HAVANA, Cuba — Atlanta's mayor and a group of business leaders are on a mission to Cuba. Channel 2 anchor Craig Lucie is the only television reporter traveling with them.
It's fitting that there's a bell outside the Ernest Hemingway house in Havana.
The "For Whom the Bell Tolls" author, although American, had a special connection with Cuba, calling it home for more than 20 years.
That's why it was one of the first stops in Cuba for this group from Atlanta.
"It’s beautiful. I mean it's part of history. It's part of what links Cuba and the united states together," Charles Shapiro said.
Shapiro is one of about 20 metro Atlantans who visited the Hemingway house during their mission to Cuba.
He told Lucie the home has a connection to the Atlanta braves.
Shapiro says on a previous trip to Cuba, he met a man wearing a Braves jersey with Hank Aaron's number who told him Hemingway used to teach neighborhood kids how to play baseball.
"This gentleman said he had been one of the neighborhood kids and he had played with Hemingway's children and that he had seen and knew Hemingway,” Shapiro said.
Some of Hemingway’s original manuscripts are still inside the home.
Because it’s open and exposed to tropical conditions, there are steps underway to prevent it from deteriorating.
"So they've got a grant from a foundation in the United States to build a climate-controlled storage facility," Shapiro said.
"It's an honor for most Cubans to have this kind of legacy to be able to say Hemingway lived in Cuba we have the one in Cuba, the one in Key West so we are proud of that,” Ivette Cabanas said.
Stay with WSBTV.com and watch Channel 2 Action News for the latest from Cuba.