November 11, 2015

 

 

Putting a Bow on Florence

We wanted to have plenty of time to devote to Florence and so gave it five nights, same as our vacation on Santorini.  Our last time in Italy we drove right past on the highway because we didn’t think we had time to do it justice.  We always believe we are going to return and this time we actually did.

Today is day two of our tour of the Florence art scene, this time at the Uffizi Gallery.  We have a 10:30 ticket which means we have an extra few minutes this morning to get going (and no Pope).  On our walk through “our” square there are about 30 chefs, all with their big hats and fancy jackets and medals hanging around their necks gathered in a big group.  They are holding some sort of banner that seems to announce a culinary organization of some sort.  In the U.S. there are organizations of Master Chefs and that’s what this looks like.  They aren’t really doing anything except taking selfies so we get bored and move along. 

Our first challenge when we arrive at the Uffizi is that the first gallery room is 4 flights up big stone stairs.  As the famous Italian lawyer, Giovanni Cochrano, would say, ‘You ain’t burnin’ calories if you’re hangin’ in the galleries.”  The Uffizi is a walk-through of renaissance art starting in the 12^th century and ending in the 18^th.  The gallery is organized to show the evolutionary process from flat two dimensional blah colors to fully formed three dimensional high color masterpieces.  All of the big Italians are there including Botticelli, Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael and Da Vinci, and another separate area for “foreign” painters (Dutch) in the later years.  The sculptures are also very impressive filling several rooms.  At the risk of saying, “there was a lot of purdy pitchers,” we will readily admit to our art illiteracy but we were intrigued enough to spend 3-1/2 hours inside which is a new record for either of us.

When we finally emerged at 2:00 we found ourselves a block and a half from the take-away sandwich version of our restaurant from last night, All Antico Vinaio.  There is of course a line out the door on both sides of the street for these mirror image restaurants.  They have their specials displayed on a board outside and Mary picks the “Summer Sandwich” which consists of stacks of parma ham, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil on focaccia.  John goes for the l’inferno, a mouth tingling assortment of porchetta, shredded lettuce, mushroom spread and red pepper jam.  These are not your normal Italian skinny-slice-of-meat-between-bread type of sandwiches.  These are stacked like a Jewish deli.  Wow, are they good and 5 euros apiece.  We found a couple stools at the end of the counter, the only ones you could actually sit at, and devoured lunch and watched the never-ending procession.  We later found out that this restaurant has more Tripadvisor reviews than any other restaurant in the WORLD!

We take one more hour long stroll around the city to see if there is anything we missed.  There is no line at the Duomo so we stick our heads in there.  There are a lot of chairs set up from the gathering of the Italian Catholic conventioneers but not much else.  The altar area is blocked off and we can’t get a good look at the inside of the dome, supposedly the highlight of this site.  We keep moving for a little while longer and decide that we have finished Florence.  There are another dozen art galleries and as many churches and museums each with their own masterpieces from the last 700 years but we have had enough.  “Basta” as the Italians say.

As always a little nap before dinner is in order.  We have debated going back to our “forgot the wallet” restaurant which we really enjoyed but opt instead to hit another of the Miki and Franco recommendations, La Spada.  They have a big rotisserie just inside the front door with lots of roasted specialties on the menu.  John goes for the ribs and roasted potatoes and Mary is in for the truffle risotto.  No dice on the ribs for John, they just ran out, so he picks the rotisserie chicken instead.  Mary’s risotto is very good with great truffle flavor while John’s chicken is bone dry.  This time there is no sauce to save it.  Mary dumps some risotto on his plate to add a little bit of moisture.  It is not a good sign if an Italian restaurant can’t cook chicken as well as Costco.

A short walk home to bed and that’s a wrap.  It’s a wake up and gone tomorrow morning.

What did we learn today?  Smiling faces, good value, great product prepared with imagination and care will always have lines out the door. Maybe we already knew that.