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Florence in December: Live Trip Reporting

Florence in December: Live Trip Reporting

Old Dec 7th, 2010, 12:27 PM
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Florence in December: Live Trip Reporting

My work schedule cleared on short notice, so my wife and I decided to spend a week in Florence in December to celebrate our anniversay. We've been to Florence twice before, the first time years ago for a few days in September when we were first married, then in more recently for a day during a June trip to Italy with our children which, unfortunately, coincided with 100 degree temperatures and a major museum strike of all museums in the city. Thus we are familiar with Florence's layout and its main attractions, but we've wanted to return at some point for a more leisurely, in-depth exploration of the city in cooler weather when the tourist hordes are gone. This finally is our opportunity. This will be a cursory report as I go; perhaps I will post a more detailed report later.

Sun. Dec. 5, Morning:

Our flight arrives at Milan Malpensa at 8:30 a.m., 30 minutes late. Since we didn’t check bags, we’re through customs in minutes. We look for but do not find a Trenitalia desk in the main terminal. Although there is a 12:21 p.m. train from Malpensa itself to Florence, we don’t want to wait that long to get going, so we buy bus tickets — the Malpensa Shuttle (7.50 Euros apiece) — directly to Milano Centrale train station, hoping to catch the the 10:15 a.m. Trenitalia AV Frecciarosa train (1 hour, 45 minutes trip) to Florence. Even though we only had to wait five minutes after boarding the bus before it departed, a stop at a second terminal and a 50 minute ride to the train station deposit us there just a little too late, about 10:20. However, the Florence trains leave regularly at 15 after the hour, so we buy tickets for the next one at 11:15. Surprisingly, second class at 52E per ticket is sold out, so we pay 70E per first class ticket, board the train, and locate our reserved seats 63 and 64 in car 1 ("Carrozza 001, Posti 63 & 64").

Sun. Dec. 5, Afternoon

Although we can’t compare first class to second, the train is very modern and clean. Our seats recline and are very comfortable. Even though our car is almost completely full, the overhead baggage space is ample and we're soon off on a smooth ride to Florence. The skies are overcast and the weather is chilly and damp, in the mid-40 degrees. As expected, the winter countryside is not as pretty as on our previous visits and patches of snow are visible in the fields as we head southeast from Milan. The smooth, gentle rocking of the train and jet lag combine to put us to sleep. After a short stop in Bologna we arrive, wait 10 minutes in the taxi line, and cab quickly deposits us a little before 1:30 at the Loggiato dei Serviti hotel, a former Servite convent located on the west side of Florence's famous colonnaded Piazza Santissima Annunziata. After unpacking, we get our second wind and we layer up to brave the chill and start exploring Firenze once more.
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Old Dec 7th, 2010, 01:15 PM
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ohhh, I was just getting to enjoy this, and you stopped.

more please!
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Old Dec 7th, 2010, 01:24 PM
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Thanks annhig. Okay -- still adjusting to night and day over here so in lieu of sleep here goes:

Sun. Dec. 5, Evening

As we step into the Piazza, the huge Duomo looms imposingly to our right — a straight shot, 5 minute walk down the Via dei Servi. We circle The Baptistery and rexamine its replicas of Ghiberti’s famous doors once more. We then head south down the Via dei Calzaiuoli — mobbed now not with tourists but with local Christmas shoppers. The skies begin to darken a little after four and are completely dark by 5:15, but the whole central area is awash in Natale lights strung across the streets and avenues — each having its own unique pattern. We walk to the Arno and cross the Ponte Vecchio,which is ablaze with light.

Dinner: Hungry and a little tired, we stop across from the Palazzo Pitti at a nameless tavola calda for a slices of pizza, some light pasta, and a mixed salad. The total is 25E and, except for getting small cups of coffee crunch and stracciatella gelato at Perche No! on our way back to the hotel, we’re done for the evening. Our working plan is to take a morning walking tour of the city tomorrow with ArtViva, followed by museum visits to the Uffizzi on Tuesday morning and the Accademia on Tuesday afternoon.

