137_3737.JPG In Florence we stayed in a convent - a place where nuns live. 

137_3711.JPG This is the convent.

137_3731.JPG This is our apartment inside the convent.

137_3734.JPG We ate breakfast and dinner at this table.  The nuns made it themselves.  They didn't serve lunch there.  Our breakfast was a piece of hard bread and a croissant.  The only thing there was to drink was coffee, and I don't care for the taste of that beverage.  Our dinner was tortellini (a kind of pasta), with salad, potatoes, and chicken.  For dessert we had mocha ice cream cake.  My favorite part was the dessert. 

137_3735.JPG We were the only people there besides the nuns.  The chandelier over the table next to ours was made out of glass - even the flowers. 

137_3738.JPG They were growing bamboo on the grounds of the convent. 

137_3739.JPG I noticed that they were using bamboo as a construction material.

137_3740.AVI "Aiuole" is the only word in the Italian language that uses all five vowels.  It means "flower beds". 

137_3713.JPG This is Giotto's Bell Tower.  It is taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  It has 404 stairs. 

137_3718.JPG My Dad and I are in front of one of the bells of Giotto's Bell Tower.  After this, we discovered that we could still go higher!

137_3722.JPG Here we are at the top of the bell tower.  The dome of il duomo, in the background, is only a little higher than we are.  If you're right at the bottom of the bell tower looking up, it looks like it's leaning, but it's not. 

137_3723.AVI (Big movie file, might take a long time to load, don't try it over the phone lines!) Here we are at the top.  You could actually touch the roof!

137_3715.JPG This is the door of the cathederal. It is very decorated. We are tiny compared to this door. It is made of bronze, which is a mixture of copper and tin.

137_3716.JPG This is a scene from the decorated door of the catherderal.

137_3717.JPG This is a kid's eye view of the decorated door.

137_3725.JPG This is the underside of the dome of il duomo.  It is painted with lots of colorful pictures telling religious stories. 

137_3712.JPG We went into the Bargello Museum, but they didn't let us take pictures inside.  We saw lots of interesting sculptures.  Some of the older ones, from the Middle Ages (maybe about the year 1000 to about the year 1400), were pretty flat, not very life-like.  Then came the Renaissance, starting in about the 1400s, and the art became much more life-like.  For example, the way the rock was carved to look like folds of cloth hanging down on people was really realistic.  Also, the art from the Middle Ages was just about all on religious subjects, but starting with the Renaissance they started making art of naked people.

137_3729.JPG This is my sisters and I standing in front of the sculpture of a lion in the outdoor museum where you were allowed to take pictures.

This is a replica of Michelangelo's sculpture of David, one of the most famous pieces of Renaissance art.  (If naked sculptures bother you, don't click on this link:) 137_3728.JPG David is made out of a block of marble, that nobody thought could be made into a sculpture.  But Michelangelo took the block of marble and in two years, without any problems, Michelangelo created David. In his left hand David is holding a sling, and in his right hand, some rocks to put in the sling to throw at the giant, Goliath. The thing by David's right foot is a bush. Michelangelo put it there to give support to the sculpture.  This was in the outdoor museum.

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