Ciao, P2D2!
It is I, Lego Man!
Yesterday, we had a little problem with our computer. Ginny was putting pictures onto it, and accidentally made it go "kabloop". It stayed asleep for a very long time. Thankfully, we have fixed this problem--but don't want to risk putting too many pictures up today. We have so many to show you when we come home, on Monday! Are you all looking forward to your home days? What will you be doing?
Hmm. What news do we have? Ginny and I bought something called a Florence Card. This is a pass that lets you go to as many museums in the city as you like; Florence has just invented it, just about two months ago, and it is a wonderful idea. Especially because, without one, you can end up standing in line for some of the museums longer than most of you have ever waited in line at an amusement park. (Really. Some of the lines here are pretty crazy.) We've been trying to make the most of our Florence card...today, in fact, we're going to the Uffizi, which is one of the world's loveliest and biggest museums.
Yesterday, we went to Dante's house. Have any of you ever heard that name before? Dante was a writer, who was born and worked in Florence, and he wrote one of the world's longest and most complicated books--called The Divine Comedy. It's a series of books, actually; they are all connected and related to one another, not unlike Star Wars. (Minus ewoks. There are a lot of differences between Star Wars and the Divine Comedy, actually. They're just both examples of very long and complex stories.) The Divine Comedy is often called the cornerstone of the Italian language. Uh oh...Ginny is yelling across the room, yet again. She says to be sure to tell you that "cornerstone of the Italian language" is just a fancypants way of saying "it was really important for Italian language". The Divine Comedy isn't just important for the Italians or Italy, though; it's often called one of the most important fiction books ever published, and has been translated into just about every language.
Do you guys remember the difference between fiction and nonfiction? Lego Man knows he already asked you about this, but just wants a refresher. The difference between fiction and nonfiction is an important thing to think about, if you read The Divine Comedy as a grown up, because Dante used many things that were really and truly happening around him--in Florence--to ask the reader important questions about politics, religion, books, and (ah, Lego Man's little heart flutters!) love. One of the things that many people know about the Divine Comedy is that Dante talks often about a beautiful lady he met, named Beatrice, and how he fell in love with her at first sight...because she just seemed like a nice person. In Italian, the term for "love at first sight" is "il colpo di fulmine". Or "the thunderbolt". This means you fall so in love with something, it feels a little bit like you're being zapped by lightening. Lego Man once felt this way about a particularly awesome Star Wars spacecraft he once saw...have any of you fallen in love at first sight with something? Maybe a place, or something you just really felt was nifty? Kapow! That's the thunderbolt. (Or "that's amore". I heard you guys know that song, and can sing it!)
Anyway. Here are some blurry pictures of Dante's little bed, as well as the desk where he wrote. Ginny likes to write (and says that many of you are wonderful storytellers who have written your own books!) so she was very excited to see this.
Here are also some pictures of sidewalk artists doing chalk drawings. I hear some of you really love to draw with chalk...do you know where chalk comes from?
The final picture we're going to post, before we close this blog out for good, is of a horse in the Piazza Del Duomo. Ginny says that lots of you love horses; we've seen lots and lots of horse-drawn carriages go through the center of town. One rode past us this morning that had a funny little purple cap for its ears; it was moving too quickly for us to take a picture.
Please tell Jennifer, Bridget, Jessica, Maura and Liana that we say hello--and to have a wonderful weekend. We're flying back tomorrow morning, so we'll be ready to see you first thing on Monday morning. Ginny would like lots of hugs from you all, because she's missed you guys to bits! I cannot wait to meet you; please be gentle with me, though, because I have recently dislocated my arm in all my travels. Also, just to warn you, I can sometimes be very quiet in person.
Give Mr. Nobody our love (has anybody found him yet?)...and arrivederci! We'll see you soon!
Love,
LEGO MAN (and Ginny)
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