Florence

Saturday, April 4, 1998

The train pulls into Florence and we take a short taxi ride to
the hotel. It’s right in the middle of everything and our room
is huge (compared to every other place, but not big by American
standards). It even has a TV and a phone (the TV was never even
turned on.)

We unpack and head to lunch at Trattoria Za-Za, a great place.
We split a Crostini Napolitana – bruschetta with tomatoes, oregano,
oil, mozzarella and basil. Keith has the ribolitta, a double boiled
cabbage stew with beans and bread chunks, with was excellent and
Jill has spaghetti verde with gorgonzola which was also great.
Keith had the roast pork(also good) and Jill had slices of tomato
with cheese, oil and oregano/basil. We both have Tuscan beans
on the side and 3/4 carafe of red wine.

From there we head to the Accademia Museum. We had to stand in
line for a bit before we got inside. We spend more time browsing
than in any other museum so far – probably because of all of Michelangelo’s
statues, including the great David. We are starting to get a feel
for how intense this guy really was. We head back to the hotel
for an afternoon nap and then a stop at Festival de Gelato for
Nutella and Kinder Egg gelatos.

We decide to also try to get the Uffizi gallery in today so we
head across town, browsing through the stands as we go (Florence
was full of street vendors selling mostly leather goods.) We cross
the piazza della Signoria, which has lots of statues including
replicas of David and several other famous works, and then we
check out the line at Uffizi. We decide its not worth it (we later
discover the line was shorter than any other time, but still very
long) and head for Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge over the Arno
River.

After strolling by the expensive jewelry stores on the bridge,
we turn towards Piazzale Michelangiolo, a square atop a hill with
a good view of all of Florence and the Tuscan hills. I promise
Jill a pair of new shoes if she goes with me to the top, so we
set off. The view from the top is worth it!

We hung around a bit and then head back across the river. We go
through piazza San Croce and Jill gets a pair of shoes. We hang
around outside of a pizzeria that has a star next to it in the
guidebook, but they finally open the door and tell us they are
completely reserved. We head back towards the hotel and stop at
Pizzeria I Ghibellini for dinner. We split an Antipasto Gran Buffet
(a big plate form the buffet) and a carafe of red wine. At one
point, three people come in and the older lady in the group is
carrying her poodle. It sits at the table with them throughout
the meal. Jill has a salami and peppers pizza and Keith goes for
the house special – prosciutto, sausage and mascarpone cheese.
We end up splitting both pizzas. We take a few pictures of the
lady with her dog (they didn’t turn out without a flash) and we
steal the not empty bottle of Chianti from the table next to us
when they leave. Keith also has a Vin Santo with biscotti which
is strong, but good.

We stop on the way home at a weird, Mexican-theme bar and we try
Grappa for the first time – it’s sort of like everclear. Jill
gets hooked on a new drink – espresso with Bailey’s. She has two
and Keith has one and then we head back to the hotel.

Sunday, April 5, 1998

We sleep in again! We wander around for a bit, have a couple of
cappuccinos, a croissant and half a sandwich, and then go into
the Medici Chapels. (The Medici family helped fund much of the
renaissance art in Florence. The Chapels were their family tomb’s.)
There is more great work by Mich in the Chapel. We decide to try
the Uffizi Gallery again, but the line is even worse. We cross
Ponte Vecchio again and head for San Spirito (just another square)
for lunch. Unfortunately, the place we wanted to go to hasn’t
opened yet and looks mostly reserved. So we stop in a little place
by Piazza de Pitti (the Pitti family competed with the Medici’s
for a while, but were eventually overtaken by them.)

The service is a little slow, but the food looks good. I have
Pasta Ametriciana (red sauce with ham) and roast pork and Jill
has a green salad and some good tortellini. We should have tried
the pizza – by the time we left, the place was packed, including
lots of kids who came for pizza after church. We stop somewhere
else for espresso and after-eight mints (mints we will sorely
miss when we return to the U.S.)

I promise Jill another pair of shoes and we start the hike up
the Boboli Gardens (the gardens that go with the Pitti family
palace.) Another great view, this time with more of the country-side.