Mon. Dec. 5, Morning

We were given a room on the second floor (third story) with a great view of the Piazza Santissima Annuziata. Although my wife slept like a log, the sporadic traffic noise, occasional shouting, and (at one point) mysterious sound of dragging metal in the square woke me up off and on throughout the night. Plus, the wireless internet isn’t working in the room as advertised. However, after a filling complimentary breakfast downstairs in the hotel, the on-duty manager graciously moves us one floor up to a room at the back of the building. The new room has a nice view of pine trees in a courtyard and the dark high hills to the north of Florence. Even better, it seems quiet and the wi-fi works. Now we’re off in the cold and a light rain for a 9:15 3-hour morning walking tour with ArtViva.

At Art Viva, we learn -- to our dismay -- the museum workers will be on strike (once again) on Tuesday and Wednesday is a national holiday, so we’ll have to rearrange our plans to visit the Uffizzi and Accademia until later in the week. Since we’re spending more than one day in Florence on this trip, hopefully that will still work out. The tour is both thorough and interesting, even though it rains off an on throughout the morning. Our guide gives each of us a small transmitter and earpiece and speaks into a wireless microphone as he leads us to the Palazzo Strozzi (ostentatious mansion/palace of the Renaissance-era Strozzi family), Orsanmichele (former grain market/granary turned church), Santa Trinita church with its well preserved Ghirlandaio frescoes, various side streets through the town center, to the Ponte Vecchio bridge, then Piazza dei Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio (magnificent town hall with the high tower) where we break for coffee and hot chocolate. Good idea because the cold and damp is starting to chill me to the bone. Our tour resumes in the square and we conclude inside the massive Duomo.

Lunch: Nerbone is a classic food both inside the Mercato Centrale building near San Lorenzo church, the mercato is more or less Florence’s version of Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market. We eat the house speciality “boiled beef” sandwiches with extra spice — a good antidote for the outside temperature — and a delicious and ample side of warm ground spinach. We sit with a German couple from Majorca who graciously offer us some of their red wine. They claim they own a vineyard on the island and that Nerbone’s house red is an excellent value. I’m in no position to dispute that so just imbibe and enjoy.

Mon. Dec. 5, Afternoon

Cold and still a little jet-lagged, we head to the hotel. A hot shower to warm up and deep nap is what the doctor ordered, but by the time we get our engines going again, it’s growing dark. Since it’s started to rain again, the closest quality restaurant in our area appears to be Ristorante Accademia, just a few blocks away at Piazza San Marco 8. We arrive at 6:45 p.m. and though it’s reputed to be a popular restaurant, it is less than half full at that early hour. We’re ready for some food and vino.
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Old Dec 7th, 2010, 06:12 PM
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enjoying this on-the-spot report
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 01:37 AM
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I was in Firenze last November.....great time as the "tourist" season is sorta slow and you don't have much of the maddening crowds ...also it is a GREAT time to shop around there if you are so inclined, you can find some great deals . We got some excellent leather goods..belts..briefcases..etc. at half or more off....and I scored a most excellent and high quality pair of shoes for bargain basement price. Everytime I wear them here I am reminded of my visits to Italy and they fit like a glove.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 03:56 AM
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If the Bronzino exhibition is still on at the Palazzo Strozzi, it's well worth seeing, a better use of time than the revered Davide to my mind. And the monk's cells with Fra Angelico frescos in P.San Marco are wonderful (only open in the mornings.)

Not far from your hotel, in fact on Via Tavolini where you ate ice cream, is Paoli - very traditional with delicious pappa pomodoro.

