Florence

Today we went all around Florence. It's very historic. They have a law that no buildings can be renovated, and all buildings have to have a similar design, and they must all be the same color. They go to great lengths to preserve the history of the city. They had a ton of markets (which I love!). Florence is known for good quality leather.

 We walked to the first orphanage built in the city. There was a special place on the window pane for women to drop their children off. They would leave the baby on the window, ring a bell and runaway so the nuns wouldn't see the moms when they picked up the children. The parents would leave personal tokens with the babies. The children would keep these tokens for the rest of their lives, so if their parents ever tried to find them, they could recognize them by the token. Today, the orphanage is a museum. 

It's very hot here, close to 100 degrees, which is kind of making it feel like home. It rained for about an hour in the afternoon, which cooled things down. While we were walking we saw witnesses doing met witnessing. They just started met witnessing in July. It's been hard to get it going because they're required to have at least one brother, someone who speaks English, and one person who speaks Italian, and a lot of brothers and sisters are on vacation. It was so cool to see the stand in the city! 

View of Florence 

The window where people would leave their kids at the orphanage 

Met witnessing