Verona and Florence Christmas Markets!
Hmmmmmmmmm, what should I write about? I know! I can write about Verona's and Firenze's Christmas markets! (Firenze is Italian for Florence) Christmas markets are great fun! I just love walking through the markets in the evening when it is getting dark and there are people everywhere. In the Northern part of Italy they have already celebrated Christmas. They celebrate what is called St. Lucia day. On that day they give gifts and then on the 25th they get together and have a meal with family and friends. The Christmas markets are now for all of the tourists that are visiting. I guess that if there were no tourists then there would be no markets in Verona at this time. The markets are not all in the same place. There can be 8-9 stalls in a plaza and then you walk down a back alley and come out into a big area and there are a lot more of the stalls. The stalls contain all sorts of things from cloths, food, jewelry, footwear of all kinds, Christmas tree ornaments of all shapes, sizes, and color, manger scene barns with all the little people and animal's that you would want for your manger scene, to fabric things for your table and mantle. Lastly but not least there is a little house in one part of the market that has Santa Claus dressed up. ;) Every night that we went by that little house there was a line of people waiting to see him! ;)
The first night that we got to Verona we stayed at home. The next night we went into the city of Verona and saw the Christmas markets.
On the fourth day we went back into Verona and walked a lot. One place that we went to was a big bell tower. The Torre de Lamberti. We payed to walk up 362 steps! Crazy right? At the bottom you had to decide if you were going to walk up the stairs or take an elevator. We took the steps. Dad and Mom were tired when we got to the top. Jack, Briana, and Landon ran up the stairs the entire way! :P I walked with Mom and Dad and counted the stairs as we went. :) At the top we had a fantastic view of the whole city. On the floor right before you get to the top of the tower there are 3 bells and then at the top there is one huge bell that Mom thought only rings for speciel occasions. Well she was wrong. We got to the top of the tower 10 mins before 3pm and I said to Mom "I hope it rings on the hour when we are still up here." She said "No, you don't, because it would be too loud for your ears." I agreed, so we went down a floor and 2 mins after we got off the stairs, the bell at the top rang 3 times! When they rang the bell they did not ring the 3 bells on the floor that we were on. The big bell at the top rings with a hammer-like thing hitting it, they didn't swing the bell and have the clapper hit it. I imagine that would be even louder.
The fifth day we went to Venice for the day.
On Friday, the sixth day we went to a town called, Trento. There we went to a big castle called Buonconsiglio Castle. The tower of this castle was a separate charge and it's a good thing we did that as the tower was the best part. On the inside walls are a painting for each month of the year except March. Each painting showed the appropriate season and what people did at that time of year. The reason why March is missing is because they think it was destroyed in a fire. The position in the room where March should be, there is a large rounded wooden structure concealing a spiral staircase which would have burned, obviously. The whole room was really old and beautiful! The other parts of the castle were interesting too but not like the tower. In many of the room that we went to, there were lots of paintings to look at both framed and painted directly on the walls. This castle is known because it is where The Council of Trent was held. The Council of Trent was a meeting of Catholic leaders in response to the Reformation. They met numerous times over a period of 18 years. It was held between 1545 and 1563, to discuss the ways that the Catholic were believing. The pope reviewed their statements in 1963 and he did not change anything and it still stands today. Landon got tired of it and so we left to go home. We did not go through the entire castle but we saw most of it, I think. On the way to and from Trento we went through the Dolomites, the Italian Alps. The mountains were spectacular on the way there, On the way back with the sun on them at different angles it was beautiful also!
Saturday, December 18th, we left to go to Firenze (Florence), Italy. Sunday, December 20th, in the morning our host had invited us if we wanted, to help him feed his 2 bunnies and his 200 fish! We said yes! :) So we did that and then a little after 12:30pm we left to take the train into Florence. We went to see the Christmas markets! We walked around Florence for a little while looking at things, there were many other markets along the way to the Christmas markets. At the Christmas markets we each had a soft pretzel and we walked through all of the stalls. Next to the markets was a big church. Mom wanted to see it. Inside the church was amazing! The walls were painted, the colors and the pictures were beautiful.
After the church we ate dinner in the markets. By the time we were done eating it was time to start walking to the carol sing that was at St. Mark's Anglican Church. The carol sing was all in English! Everyone spoke English!! That was a lot of fun and at the end they had hot mulled wine and mini mince pies to eat!
We then had a 20 min walk to the train station, a 45 min ride on the train, a little walk to our car, and we drove home in the fog! The area we are staying in at one time was a big lake. Many centuries ago people wanted to make the ground productive. They had to drain the lake, channel the water, and make dikes to contain the rivers. That is why there is fog, because of the moist ground. Our host told us that this area is now the principle nursery of shrubs and trees in Europe. Potted trees everywhere! When we got home it was 9:45pm and we talked about our day and went to bed.