You can tell that I am enjoying your report!
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 05:19 AM
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And, if it isn't in your plan, the fresco, "Procession of the Magi", in the chapel at the Pallazo Medici-Riccardi has been exquisitely restored and is well worth seeing. It is open every day but Wednesday.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 11:27 AM
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As people are adding suggestions, I'll pitch the Museo Opificio delle Pietre Dure which is very near your hotel. If you've visited the Medici Chapels, you've seen the beautiful mosaics of stone and precious gems. The best examples of this inlay process (perhaps anywhere in the world) are in the Opificio.

http://www.frommers.com/destinations...ce/A33291.html

I second the suggestion of the Procession of the Magi. Also in Palazzo Medici-Riccardi are two public rooms. The Riccardi Galleria is a medium-sized salon with beautifully painted ceiling and walls. The Room of the Four Seasons is a meeting room used by the provincial government. There are lovely tapestries covering the walls. On the ground floor of the palazzo is exhibition space currently displaying the photography of Carlo Fei.

http://www.palazzo-medici.it/eng/home.htm
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 01:32 PM
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Thanks for all your great suggestions. we'll try to work in as much as we can.

Tues. Dec. 6, Morning

After breakfast at the hotel, we head out into the morning rush. It’s another overcast day, but it’s markedly warmer, probably in the mid-50s with no wind. It’s so mild in fact that I can doff my jacket and am comfortable simply in a long sleeve shirt. Our goal is to stroll leisurely through central Florence so my wife can shop as we slowly make our way south to cross the Arno River to see the famous frescoes at Branccaci Chapel at St. Maria del Carmine.

A small confession: we enjoy art very much, but in moderate doses. We’ve learned from previous experience how easy for us it is in Europe to overdose on cathedrals, paintings, and ancient ruins and that our enjoyment is proportional to how much time we can invest before a trip in learning in detail about what we can see. Without much time to read up for this trip, it occurred to me to check out what The Teaching Company had to offer on Renaissance artists. Selected lectures by Smithsonian Prof. William Kloss from his “History of European Art” and “Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance” series were particularly informative and whetted our appetite to see the Brancacci Chapel since we had missed it on previous trips.

I read we needed reservations for viewing the chapel but those could be obtained the same day, especially in the off season. But of course as luck would have it I forgot to check on open days and hours. Shouldn’t be a problem because most other churches seem open today. When we arrive at the church we’re allowed in, but it’s completely dark inside and a monk tells us the chapel is closed on Tuesday. Damn, note to self about double checking next time; now for Plan B.

In the neighborhood is a travel service, Absolute Italy, that some friends have recommended highly. We’re interested in scheduling a day trip outside Florence one day this week, and Laura and Eliza there help us decide on a guided excursion in the Chianti wine country on Friday, when the weather should be better. They also graciously volunteer to make Brancacci Chapel reservations for us on Wednesday or Thursday and recommend that we have lunch at the international Christmas fair going on right now in Piazza Santa Croce. Since we wanted to see Santa Croce church anyway at some point on the trip, this sounds like a good idea.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 05:29 PM
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MRand, thank you for giving us your real time account from Florence under cloudy skies. I agree that one can "overdose" on religious art. After 2 weeks in Rome years back, I could not look at another martyr in his death agony.
Maybe I missed it, but how is Florence dressed for the Christmas holidays?
Enjoying your account....
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 09:20 PM
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MRand: I am so glad I ran across this report!! I love your style and insights! Can't wait for more!!

MY
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Old Dec 9th, 2010, 11:31 AM
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Thanks for all the positive comments.

latedaytraveler - turns out that as we hoped Florence is very festive for the holidays. Many of the streets have strands of lights spanning the way and each seems to have its own design or pattern. At night, the yellow glow coming from many stores only multiplies to the effect. Add to that the tall Christmas trees the city or some benefactor has placed at the Duomo, our Piazza della Santissima Annuziata, Piazza Santa Croce, and high up above the city at Piazzale Michelangelo and you've got a warm holiday vibe most major cities would be pleased to have.
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Old Dec 9th, 2010, 01:41 PM
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MRand, it must be truly beautiful in Florence just now. So different from hot and crowded conditions. Did you get to the Santa Croce Fair? And, did you enjoy the church? (Daft question.)
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Old Dec 9th, 2010, 01:56 PM
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Tues., Dec. 6, Afternoon

