I have fallen in love with Florence. At first it was a tentative love on my part—they wronged Dante and they act now like he is their favorite son. LIARS! They also have not done a lot of work on plumbing—when “press the button many times” is an instruction superior to sending a handyman, you start to wonder about everyone’s sanity. Still, Florence is incredible. We have been to churches of incredible beauty. Yesterday we were at San Lorenzo. The speaker that dedicated the church on its kickoff Sunday was…guesses…St. Ambrose in AD 390—fresh off of his conversions of that ne’er-do-well, troublemaker Augustine. History really comes to life here. Although there is a darker side, the population is almost completely unchurched now. The feel here is cool, sheik, but empty. They are surrounded by thunderous truth and beauty, but they have abandoned it. Watching Florentines strut around is sort of fun. I think that cool was invented here. Capitalism was invented here as well (the one produced the fuel for the other). The cloth merchants were the driving forces in building the cathedrals. If you intend to buy clothing in Florence, it will look great and you will quickly be poor (not as bad as some parts of NY, however).

The other thing intoxicating about Florence is the culture. They eat all the time. Someone said something like “productivity begins falling off around 11am”. They eat late into the night. They eat great food. There is no fast food here, but the fastest that they have is incredibly tasty and uses super ingredients. These long meals are arranged so that the locals can have loud arguments with each other on all things from the crude (sometimes glad I cannot understand Italian) to the sublime. We ate at Mario’s for lunch yesterday packed in like sardines. The law student that set next to us answered my question about why Florentine bread has no salt. He gave me a brief explanation from The Divine Comedy in which Dante (I had forgot) mentions the saltless Florentine bread. Good enough for me. They have no discernable traffic laws. I have not seen any accidents, but I do not know how. Mrs. Fischer is fairly sure that I will be the first. I walk around starting up the at the churches. I will be going to Santa Croce today. St. Francis was there in the year 1217. They have a monument to Dante. I still want an apology.

Anyway, it is an amazing city and the roots of Christian (and classical) culture run very deep here. The trip has raised so many thoughts concerning art, church architecture, hierarchical societies, the breadth and depth of our faith and what happens when cultures abandon belief.