Florence in December: Live Trip Reporting
Dec 11th, 2010, 03:17 PM
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What a lovely report! I'm taking notes as it goes along -- will be in Florence once again on the 26th -- after 30 years! (Wow, I can't believe that much time has gone by since I first fell in love with that beautiful city....)
Dec 12th, 2010, 01:12 PM
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Thurs., Dec. 9, Morning
Even though my wife and I visited the Ufizzi and the Accademia on our first visit to Florence, that was over 25 years ago. My recollection is that at the time, several major rooms were closed and Boticelli’s masterpieces were on loan or being restored. When we returned for a day with our daughter and sons several years ago, both museums were closed by a strike.
This time we decide to do see them in a more structured way with a guide from ArtViva. We were planning to see the museums on Tuesday, but another strike closed them then. Fortunately this morning we set out in the first good weather of the week — colder but clearing to blue skies — and meet our guide, Sarah, at 9:15. She’s an American expatriate who came to Florence as a graduate student to study art, married an Italian, and stayed ever since. I’m sure this story has been played out in Florence many times.
Our small group includes only a young Singaporean family of five and one other couple. Turns out the father from Singapore previously has been the South Asian representative of a company based in our hometown and we know his former boss, who was president of the company before it was acquired in the mid-2000s. Sometimes the "society of travelers" can be an amazingly small world.
We learn that Sarah will be our guide both for the morning at the Uffizi and the early afternoon at the Accademia. This turns out to be a very good thing, because she’s one of the most knowledgeable, enthusiastic guides we’ve ever had. Using highlights of the Uffizi collection as her outline, she takes us on a two-hour visual tour of Western art from the late Middle Ages through the late Renaissance. The Uffizi is a heck of a lab for this teacher. Of course her presentation describes in detail works by art superstars Giotto, Duccio, Boticelli (including "Primavera" and "The Birth of Venus" we missed on our first trip), Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo and others, as well as a brief history of the Medici family who were such incredible patrons of the arts in Florence during the Renaissance, and the Uffizi building itself.
We realize that guided tours of museums are not everyone’s cup of tea or always in other travelers’ budgets. (ArtViva offers a combined three-in-one price of 94 Euros per person for the walking tour of the city we took on Monday morning and the strike-delayed Uffizi and Accademia tours we are taking today. I think this is a pretty good deal and probably less expensive than other very good companies like Context Rome, which also has a Context Florence branch.) We also like wandering through museums at our leisure, focusing on those works that catch our eye. However, for massive collections like the Uffizi, and especially traveling with our kids in their adolescent years, we’ve come to really enjoy having guides to lead us — especially ones as good as Sarah. We’re amazed that the two younger children of the family from Singapore are so quietly attentive during the tour. I can only shudder to think how ours would have lasted for two hours at their age; we think it must be a combination of their discipline, fluency in English, and Sarah’s ability to engage all of us.
Lunch: After we’re through looking at the art, my wife and I split a panini in the Uffizi’s fourth-floor café and enjoying a sweeping view of Florence from the café’s terrace. The weather is really turning out to be spectacular and we hope it holds out for the rest of the trip.
Thurs. Dec. 9, Afternoon
We meet Sarah again at 1:30 for our afternoon visit to the Accademia and Michelangelo’s David. We pepper her with questions she capably answers as we walk through the city center. We thought she was engaging at the Uffizi, but she’s really on her game at the Accademia. Michelangelo must be a particular interest for her because she walks us through the details of his life and development as a young artist, a period that culminated in his gigantic white sculpture of David that astonished Florentines when they first saw it in the 1500s and continues to amaze us even today, years after we saw it on our first visit to the city.
Sarah points out some of the ambiguities in the statue that we hadn’t noticed before, such as the impression of David’s stare that appears to change from a confident “bring it on Goliath” when you first see it in profile to a more uncertain gaze when you move around to see the face head on. We’re really disappointed our children missed this on that strike day during our previous Italy trip; it’ll just have to be incentive for them to return someday.
The Accademia tour is shorter than the one at the Uffizi, so despite the early nightfall in December, we’ve still got some daylight to enjoy the great weather. Since we’ve walked everywhere in Florence up to now, we decide to take a taxi back across the river and up to the Piazzale Michelangelo to catch the sunset (12 Euros).