We walk to Piazza Santa Croce where the international fair is in full swing. We see crafts and food booths from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and Hungary and I’m sure many more countries are represented. We settle for a cheap lunch (17E for the two of us) of sausage and sauerkraut. Fortified, we tackle the many highlights of Santa Croce church including the tombs of Michelangelo, Dante, Gallileo, Ghiberti, and other Italian heroes, which have led some to call it the "Westminster Abbey of Italy." Impressive, sure, but the art here on the walls in all the chapels and sacristies is simply getting overwhelming, and like eating too much icing on a cake, we’re starting to get art overload.

The simplicity but undeniable architectural attractiveness of Pazzi Chapel and its courtyard by Brunelleschi, which is affixed to the south side of Santa Croce, is a peaceful Spartan contrast to the main church. All these rich Florentines buying chapels for themselves and their families 500 years ago sometimes still pay remarkable benefits for us 500 years later. I'm not by any means suggesting that anyone should bypass Santa Croce. It's a fascinating place, but it's overflowing with riches so you've got to pick your shots there.

The Santa Croce museum shows devastating effects of the massive 1966 flood of the Arno River in Florence that destroyed many art treasures at Santa Croce, the Uffizi, and other places in the city. I remember this on the news as a young kid at the time, even though at that time I had never heard of Florence or why it had all these art treasures. The mountains east of Florence had received torrential rains for several days beforehand and a dam above the city threatened to burst in the night. Our guide told us yesterday that Italian officials, in an effort to avoid massive panic and potential fatalities, decided not to risk the dam bursting or to warn the city of the impending flood and opened the gates. This led to irreplaceable losses of art in the city but minimal loss of life.

But I digress. My wife is dying to see the Leather School run by the monks at Santa Croce: http://www.scuoladelcuoio.com/index.html located behind the main church. You can watch the monks and their apprentices ply their trade which is interesting, but soon I look for and find a spare bench as I continue to shake off jet lag while my wife shoulders the heavy lifting of looking for Christmas gifts. While she doesn’t find what she wants there, she’s successful in the leather shops across the street on Via di San Giuseppe.

Tuesday, Dec. 6, Evening

By now it’s dark and we’re ready for dinner, but we’ve still got and hour or two to kill before most of the restaurants open around 7 p.m. Looking around for a time filler before dinner, we realized the Bronzino exhibit at Palazzo Strozzi is open until 8. The exhibit has been skillfully marketed with huge posters on the sides of building all over town providing intriguing glimpses of Bronzino's photographic-quality 16th century portraits of the Medici clan, so we’re game.

Tarquin, you are exactly right, the Bronzino exhibit is well worth seeing — every bit as good as advertised. His best works have been assembled from museums across Italy and around the world in an exhibit that can easily be appreciated in an hour, more or less. I’ll be honest — maybe I remember hearing of Bronzino before this trip, or maybe not — but his portraits from the 1500s Florence are stunningly realistic. The subjects of his pictures, both adults and children, look surprisingly modern — like real people instead of the more idealized figures in most painting of the era. Speaking from a guy’s perspective, I’ve got to admit these Bronzino women would be attractive even by the exacting standards of today’s reality show culture.

Now we’ve really worked up an appetite, so we go to Trattoria “Le Mossacce,” just a little south and east of the Duomo at Via del Proconsolo, 55. It’s a small space with just a few large wooden tables shared by the patrons and a loud open air kitchen right on top of the diners. We know we’ve done well when locals start pouring in just a few minutes later. It looks like the local neighborhood hangout for families and workers on a budget.

