Wandering in Florence

Wed, Sept 10, 2014

Everyone I've ever talked to who has been to Italy has said one of their favorite places to go was Florence.  Since Tracy and Ed gave me this week to plan, and one of Tracy's regrets was that she had only passed through Florence some years ago, I decided to put this on the agenda.

Produce at San Lorenzo market

On the road in the pouring rain, Ed once again showed his Italian side of driving and got us to a parking garage in Florence in under 2 hours, pulling some creative maneuvering.  We had lunch at a nearby trattoria, then the guys went to climb a tower in the duomo, and Tracy and I perused the stalls at San Lorenzo market.  We walked through a sea of handbags, scarves, and sweaters, until I noticed the covered food market building, and off I went.

Basically, this place is a foodie's wet dream, with stalls of hams, cheeses, fish, produce, dried goods, and prepared foods.

Weird shaped cheeses at San Lorenzo market

We had just eaten, so I walked through, talking to proprietors, and drinking in the sights and smells.  I also saw the largest collection of truffles (mushrooms, not the chocolate kind) I've even seen.  Easily worth thousands of euros.

This is not the high season for Florence, and yet plenty of people were around.  Waiting outside the duomo for the guys to get down from the tower, I truly couldn't imagine what this place would be like in the summer.  For me, unbearable with too many people.  Glad we chose this time of year to go.

Tracy and I didn't go inside the duomo, but the outside of it was stunning, lots of detail work and pops of color.  I believe there is a lot of work undergoing cleaning the outside of it, as we saw the backside of the church that wasn't so brilliant.   Just an incredible piece of architecture.

Joe and I really wanted to see The David statue, and despite reading tips online about buying tickets in advance, we ignored it and stood in the other line (unreserved tickets).  I had heard in high season people could stand in line for 4-5 hours.  I'm sorry, but I really don't think anything is worth standing in line for THAT long.  Please let me know what would be worth that to you in the comments, because I just can't imagine anything, even an amazing piece of art.

Fortunately, we only waited in line 50 minutes before we were let in (Tracy and Ed bugged out since they had seen it before).  The statue is really incredible and worth staring at for 15 minutes or so.  VERY realistic, I almost expected it to come to life.  I mean you can see the muscles and the VEINS popping out on the arms.  The fingers look really REAL.  I'm such an amateur when it comes to art appreciation, but I was glad we got to see David.

Let's not forget there is OTHER art in the same museum, and I didn't want those pieces to feel ignored, so we walked around and looked at the paintings and other sculptures.  (I also wanted to be in the museum longer than I was in line).

I'll admit I didn't have a solid plan mapped out on what to do and see, and when, while in Florence, so we meandered to the bridge Ponte Trinito (just one bridge west of Ponte Vecchio which was mobbed) and crossed over to a different area.  Joe and I wanted a little nosh, and came across this surprisingly modern cafe with couches and pillows and music thumping.  It felt like being in a club.  Tracy and Ed joined us there for pre-dinner wine, then we headed back to the bridge for sunset pictures.

I feel like we eat a lot here, yet all of this walking makes me hungry.  So Joe somehow found this amazing, homey, family style restaurant, where we ate one of my favorite meals of the trip.

Now, I grew up with several Italian or partially Italian friends, and this restaurant reminded me so much of visiting these friends, where I would just be at their house to pick them and their mothers would say "would you like meatballs/lasagna/shells?  We just ate"  My response "no, I ate, I'm fine, thank you"  Then BAM, a plate of food is in front of me "you eat a little before going out.  You too skinny", as my friends would say "Maaa, she doesn't want to eat"  "of COURSE she eats!"  And on and on...

This restaurant Joe chose had unlimited wine, multiple courses of appetizers, then 3 pastas, 3 meats, I forget how many sides, then 8, yes 8 (in case you're still not sure what I typed, it was EIGHT) desserts.  We were asked "biscotti?"  "No thank you"  Boom!  Biscotti is put in front of us.  Then 2 after dinner drinks. Holy crap we were full!!  But, wait, there's more!  "Would you like some Limoncello?"  "oh, wow, no thank you".  Too bad.  Boom!  "Here's some Limoncello - we do this with family, and this is family style!"  So of course, I drank that too. You just don't say no to food or drink offered from an Italian.

 At this point we were pretty frightened about what the bill was going to be, because for some reason, we didn't ask at the beginning what the family style menu cost.  With all this food and drink, and the high prices we've been paying for some fairly simple meals, we all started taking bets on what the total bill would be.  I think the lowest bet was 250 euros and the highest was 340.  When we got the bill we all had to look at it and make sure the number was right, as it was scribbled out on a piece of paper.  The final cost?  Only 200 euros  50 euros a person for all that food and booze.  No one had to sell a kidney to pay for dinner.  Whew!

All in all, I was not as enamored with Florence as I thought I would be - maybe it was the short amount of time there, maybe it was the rain - but that dinner was a great way to end the day, and it's my favorite memory of Florence.