We make it to the plaza there without about 30 minutes to spare. The whole city is bathed in late afternoon golden light and vivid purple clouds to the west are lined with silver and gold reflections. It’s a spectacular end to a very enjoyable day, but there’s another unexpected treat in store for us. Based on suggestions we’ve seen in this forum, we hike a little further up to the top of the hill that is crowned by the Benedictine San Minitao del Monte church and monastery.
Now it’s dark, but the courtyard of San Minitao provides another panoramic view of the city, now lit up with thousands of yellow lights. A tall Christmas tree on the Piazzale Michelangelo below us also twinkles with hundreds of tiny white blinking lights. A real chill has now set in, so we go inside the church that is lit only by candles. Though smaller and far less decorated than most other churches in Florence, we are impressed with the simplicity of its art and design. While we’re there at 5:30, the Benedictine monks begin their Gregorian plainsong chants, adding a haunting quality to the moment.
Thurs., Dec. 10, Evening
Dinner: We leave the church and walk back down to the Piazzale Michelangelo and then down its switchbacks to the river level. As we stroll once again alongside the river Arno, brightly illuminated all the way down to the Ponte Vecchio, we decide to follow our guide Sarah’s dinner recommendation at La Ghiotta. It's a small trattoria in the nearby Santa Croce neighborhood that she says is rarely frequented by tourists. As has been our custom, we arrive a few minutes before the restaurant has opened so we return to our favorite nearby Cibreo bar for before-diner drinks and snacks.
Even after it opens, we're among the first to arrive at La Ghiotta, which has none of the interesting décor or warm atmosphere of Trattoria Cibreo, but we quickly understand why Sarah has recommended it. Within 30 minutes the placed is filled with locals and the food is simply fantastic, one of our best meals of the trip so far. We split a wonderful caprese salad, my wife has pasta with meat sauce, and I have a primi patti of spinach ravioli and then a second course of whitefish is some sort of fantastic thick, chunky tomato sauce. It’s just flat expensive to eat out at most “sit down” restaurants in Florence, but the price of this meal and the one we had at La Mossacce on Tuesday evening are the most reasonable on the trip. Moreover, the food at both places is every bit as good as the more expensive restaurants. Since we’re only going to be in Florence for six days, we want to sample as many different places as possible, but if we were going to be here any longer, I’d be content to alternate dinners between La Mossacce and La Ghiotta, trying different things off of their menus.
Even though my wife and I visited the Ufizzi and the Accademia on our first visit to Florence, that was over 25 years ago. My recollection is that at the time, several major rooms were closed and Boticelli’s masterpieces were on loan or being restored. When we returned for a day with our daughter and sons several years ago, both museums were closed by a strike.
This time we decide to do see them in a more structured way with a guide from ArtViva. We were planning to see the museums on Tuesday, but another strike closed them then. Fortunately this morning we set out in the first good weather of the week — colder but clearing to blue skies — and meet our guide, Sarah, at 9:15. She’s an American expatriate who came to Florence as a graduate student to study art, married an Italian, and stayed ever since. I’m sure this story has been played out in Florence many times.
Our small group includes only a young Singaporean family of five and one other couple. Turns out the father from Singapore previously has been the South Asian representative of a company based in our hometown and we know his former boss, who was president of the company before it was acquired in the mid-2000s. Sometimes the "society of travelers" can be an amazingly small world.
We learn that Sarah will be our guide both for the morning at the Uffizi and the early afternoon at the Accademia. This turns out to be a very good thing, because she’s one of the most knowledgeable, enthusiastic guides we’ve ever had. Using highlights of the Uffizi collection as her outline, she takes us on a two-hour visual tour of Western art from the late Middle Ages through the late Renaissance. The Uffizi is a heck of a lab for this teacher. Of course her presentation describes in detail works by art superstars Giotto, Duccio, Boticelli (including "Primavera" and "The Birth of Venus" we missed on our first trip), Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo and others, as well as a brief history of the Medici family who were such incredible patrons of the arts in Florence during the Renaissance, and the Uffizi building itself.
We realize that guided tours of museums are not everyone’s cup of tea or always in other travelers’ budgets. (ArtViva offers a combined three-in-one price of 94 Euros per person for the walking tour of the city we took on Monday morning and the strike-delayed Uffizi and Accademia tours we are taking today. I think this is a pretty good deal and probably less expensive than other very good companies like Context Rome, which also has a Context Florence branch.) We also like wandering through museums at our leisure, focusing on those works that catch our eye. However, for massive collections like the Uffizi, and especially traveling with our kids in their adolescent years, we’ve come to really enjoy having guides to lead us — especially ones as good as Sarah. We’re amazed that the two younger children of the family from Singapore are so quietly attentive during the tour. I can only shudder to think how ours would have lasted for two hours at their age; we think it must be a combination of their discipline, fluency in English, and Sarah’s ability to engage all of us.