My wife starts off with minestrone and I have the heavier ribollita, the thick local Tuscan soup of bread, beans, and black cabbage. Holy cow — would it cause cultural offense if I picked up my bowl and licked it clean? My wife says yes, so I resist the temptation, but she enjoys her soup equally well, which seems to be just a lighter version of what I ordered, sans the bread. Back home, we would have made a meal out of just the bread, olive oil, house red wine, and the soup. But hey, we’re on vacation in Italy, have walked several miles today, and have had a light lunch, so what the hell, right? My rich lasagna barely trumps her spaghetti in rich tomato sauce, and we enjoy being the conspicuous foreigners in a place otherwise filled with Italians who occasionally glance at us with amused expressions. And jeez, to think by simply dressing in dark colors we thought we would blend in locals — oh well. We’re tired and full so back to the hotel for (hopefully) a good night’s sleep.
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Old Dec 10th, 2010, 11:39 AM
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Impressive, sure, but the art here on the walls in all the chapels and sacristies is simply getting overwhelming, and like eating too much icing on a cake, we’re starting to get art overload.>>

exactly, MRand. this has regularly happened to me on visits to the "big three" of Italy, and I've never tried to do more than one at a time. how people who do them all together, one after another, manage to remember what they saw where escapes me.

loving your report, BTW.
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Old Dec 10th, 2010, 02:17 PM
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Wed., Dec. 8, Morning

We’re having a tough time shaking the jet lag. Just realized the dates on this report are off by a day. After a restless night, we end up sleeping in until 10:30, missing breakfast at the hotel and losing most of the morning. Turns out this isn’t as big a deal as it seems at first, because there’s a steady light rain falling from the gray skies outside and the mild temperatures and humidity quickly make us steamy hot in our rain jackets.

It’s also an Italian state holiday — the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception — so despite the rain, the streets are crowded with holiday shoppers. Plus, overnight a marketplace has materialized right in front of hour hotel in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, now filled with tents of locals selling their foodstuffs and holiday goods. Deploying our umbrellas, we stroll around the stalls until the rain drives us across the street under the colonnade of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata. We decide to use the time to scope out this church that we haven’t seen even though it’s less than a stone’s throw from our hotel entrance.

As we enter we’re stunned both by the basilica's ornate interior and to see it filled to overflowing with worshippers. Over the years, we’ve just gotten used to seeing a handful of attendees at the few religious services we’ve observed in Europe. There’s beautiful music being played including Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring and other clearly recognizable hymns. This surprises me a little because I always thought of Bach as a Protestant — a Lutheran — and didn’t realize his music would be played in a Roman Catholic basilica. We’d like to stay and listen, but feel like we’re intruding so we step out into the rain and work our way back to the center city.

Our ultimate destination, once again, is the elusive Branccaci Chapel. This time, however, the extremely helpful Elisa at Accent Italy has e-mailed us that she has made us reservations at the chapel at 2:00 p.m., so seeing the Massacio frescoes there should be a sure bet this time.
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Old Dec 10th, 2010, 03:40 PM
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MRand, when you get home, you might enjoy reading "Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces" by Robert Clark. It's a well-written account of the 1966 flood and the efforts to save the art. FYI, the Santa Croce area experienced most of the highest water measurements.

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Water-Dis...2027900&sr=1-1
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Old Dec 10th, 2010, 04:26 PM
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Mrand, I am so enjoying your trip report and I smiled regarding your reaction to the Ribollita Soup, I so understand! It is beyond description good and I am so hungry just thinking about it. I hope you have a chance to have some more before you leave Florence.

Just a gentle comment for those who will be visiting Florence. Dante is not buried in Florence although yes there is a tomb there for him. Dante is buried in Ravenna.
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Old Dec 10th, 2010, 09:55 PM
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Thanks Jean -- just ordered it. Thanks to LoveItaly, especially for the Dante note.
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Old Dec 11th, 2010, 02:26 PM
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Lunch: We quickly split a tomato and cheese sandwich we buy at a street stand as we walk our way in the rain across town to see the Brancacci Chapel frescoes.

