The house of beans

Beneath your feet lies the square where people were buried for centuries, around the building where nearly every Florentine began their life. The Baptistery is the oldest structure in the centre.

Baptisms happened collectively here, on just a few set days each year, and the bookkeeping was wonderfully practical. For every child baptised, a bean went into a container, black for a boy and white for a girl, so that by the end of the year the city knew exactly how many Florentines had joined its ranks.

One of those children was Dante, who later called the building his beautiful San Giovanni, long after he had been exiled. You can walk through his Florence on our tour about Dante and Beatrice.

The bronze doors that almost everyone stops to admire came out of a competition in 1401 that Ghiberti won against Brunelleschi. The two trial panels they submitted now sit side by side in the museum behind the cathedral, and anyone who looks at them can decide for themselves whether the jury got it right.

From here we walk a few steps back towards the slender tower beside the cathedral.