This surprise is the more emphatic if one happens already to have been in the Baptistery.

For the Baptistery is also coloured marble without, yet within it is coloured marble and mosaic too: there is no disparity; whereas in the Duomo the walls have a Northern grey and the columns are brown.

Austerity and immensity join forces.
When all is said the chief merit of the Duomo is this immensity.

Such works of art as it has are not very noticeable, or at any rate do not insist upon being seen; but in its vastness it overpowers.

Great as are some of the churches of Florence, I suppose three or four of them could be packed within this one.