City of Food & Art

Liz on top of the Duomo & the Ponte Vecchio (as seen from the Uffizi)

Hello everyone!

Neha & Burzin and the cat made me LOL. Today is Thanksgiving. So far we have had coffee, gelato, pizza, ceceni (will explain that one later, but it is deeeeelicious. Made with chickpea flour, olive oil, and water), chocolate & pear torte, and I think we will finish off with another round of pizza after I post this. What happened to the indian food plan mom?

We made it to Firenze without too much trouble. Pretty scenery, and we ended up chatting most of the way with a gal from the UK who is teaching English in Orvieto. Florence is just as pretty as I remember it, but I think now that I have had a week here, I would not need to come back for more than a couple of days if that. It is smaller (less to see and do) than Rome, but not nearly as charming as Orvieto or even Lucca, which is where we went on our excursion today.

Backing up though. Orvieto is darling, as I have mentioned several times now. I kind of wished we had one more day there, because we made it through just about every sight, and it would be interesting to see if it would have gotten boring, or if it is one of those places you can just wander about forever. As for protein, our first night in Orvieto I had cingahile (I need to look up the spelling) which is wild boar, and it was fantastic, done in a caccitore style gravy. We climbed the Tower in the middle of town which is only a measly 200-something steps, but got some nice views. The weather has been so good, it's hard to believe it is November here. Except it is cold, especially here in Florence, and even more so when the wind blows.

Here is the somewhat famous cathedral in Orvieto. Like the ones in Florence, pretty outside, boring inside except for some chapels.

So, as I said we got to Firenze midday on Sunday and made our way down to the hotel which is in this old 13th century tower building. They put us in a 3-bed suite, which means we have our own separate rooms, although dad has to come through mine to get to the bathroom. We all met upstairs in this large sitting area to start the tour. Our tour guide, Jamie, is from Bath, England and now lives in Lucca (hence going there today). He is pretty amusing, though slightly prone to repeating himself! The first night we went straightaway to see David, which was a lot more impressive than last time when I saw him at the end of the day and was probably 'arted' out. Dad and I got in an argument about the 'cord' running down David's back which is actually the sash of his slingshot or something. It looks like an electric cord from one angle, but once you go the rest of the way around it is obvious it is part of the statue. So there, dad :-P

This is City Hall. David used to stand here before they decided that weather and marble don't get along. Now there is a fake copy, but it was fenced off for repairs!

Then we went off for our first group dinner. Real food! (We have been eating food prior to this, but mostly pastas). This is the proper Italian courses though. Two kinds of pasta to start, one a giant tortellini type thing and the other I don't quite remember. Then a choice of steak or rabbit. I had rabbit. Like everything else, it tastes like chicken. Really it was fine, but the steak was better and the rabbit was on the skeleton and so it was far too much work to get the meat off. We finished off with panna cotta, which is cooked cream, similar to flan. Not surprisingly, we did NOT eat gelato today.

Monday we toured around town, including a museum of maps showing what the city used to look like. The schedule has been all tossed around by a strike that is occurring on Friday, so tonight we go for our wine & cheese tasting, which is a misnomer. It is three wines, the first with crostini (toast with various toppings. You would be surprised how good chicken liver tastes!) The second with meat, hams and the like. And only with the third one do you actually get cheese! Several people stuck around at the restaurant for some spagetti or dessert, but dad and I decided we had to get our gelato in. And we did, but I was not that impressed with the place, despite it being the new hotspot in town. We also did our laundry this day and had a delicious artichoke heart panini.

Tuesday was art overload. Did San Marco in the morning, which is the monastery where Fra Angelico painted frescos in most of the monks' cells. It is a much different style of art than most, so it was quite interesting to see. Then dad and I hit the musem of precious stones which is all about mosaics. That was stunning. They would paint something, then use the painting as a template for building the mosaic version. After eating some leftover pizza at the hotel, we went to the Uffizi which...it is impressive as always, but the local guide talked far too long standing in one place and physically it was exhausting to do that. I started wandering around, especially since I have already seen most of it, and that was rather nice actually.

After the Uffizi, we went to the Leonardo museum where they have built working models off of Da Vinci's sketches. The point of the museum is that you can push the buttons and make (most of) the machines work. Great for kids and dad really enjoyed it. Dinner was on our own and we did talk about coming back online but ended up hooking up with a group of fellow tour members for an entertaining and lively dinner together. This time we had more crostini (with black cabbage on top), and I had pappa al pomodoro which is the wonderful Tuscan bread and tomato soup I had here last year. I finished it off with a sliced steak which was cooked quite rare. Goodness, in both senses of the word.

Wednesday was the Bargello statue museum, the Duomo museum, and a group dinner. We made it to all the events but it was a bit touch and go as the food seems to be fighting back for dad. See? there is a reason to only eat gelato and pizza. For a bit there, I was not sure he would make it, but thanks to some strategically placed bathroom breaks, he survived to not only do the tour but even climb the Dome. A lovely view up there, and a lovely day (after getting rained on Tuesday), and the wind kicked up so hard I nearly fell over. Dad is still a bit shaky but has been eating immodium like candy and is much better today.

The interesting thing about being on our own vs. on the tour now, is that while I appreciate having the guide and all the arrangements made and so on, it is really quite chafing to be tied to someone else's schedule. I certainly would come back here on my own but definitely not on a tour, and funnily enough dad feels similiarly (though his is, he would come back here with me so he does not have to do any planning!)

Anyway, just about out of time, so that is all for now.

Ciao!