Lunch: After we’re through looking at the art, my wife and I split a panini in the Uffizi’s fourth-floor café and enjoying a sweeping view of Florence from the café’s terrace. The weather is really turning out to be spectacular and we hope it holds out for the rest of the trip.
Thurs. Dec. 9, Afternoon
We meet Sarah again at 1:30 for our afternoon visit to the Accademia and Michelangelo’s David. We pepper her with questions she capably answers as we walk through the city center. We thought she was engaging at the Uffizi, but she’s really on her game at the Accademia. Michelangelo must be a particular interest for her because she walks us through the details of his life and development as a young artist, a period that culminated in his gigantic white sculpture of David that astonished Florentines when they first saw it in the 1500s and continues to amaze us even today, years after we saw it on our first visit to the city.
Sarah points out some of the ambiguities in the statue that we hadn’t noticed before, such as the impression of David’s stare that appears to change from a confident “bring it on Goliath” when you first see it in profile to a more uncertain gaze when you move around to see the face head on. We’re really disappointed our children missed this on that strike day during our previous Italy trip; it’ll just have to be incentive for them to return someday.
The Accademia tour is shorter than the one at the Uffizi, so despite the early nightfall in December, we’ve still got some daylight to enjoy the great weather. Since we’ve walked everywhere in Florence up to now, we decide to take a taxi back across the river and up to the Piazzale Michelangelo to catch the sunset (12 Euros).
We make it to the plaza there without about 30 minutes to spare. The whole city is bathed in late afternoon golden light and vivid purple clouds to the west are lined with silver and gold reflections. It’s a spectacular end to a very enjoyable day, but there’s another unexpected treat in store for us. Based on suggestions we’ve seen in this forum, we hike a little further up to the top of the hill that is crowned by the Benedictine San Minitao del Monte church and monastery.
Now it’s dark, but the courtyard of San Minitao provides another panoramic view of the city, now lit up with thousands of yellow lights. A tall Christmas tree on the Piazzale Michelangelo below us also twinkles with hundreds of tiny white blinking lights. A real chill has now set in, so we go inside the church that is lit only by candles. Though smaller and far less decorated than most other churches in Florence, we are impressed with the simplicity of its art and design. While we’re there at 5:30, the Benedictine monks begin their Gregorian plainsong chants, adding a haunting quality to the moment.
Thurs., Dec. 10, Evening
Dinner: We leave the church and walk back down to the Piazzale Michelangelo and then down its switchbacks to the river level. As we stroll once again alongside the river Arno, brightly illuminated all the way down to the Ponte Vecchio, we decide to follow our guide Sarah’s dinner recommendation at La Ghiotta. It's a small trattoria in the nearby Santa Croce neighborhood that she says is rarely frequented by tourists. As has been our custom, we arrive a few minutes before the restaurant has opened so we return to our favorite nearby Cibreo bar for before-diner drinks and snacks.
Even after it opens, we're among the first to arrive at La Ghiotta, which has none of the interesting décor or warm atmosphere of Trattoria Cibreo, but we quickly understand why Sarah has recommended it. Within 30 minutes the placed is filled with locals and the food is simply fantastic, one of our best meals of the trip so far. We split a wonderful caprese salad, my wife has pasta with meat sauce, and I have a primi patti of spinach ravioli and then a second course of whitefish is some sort of fantastic thick, chunky tomato sauce. It’s just flat expensive to eat out at most “sit down” restaurants in Florence, but the price of this meal and the one we had at La Mossacce on Tuesday evening are the most reasonable on the trip. Moreover, the food at both places is every bit as good as the more expensive restaurants. Since we’re only going to be in Florence for six days, we want to sample as many different places as possible, but if we were going to be here any longer, I’d be content to alternate dinners between La Mossacce and La Ghiotta, trying different things off of their menus.
