Alright, well I guess it’s my turn again. We arrived in Florence Wednesday afternoon from Venice; needless to say, our 2.5 hour ride on the Frecciargento (second fastest train in Italy, with speeds up to 250 Km/h…or 155 mph for those of you back at home) was much more pleasant than our last train ride (ES: pleasant for him-- the rest of the train was looking our way the entire time because Stewart was DYING laughing outloud at his movie). Our hotel was a quick 5 minute cab ride from the train station, and just around the corner from the Duomo…but I guess you can say that about everything in Florence.
After settling in, Liz tolerated my new ritual when arriving in each city. Basically, I take the city map and my laptop, and sit down for about an hour and put down the locations of all the places we are planning on going and the restaurants / bars people have suggested. Sure, it’s a little OCD (ES: he makes it sound less OCD than it really is), but it saves me from running into farmacias asking for directions that I won’t even be able to understand (ES: I’m usually the one that does the accosting of random Italians).
Dinner the first night was at a great restaurant on the other side of the river called Il Santo Bevitore. For anyone who has been to Otto, Mario Batali’s casual Italian restaurant in New York, you get the feeling he came to this place and said “I could make a fortune on this in New York.” The meal was great (free Prosecco and antipasto platter included), and at the end of the meal, a good friend of my brothers and his wife casually popped by our table. Pretty surprising…almost as crazy as when I ran into several Citi analysts at a club in Buenos Aires a couple of weeks ago.
Day 2, Thursday, was our busiest planned day in Florence. After breakfast, we mossied on down to the lobby to find out that our reservation to see the David at the Accademia was at 11:30am (Note: it was 11:33am at the time), so we sprinted over and jumped in line hoping that no one would notice we were late. Thankfully, they didn’t, and we checked that off the list. Personally, I found the sculpture much more impressive than I remember from when I saw it when I was 10.
Next, we went to the Piazza Santa Maria Novella to walk through the Basilica, which Liz and I both thought was incredible. I thought Liz was going to stomp her feet at one point she wanted to take a picture so bad. That said, I really wanted to take a picture of the hospital like gown they made her wear as we walked through (It was karma for how much I laughed at his yamaka in Prague) . Somehow, these guys found some pictures - http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_di_Santa_Maria_Novella
After walking back ACROSS town to a sandwich shop everyone had told us we had to go to called Oil Shoppe, Liz and I were confronted with something that has become more and more common on this trip…a sign that read “closed for the summer due to renovations.” Now, I’m no carpenter, but this wasn’t exactly the type of place that looked like you would renovate…I think the correct Italian to English translation is actually “Gone Fishin’.” Not discouraged, we went with Plan B, a small Italian restaurant (go figure) my grandmother had recommended called Il Barracacio. Two pastas, some bruschetta, and a half carafe of Rose later, we decided we were ready to brave the line up to the top of the Duomo. It was worth the wait, and the climb:
Late afternoon was spent walking around the Ponte Vecchio area, where Liz picked up a couple of watercolor prints and some new gloves, or as she put it, “My first step in preparing for a New York winter.” A lot of window shopping later, I decided to stop into one of the stores to try on a watch. Never having any intention of more than just trying it on, I let the guy go through his sales pitch, and tell me about the awesome deal he could give me (15% off, and duty free), which amazingly, turned out to be the exact list price of the watch when you Google it. How do you say “don’t bullshit a bullshitter” in Italian?
Before dinner, we stopped by Artbar for a couple of cocktails (ES: and a couple hundred lays potato chips…this is apparently a common appetizer in Italia), and then realized that we should have ordered these huge daiquiri type drinks that they are probably famous for. I guess we will just have to come back to Florence. Dinner was at a cool restaurant near the Ponte Vecchio called 4 Liones (thank you Alixe, Lizzy, and Victoria for the recommendation). After a full meal and a tiramisu, the look Liz gave me as I headed across the street to pick up a Lampone / Limone cone from the gelateria was one she commonly refers to as “I looked at the person like they had six heads.”
Today we got off to a bit later start, and headed over to a highly recommended panini shop near the Palazzo Pitti called Gustopanini. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw it was not closed for the summer…oh yeah, and the paninis were great (Liz out ordered me, so I spent part of the meal giving her a look that said “are you sure your going to eat that?”).
A repeat stop at the gelato spot from last night, and then we were at Palazzo Pitti and the Bobali Gardens, which were both very cool, although I’m starting to reach my saturation point of seeing anterooms to anterooms to anterooms. Also, these people had way too much art, or the Italians are just running out of places to hang stuff.
Liz and I headed back towards the hotel to gear up for our afternoon. This afternoon, we took some picnic supplies, and headed back across the river to Piazzale Michelangelo (ES: it was a HIKE). We had heard this was an excellent place to kick back, eat some cheese, drink some wine, and look out over Florence. (ES: unbelievable views, but the whole “just-park-it-and-drink-wine” thing, made Stewarts heart rate go up. There was a lot of looking around, wondering why no one else was doing it). Dinner tonight was at La Giostra, where the balsamic steak really is great.
Well that’s all for now. Headed to Tuscany tomorrow and we are going to be faced with one of our toughest tests yet, fitting all of our bags into a SmartCar. Poor Liz has had to watch me peer into every SmartCar we pass (a lot in Florence) as I try to guess if it’s going to work. (ES: AND IT IS. So sue me if I have to carry some luggage in my lap).
