More Florence

On December 29 we went to see Dante Aligieri's house. He was born near the end of the thirteenth century and died in 1321. He was a writer who wrote among other things the Divine Comedy which was a book that was widely read among Italians. This book helped shape the current day Italian language. He was betrothed at 12 years old to a young girl from the Donati family. There was a map that lit up that showed the six different families that ruled Florence at that time. After we left Dante's house we walked back down by Santa Croce. On the way back we stopped at a store so I could buy a purple beret. We also walked all the way around the main Duomo. It was a long way around. We also walked over to the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge with all sorts of shops and carts. There were locks everywhere around that area. My sister told me that kids were write their names on the locks to insure their eternal love. And then they would throw the keys into the River Arno. I also rode on the carousel near Piazza di Repubblica again.

Off to Florence

Well we have arrived in Florence. We took the train from Orvieto to Florence (Firenza in Italian). It was about a two hour train ride. Then we walked about five minutes to our hotel. The place we are staying is within walking distance of everything we have wanted to see. When we look out the window in our room we are looking directly at the dome and the bell tower of the San Lorenzo Basillica. When we were about to go out last night I watched the bells ringing. They sounded really cool. We also walked down by the Arno River and we went across to a restaurant where I had fettucini Alfredo for dinner. After dinner we had more gelato.

All the streets had Christmas lights and they were very pretty. There are statues everywhere and we saw more nativity scenes (presepe in Italian). The one in the front of the Cathedral (duomo in Italian) was made of terra-cotta. We have seen a lot of these nativity scenes all over Italy. We went to the church called Santa Croce (St Cross in English). This is where the tomb of a lot of famous Italians, including Dante Alighieri and Michaelangelo, are buried. Yesterday my sister Kayla and I read and studied while my parents went on a tour called The Taste of Florence. Today we are going to a gelato place that was founded in 1939. YUMMY!!! :D

The name of the gelato place is "Perche  No".  In Italian it means "Why not".  It seems like a pretty good name for a gelato place!!