I bought some pears from a fruttivendolo (fruit and vegetable seller). She said the name of this variety, but I don’t recall. Since everything sold at these small places are seasonal and local, it tasted good.

Our afternoon activity was a talk about Dante while walking in the medieval area of Florence where he would have walked.

The crowds seems to have grown since September.

We went into the public area of Palazzo Vecchio. I have been there on past visits to Florence, but this was my first time this trip.

We looked at the statue of the last Medici, Anna Maria Luisa di’Medici, who died without heirs in 1743 and left her inheritance of artistic works to the city of Florence. Her artistic works included more than paintings and statues, but also palazzi, gardens, libraries, jewellry, . . .

We looked in the interior courtyard where there is a quote from Dante, but I thought Verrocchio’s statue was a more interesting photo. It’s a putto (baby angel) holding a dolphin. Some claim it was commissioned by Lorenzo Il Magnifico as a centrepiece for his Neoplatonist school which was reviving the classical traditions of philosophers Plato and Aristotle. This was supposed to be about Dante, so I was off-piste.

Leaving the Palazzo was a squish

We looked at the piazza where there is the tourist venue of Casa di Dante (Dante’s house), which is not his house nor the exact location of where his family lived. But it is a medieval tower.

We went past Santa Margherita de’Cerchi, where some guides tell you is the church where Dante first saw Beatrice and many tell you that it is the church where she is buried. I have walked past many times and this was the first time I saw the church open.

The first claim is wrong but the church may have been one of about five churches where Dante said he saw Beatrice a second time. The second claim is definitely wrong but there is a plaque inside the church claiming it is her tomb and people leave love letters or problems about love there, sort of like letters to Juliet (that FICTIONAL lover in Shakespeare’s play).

In case you aren’t familiar with Dante and Beatrice: Dante wrote about seeing Beatrice in La Vita Nuova at her family’s house when he was a 9-year-old and he instantly fell in love with her. He wrote that he saw her one other time in a church. He never spoke to her. She married a man from a richer family than Dante’s and died in childbirth at age 25. She was to Dante the ideal of grace and theology in his Divina Comedia (Divine Comedy).