We do some more shopping (unsuccessfully), have a couple of gelatos
at the world-famous Vivoli (Jill has a riso (rice) flavored gelato
that is really good). We head back to the hotel to take a nap
and for Jill to call her mom.

After our nap, its raining, but we still do a little shopping,
stop in a wine bar for a few glasses and a calzone pizza snack
and then take another short break waiting for the restaurant to
open. It rained all afternoon and evening, but that didn’t slow
us down much.

We head to La Latini, getting there right when open – luckily,
since right after us, the place fills up (and its a big place)
and a long line starts. We sit next to a couple from Atlanta that
we talk to all night. It’s an all-you-can-eat and drink for one
set price. We start with a mix of cold cuts and crostini (all
good) and then we move on the bean soup (all of us – when the
guy said what are choices were, it sounded like yadda, yadda,
yadda, and bean soup, so we had the soup). It was also good. The
couple next to us has a glass of wine each, while Jill and I manage
to polish off the rest of the bottle (and this isn’t your normal
bottle, we’re talking a liter and a half.) Jill and I both have
the roast veal which was excellent, while the couple next to us
has roast lamb and roast squab (a bird about the same size as
a pigeon, hmmm, what a coincidence.) Jill feels sorry for them
and shares her veal – Keith has nothing left to share. We have
strawberries and ice cream and then Vin Santo with Biscotti. This
is perhaps the neatest place we ate on the whole trip. We head
home, stopping for espresso with Bailey’s on the way.

Monday, April 6, 1998

Today’s list of sites is just St. Lorenz and il Duomo, so we weren’t
to pressured to race and get things done. We went to the St. Lorenz
church which was the Medici private chapel and then to il Duomo.
We looked around inside the church but by now we’ve seen so many
its hard to impress us. We decide to put off climbing to the top
of the dome and take a break (it’s cold and Keith is a little
sick.) Our short break turns into a medium one and we stretch
it till lunch. Lunch was Trattoria Le Mossacce. It was probably
Jill’s favorite meal in Tuscany. We got it from Frommer’s and
although close to the Duomo (the heavy tourist area of Florence)
it was a pleasantly local and not tourist crowd. Jill had ribolitta,
mixed salad and lasagna and Keith had ravioli, veal rolls in tomato
sauce and we shared 1/4 carafe wine (quartino carafe vino rosso
della casa).

After lunch we waited an hour to climb the Duomo – 463 steps and
no lift. It was not a bad climb and you stop half way up on a
balcony inside the church looking down on the altar. It gave us
a good look at the fresco painting on the top of the dome. Once
we got to the top it was a breathtaking view but dizzying. We
were on the "nipple" of the dome. Jill wouldn’t get close to the
railing except for a picture of us taken by another American couple.

We left the dome and walked to our chosen dinner spot to make
reservations. Keith, who by now has a raging cold, begs for a
nap and heads home, while Jill finds a bank machine, a clinique
makeup store and a ceramics shop. She finds a couple of souvenirs
and then turns in for a nap too.

After the nap, we head out shoe shopping and gelato eating. Keith
finally found a nice soft leather pair of shoes with minutes to
spare before dinner. We had changed into nice khakis and a skirt
and sandals for Jill. It felt good to be dressed up. Dinner was
Trattoria Antellesi and Keith finally has the signature Tuscan
dish – T-Bone steak. We split bruschetta and the first course
was noodles with sausage and gorgonzola and seafood risotto. Jill’s
main dish was veal stew (veal steak with an onion wine sauce.)
We had a good bottle of wine although there was sand in the bottom
of the bottle and then great Tiramisu. We called it an early night
on account of Keith’s cold.

Tuesday, April 7, 1998

We wake up and after a shower, Keith’s cold is feeling better.
He takes the challenge of fitting everything in our big bag. We
are heavier by some ceramics and shoes. We get a couple of cappuccinos
and a pastry for Keith and a half sandwich for Jill (this has
become our standard breakfast – plus another couple cappuccinos
as a mid-morning snack) and then head to the train station for
our train to Bologna.