A Little Florentine History

This is the stair landing outside of the door of my apartment in Florence.

Not much to look at, save for one interesting fact that I'll share in a moment.
My landlord's last name is Berti. Aware of it being an old Florentine name, I asked him about it, especially about a reference to a Berti in Dante's Divine Comedy. The following is from the Paradiso, Canto XV (Longfellow trans.).
Bellincion Berti saw I go begirt
With leather and with bone, and from the mirror
His dame depart without a painted face;
(The lines refer to a period of time when Florentines dressed modestly. Elsewhere Dante refers to Bellicion's daughter, "the good Gualdrada.")
As it turns out, my landlord is a descendant of the Berti family of Dante. He shared more of his family history, how his ancestors came from the north and played a prominent political role in Fiesole, the town north of Florence that goes back to Etruscan times. During Dante's time the Berti family provided arms (swords, daggers, etc.) to the Florentine Republic.
As for the stair landing, it has not changed since the Fourteenth Century (Dante lived until 1321). People were passing over these same stones before Columbus set sail.
To balance the plainess of an old stair landing, I'll leave you with a more heavenly picture from my morning walk.

Ciao.