Fondling Florence
The sun is shining, it’s a little crispy and we’re in
Florence, Italy. We fix a little pot of
coffee and some fruit, cereal and yogurt and get organized, which means more
loads of laundry for Mary. There is a
washing machine learning curve as there always is and the clothes are coming
out very wet. We figure out the
recommended wash cycle has virtually no spin so a new plan is in place and
working better. Mary goes through the
process of spreading drying laundry over our two balconies and an adjoining
clothes line. We’re almost locals.
It’s almost 11:00 by the time we get outside and the city is
packed with people. There are 400,000
residents in Florence and half of them are wandering somewhere in the center of
the city. Going away from the river we
return to the Duomo to see if it was a mirage that we saw last night. Nope, it’s the real deal. There are literally thousands of people
milling about in the square in front of the big cathedral. It doesn’t open today until 1:45 and is
closed tomorrow (the Pope is coming on Tuesday, we wonder if he is taking our
train). That means everyone here
including us is just basking in the enormity and splendor of this building.
After basking we go towards the river down a main pedestrian
mall that is wall to wall with people.
We pass the Palazzo Vecchio and several blocks south (Florence is very
compact) we cross the Arno River at the Ponte Vecchio towards the Pitti Palace. Both of these palaces were part of the Medici
compound under the theory that you can’t have too many palaces. They built an overhead walkway between the
two that is actually a second story over the Ponte Vecchio bridge so they could
walk from palace to palace without encountering any of their unwashed subjects. It’s good to be a Medici.
We take a quick stroll around the Pitti palace and then wrap
around behind to get a peek at their gardens.
We spend 20 minutes walking straight up hill on a street with walls on
both sides and when we finally puff our way to the top there are still no
views. There is another road down that
is equally steep and at the bottom we still don’t know where we are. There are groups of people going up a set of
stairs that looks like it might be something of interest. What the heck, we’re just exploring
anyway. Another 20 minute trudge up this
stairway and, lo and behold, we emerge onto a large square sitting right on the
bluff over the river with killer views of the city and the Palace gardens. We eventually figure out that we are at the
Piazzale Michelangiolo that Miki and Franco told us about yesterday. They said take the bus, the walk is too
hard. You are right.
A series of paths and streets gets us back down to river
level and we cross back to the center over the Ponte Alle Grazie. It’s pushing 2:00 and our low-cal breakfast
isn’t cutting it today. We pull up a
table at a little pizza place on the Piazza Della Signoria, get a couple beers,
yet another anchovy pizza and all is right with the world. This place has red-jacketed old school
waiters who are competent and entertaining.
A nice combination.
After lunch we spend some more time wandering the streets of
the center city returning again to the Duomo.
It is open now with a line that stretches around the square. Our guide book says the line isn’t worth
it—the treasures inside have all been off-loaded to the Duomo museum (which is closed for renovations)—so we keep
moving. Last night we had passed one of
those gelato places with about a thousand flavors (really maybe 50) and
amazingly we found it. Saying
“amazingly” is just cover, John knew exactly where it was. We each get a double flavor cone—Mary
amaretto and pistachio and John hazelnut and pistachio—grab a chair against the
wall and watch the action. The place
fills up right after we got served and we enjoy the action.
Time for a little reading, maybe a nap and checking on the
laundry situation before dinner. Tonight
it is Osteria Pastella which is about 4 blocks back towards the train
station. It was on Miki and Franco’s
list and is getting rave reviews on Tripadvisor. There is a 5-minute wait for a table and so
someone hands us a flute of Prosecco to keep us happy and it works. While we wait we watch a person in the restaurant
window making pasta. She is back and
forth between the window and the kitchen which certainly gives the impression
that she is making pasta to order. Very
impressive.
When we get seated a server brings a little savory fritter
of some sort as well as a basket of bread.
The pasta prices are a couple euros higher than other places we have
been but we have already had a glass of prosecco and a fritter. We get it.
Mary orders a tortelloni with spinach and ricotta and John gets the
pappardelle with cinghiale and porcini.
John’s is a delicious mixture of pasta, pork and mushrooms and Mary’s is
an ethereal buttery creamy bowl of heaven.
Her noodles were just a hair crispy on the edges perhaps keeping the
dish from moving into the top three of the trip.
On the way up to pay we chat for a minute with a couple from
Denmark. He is a politician here for an
EU conference of some sort. He gives us
a few minute overview of the current problems within the EU, about half of
which we understand so we excuse ourselves and move along. But not very far.
At the front to pay John reaches for the wallet and it isn’t
there, it is back in the apartment. Mary
carries a back-up credit card, but oops that is back in the safe at the
apartment. John hands Mary over as collateral
while he rushes back to get the wallet.
They chain her to a table so she can’t get away. (Actually they clear a
table for her and give her a glass of dessert wine.) It is a 15 minute round trip and Mary is
disappointed that John is back so soon.
After that little routine it is 10:00 so no time for a walk
tonight, just home to bed.
What did we learn today? Italians don’t sit at home, they
get out (learned in Naples, Rome and now here).
No comments:
Post a Comment