Florence Day 2

We got up and had a simple breakfast at a coffee bar — coffee and little sandwiches. Then we went to visit the Duomo.

The Duomo is a crazy, elaborate space on the outside, but rather simple and elegant on the inside. Underneath the floor there's a sort of archeological museum you can visit, where you can see remains of the cathedral that predated the current Duomo, as well as various Roman ruins. It was all very interesting.

After the Duomo, we just wandered a while. We saw the line at the Uffizi, and decided it didn't look too long, and we could just do it tomorrow — when it's expected to rain.

During our wanders, we found a planter containing a 500-year old olive tree from the Middle East, transplanted in memory of the events of May 27, 1993. The message was repeated in maybe 20 languages, but nowhere did it explain what the events of May 27, 1993 were. [I've since looked it up, and it turns out to be a car bombing.]

We stopped for some more coffee, and then began a long trek to look for lunch. We weren't sure exactly what to have, but set out to find it. Along the way, we stopped in Piazza Santa Croce, where Eric used a public restroom and I sat listening to Gypsy musicians, one of whom was playing a big dulcimer. I liked it so much I bought a CD from them. Then we began looking for lunch in earnest. We found a place that looked pretty good to me, but was a bit empty, and so we kept going. We passed by a couple of other places that seemed not quite right in one way or another. (We did not want a full 3-course meal, because at this point we are tired of eating so much food.

In the end, we went back to that first place I'd liked: Osteria del Caffè d'Italia, which turned out to be recommended by our guidebook. I had a degustazione di salumi, with oil-preserved artichokes (delicious) and pickled mushrooms, followed by orrechiette con broccoli (especially good — the broccoli was perhaps a bit overcooked, but the best overcooked broccoli I've ever had). Eric had pappa al pomodoro (a tomato-and-bread soup) followed by tagliata di manzo with sauteed spinach (very tasty). And after, we had coffee.

Not having overly gorged on lunch, we were free to take in some ice cream as dessert, so we wandered over to Perchè No?, a gelateria recommended by our guidebook. Gelato is not generally bought by scoop; it's by size, but you can get multiple flavors. I had fragola (strawberry), mora (blackberry), and fiordilatte (literally "flower of milk"; by taste, it seems to be a simple sweet cream ice cream), and it was delicious. Eric had tiramisù and chocolate, also delicious.

We headed up to the Accademia, which is the museum that houses Michelangelo's David. The line to get in didn't seem too bad, but we ended up decided to do it tomorrow, and heading over to a Medici palazzo with famous frescoes, called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. The palazzo is a grand old building, as you might imagine; it serves a museum and government building. Two things of note: a Medici-era fresco in a small chapel, which featured narrative religious imagery ("Procession of the Magi") that includes a lot of people (magi, soldiers, maidens, and other figures), many of whom were clearly contemporary portraits. (One head was clearly added in later — at first glance, it looks fine, poking up as it does between two other men; with further examination, you realize the way it overlaps with the heads around it is impossible, reminiscent of M.C. Escher.) The other thing of note was a post-Medici-era ceiling fresco called "The Apotheosis of the Medici"; it's fabulous in a way that is almost campy, it's so over-the-top. One has to assume it was a least a little tongue-in-cheek. Seated in a grand throne in the sky, dead center in the ceiling, is one of the less-attractive Medici rulers; surrounding it are vignettes of classical imagery, painted in a way that merges Renaissance ideals with Baroque softness and emotion (notable most clearly in the watery, slightly enlarged eyes, which replace the anatomic exactitude of the Renaissance with something a little closer to Bambi).

After leaving the palazzo we wandered through the market stalls around San Lorenzo on our way to see the fortezza. (No guidebooks recommend going there; we just saw it on the map and said "why not". Having now see it, I can say, give it a miss. It's a big old fort that seems to have been turned into a convention center — nice for conventioneers but boring for tourists.) On our way back through, we bought a watercolor from an artists on the street. (We liked his style: not tacky. Artists on the streets never seem to be local, it seems; this one was Moroccan.)

We hoped to visit the San Lorenzo church, but it had closed at 1pm. (Whereas the Duomo has a gorgeous exterior, with a fairly simple interior, San Lorenzo has a plain, sometimes dumpy exterior, but we are told the inside is quite ornate. We didn't see it, though.)

We ended up having drinks in the Piazza della Signoria before heading across the river for dinner. Our first choice for dinner was booked; we made reservations for tomorrow and headed on to our second choice, Osteria Santo Spirito (on Piazza Santo Spirito), where the food was good but the portions way to large (one might say, American-sized — not good for a three-course meal).

Included in the coperto were two glasses of prosecco, 2 stuffed figs, and some tapenade (excellent). Then we shared a plate of salsicce di cinghiale with pecorino (I think) and sundried tomatoes (also excellent). Then I had a pappa al pomodoro (not as good as Eric's at lunch), followed by a tagliata di manzo con rucola e grana (good if not great). Eric had spaghetti aglio olio e pepperoncini (also good if not great) followed by a tagliata di petto di anatra (duck breast) con aceto balsamico (good but no comparison to French duck dishes). No dessert, god no. Coffee, though, after which we rolled ourselves back across the river to the hotel and bed.

Labels: food, italy, journal, personal

posted by Tony at 11:59 PM