Wed., Dec. 8, Afternoon

The light rain turns harder as we approach the chapel, and it is beginning to feel colder again. We’re admitted with our 2:00 p.m. reservation into the Carmelites' beautiful cloistered courtyard with tall pine trees. There’s a nice museum bookstore at the church where we pick up our tickets, but before being allowed to see the chapel we’re (somewhat reluctantly) ushered to and seated in a small viewing room for a 40-minute orientation video. We are given headsets that can be dialed to English narration and while we wait the darkness and sound of water pouring off the roof outside almost put me to sleep. Soon the video starts and we are both pleasantly surprised with how well done and informative the presentation is, demonstrating not only creative process involved in the frescoes but providing us with fascinating background on the building of the church and the Carmelite order that sponsors it. We both believe this is one of the best introductory visual presentations we’ve ever seen for a work of art or historical site.

Now it’s time to enter the church — completely dark except for the chapel itself, which is brightly illuminated. It does not disappoint. The colors in real life are much more stunning than anything I’ve seen in pictures of the chapel beforehand. The chapel walls feature 12 separate frescoes — 6 on each side — several which were started by Masolino and his young apprentice Massacio, who took over when his master left for a foreign commission. Masaccio himself painted 5 of the most colorful and dramatic frescoes, while the rest were finished much later by Filippino Lippi. To us, Massacio’s are clearly the most vivid and expressive. This is one time I really believe that my pre-trip preparation (and the video we’ve just seen) have paid off significantly in my enjoyment of the art. Not quite sure how we missed the Brancacci Chapel on our first trip to Florence years ago — or maybe we did see it then, but didn’t really appreciate what we were looking at and have forgotten about it until now.

It’s still raining outside, so we cross back over the Arno on Ponte della Carraia, one of the Florence bridges Hitler ordered destroyed by withdrawing Nazi troops late in World War II. Apparently Hitler ordered all the Florence bridges blown up except the Ponte Vecchio, which he’d personally been shown by Mussolini in a pre-war visit to Florence. We stop to dry out a little at the Westin Excelsior, a beautiful hotel along the river.

Despite the weather, my wife wants to brave the outdoor market stalls adjacent to the Basilica of San Lorenzo. I retreat to a covered area at nearby Trattoria Za-za to drink some vino rosso and bruschetta, check with our kids, and get the news from home. We have a friend who’s recommended that we see the Four Seasons Florence hotel and grounds (and we have a mutual friend who works for the Four Seasons company). The rain is finally lightening up, so the walk isn’t bad and we enjoy seeing the hotel (another former convent — a little nicer than the one we’re staying in), having another glass of wine there, and strolling around the hotel’s beautiful “backyard” — the 11 acres that are the Giardino della Gherardesca.

Wed., Dec. 8, Evening

Dinner: We’re always ready to eat on the early side compared to the Italians, so we’re often killing a little time until the restaurants open for dinner at 7 or 7:30. Since it’s not too far of a walk to the Santa Croce neighborhood on the east side of the center city, we decide to check out Trattoria Cibreo that we’ve heard a lot about. There are actually three Cibreos — the really expensive ristorante, the much more reasonably-priced trattoria next door (serving some of the same menu as the larger restaurant), and the caffe’/bar across the street. The trattoria is not quite open yet, so we cross the street to Cibreo’s fantastic caffe’— a small but cozy, not too crowded bar with an interesting lively crowd where we have a few appetizers and some wine to take the edge off our hunger.

At the small but very nicely furnished trattoria (which proudly does not serve either pasta or coffee), we again have a mix of dinner “companions.” The table to our left apparently is a mixed Italian-American family whose young — really young — children amaze us by occasionally breaking their perfect English conversation with their parents to speak what sounds like perfect Italian when conversing with the waiters. At the table to our right, the waiters seat two middle-aged German women at a small table with the two young Korean men who’ve already started their dinner. After 10 or so awkward minutes, the four are carrying on an animated conversation in ENGLISH. My wife and I can only envy these diners’ language skills.
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