized in a church. So how could you enter a church to be baptized when you had to first be baptized in order to enter? This building solved that problem. Christians have since relaxed that rule so the concept of a baptistery has faded but this building is proof of their former importance.