Day 98

A day of touring Florence, Italy. I was up at 6am to make a fire, read my Bible, eat breakfast and read [other things] in the peace and quiet. Around 8:30am everyone else was up and getting ready for the day slowly. Right after lunch we headed to the train station to spend the afternoon and evening in Florence. We arrived at the train station around 12:55pm, and got on the train at 1pm, to take it into the city. The train was pretty much empty and that meant we got to sit for the ride into Florence! Yay! We sometimes had to stand in the train.

After walking into the city we headed to the square, and looked at the Piazza della Signoria. In front of the Piazza della Signoria, there is a huge fountain that was used in the Sound of Music filming! We decided to walk through the square and come back later. We walked to the right of the building back behind to the river Arno. There we walked over a house bridge called the Ponte Vecchio. Houses were built on the bridge for shops. Most of the shops were jewelry shops. In years gone by there had been many such bridges in Italy but in Hitlers era, during his escalating defeat, as he withdrew forces they were commanded to destroy all bridges. The story is that the commander in charge of this action chose to defy orders and allow this now famous bridge to stand because it is so uniquely beautiful. Glad he had that courage because it is truly unusual and fascinating. Once we had crossed over we headed to Santa Croce church.

The Santa Croce church is a huge museum for tourists. The ceilings are high with fancy painted art all over. The alter is painted a gold color with picture of saints, and popes in the center is the saint Mary holding Jesus, with a Jesus on a cross hanging above it. All around the walls there are statues of various the Bishops, Popes, and Saints.

When we had finished looking at the church we headed back over the bridge and looking down the river we saw another bridge with no houses on it. On the way back over the bridge Landon bought a green blob, that when you throw it at something hard it goes splat and then slowly comes back in a ball. It did not last more than 2-3 days, before it broke and water went everywhere!

As we walked through the city we came upon a huge Christmas market! We love Christmas markets. It’s fun to look at all the foods, and crafts. It was almost dinner, so we waited in long lines to get food then we had to fined a place to sit and eat. When we did we ate and then walked back to the square. By the time it was almost dark and the lights were on Piazza della Signoria.

We walked through the square and headed to St Mark's Anglican Church, for Christmas caroling! Our host had invited us to his church for ENGLISH Christmas caroling! We were really excited about. When we arrived we talked with Father William and told him about our family and where were staying. He knows Mark (our host) very well, he was amazed that we were traveling for 4 months.

When we had found seats, we listened to the choir practice. At 6pm (the start time), the church was full. It was nice to listen to music that we understood. After an hour of listening and singing—some familiar carols, some new; we went upstairs of the church for cookies and drinks. Then we headed back to the metro. On the way back most of the bridges were lighted up, the lights shining across the water was fun to see.

PS: This is December 20th post.