Florence
7:30am, from our balcony. The tour groups are coming. The tour groups are coming!
Today we visited the Museum of San Marco. In 1439 Cosima the Elder built the monastery and invited Fra Angelico’s Dominican community to move here. Fra Angelico (1400-1455) turned down an offer to be archbishop of Florence, instead becoming prior of the monastery. He began decorating the monastery walls with frescoes.
The cloister
The Annunciation
He painted a fresco in every one of the monks’ cells, the rooms in which the monks lived. Each monk had a different scene to contemplate: some pleasant, some gruesome.
Instituto a Ospedale degli Innocenti or “Institute of the Innocents” was a charity institution started in the 1400s that was responsible for the welfare of abandoned infants.
There was a window with a wheel holding a basket where mothers could place their infants. Many left some object that would make it possible to identify and reunite with the child – such as a medallion broken into two pieces. In various years there might have been 500 to 1,000 infants passed through the window.
These are some of the buildings.
On the fifth level there is a cafe with wonderful views.
The giant Dante stands outside our window, supervising the plaza.
October 7
Today was wash day. A family from Australia helped us figure out the washers and dryers.
Dante oversees a craft sale.
Ponte Vecchio.
The Baptistry, the Duomo and the Campanile. Construction of the Cathedral began in 1296.
Front of the Duomo
Side view of the Duomo
We attended Mass and thus saw some of the interior.
Travels of the Elderly 
Dante must be deciding where he is going to put everyone.