It's Tuesday and we're walking about in Florence today. Next to the cathedral we saw the statues of two Florentines who were the creators of the beautiful church - Brunelleschi and Cambio. Then we began our walk through "Dante's neighborhood". He was born here in 1265 and became famous for his epic poem The Divine Comedy which was the first piece of major literature written in the common language rather than Latin. Later in 1860 when Italy became a unified nation, the Tuscan dialect that Dante first wrote in became the official language of the country. Tuscans are very proud of that! We saw the church near his home where his "muse", Beatrice, is buried and the building thought to be his home and now the Dante museum. We were delighted to find a mime there who was impersonating the poet and reciting perfectly canticles from the poem. Before long we were sitting with "homeboy" Pinocchio and having our photos made! On to Santa Croce church where we went around back to enter the leather school in the old monastery. A walk across the "Gold Bridge" brought us to the other side of the Arno ("Oltrarno") where we stopped for some lunch and ended our walk for today at the Pitti Palace - last home of the Medici clan. So much to see in Florence. . .stay tuned for more!