Dec 13th, 2010, 07:14 AM
#23
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Fri., Dec. 10, Morning and Afternoon
Today is the day we’ve scheduled a guided tour in the Chianti region south between Florence and Siena. Based on friends’ recommendation, we’ve asked Laura Newman, who owns Accent Italy in Florence, to set this up. The excursion is expensive and is our splurge of the trip, but 30 years of marriage is something to celebrate, right? As much as we’ve enjoyed Florence, we’re still ready to do something different for a day and as you can tell, we like our wine, so a Chianti tour seems to fit the bill.
When we traveled in Italy five years ago with our family, we did a half-day self guided tour of Chianti that was simply a drive in our rented minivan from San Gimignano to Castellina-in-Chianti for lunch and one very enjoyable stop at a small wine and olive oil producer named Concadoro. Due to the heat that day, we cut our trip short before reaching my goal of Greve-in-Chianti. It will be interesting to see what our driver Daniele has in store for us today.
Daniele is very easy going but knowledgeable and we bombard him with questions from the get go. He’s an excellent, very calm driver and we’re making him earn every Euro to stay focused on the road while patiently answering our endless inquiries about Italy, its politics and history, the Chianti region, other Italian towns and cities, wine, comparisons with the United States, music, and much more. He takes us first, by coincidence, back to Castellina-in-Chianti for a walk through the pedestrian-only main street of this little village. We then wind south through the Tuscan hills to the Mazzei family winery at Fonterutoli, a medium-sized but state-of-the art winery south of Castellina on the Siena road. It’s another bright sunny day and we’re surprised at how green and attractive the Tuscan countryside still is in December, although clearly not as spectacular as our earlier trip in June.
Daniele is a big soccer fan and tells us about intense Italian soccer rivalries such as those between the two Roman teams and between Florence and Siena. I ask him if we are near the site of Montaperti, the battle in the 1200s I've read about at which Florence’s efforts to dominate Siena were at least temporarily defeated. He laughs and says it is far away, but that Siena soccer fans often taunt their Florentine counterparts with a clever bumper sticker that reads “I was at Montaperti.”
After an interesting personal tour of the winemaking operation at Fonterutoli, we sample four Mazzei wines — two made on the property there, one made in Sicily, and one made on the Maremma plains in southern Tuscany: www.mazzei.it/eng_143/ Not surprisingly, these wines are delicious. My wife likes their Chianti Classico the best. While each of the four are different, with my undiscriminating palate, they all seem great to me. I even like their grappa that we sample at the end of the tasting.
The wine helps us work up an appetite, so Daniele takes us to one of his favorite places in the area — Trattoria Oltre il Giardino. It’s located on a high hill in the small village of Panzano with a sweeping southern view of hills, vineyards, and olive groves. The deck is closed due to the cold and we can imagine how dramatic and colorful the vista would be in a warmer season.
The owner/chef is a warm grandfatherly figure who speaks no English. Nevertheless, he is attentive in serving us a mouth-watering bread and the freshly-harvested “new” olive oil, an array of bruschetti, and yet another delicious version of ribolitta. With Daniele translating, the owner explains in detail the steps he takes in preparing this classic Tuscan dish. We could go around restaurants in Florence and the surrounding areas just sampling the ribolitta.
Next Daniele drives us to Greve-in-Chianti, which he says can be overrun with tourists in the summer, but now in the quiet cold we have the entire trianglur-shaped village piazza to ourselves. Interesting to me in the center of the “square” is a tall statute of the Italian explorer Verrazano, who was born in Greve and later discovered the bay of New York. Unlike most explorers, who were born in port cities, Verrazano was born in Greve though it is well over a hundred miles from the sea.
Now the late afternoon shadows are setting in and on our way back to Florence, we stop at the American Military Cemetery and Memorial, just five miles south of Florence. This is the resting place of over 4,400 American servicemen (and some women as well) who lost their lives in the northern Italian campaign in 1944-45. Their white crosses symmetrically dot an immaculately-maintained sloping green hillside in a narrow valley. A wall with the names of hundreds more who were missing in action and a sculpted statue of an angel and eagle in flight on a tall granite pedestal crown the top of the slope. We are the only visitors, and as the sun sets behind the high hills, “Taps” is played and echoes across the valley in the cold crystal clear air.
As we leave, the retired serviceman who superintends the cemetery thanks us for coming and gives us brochures on this and other American military cemeteries in Europe. He talks to us with a Southern drawl, but immediately speaks fluent Italian to some local contractors who drop by. He has befriended Daniele on other visits, and as we leave Daniele tells us that both of them bemoan the little attention the cemetery now receives from locals and even most American tourists other than veterans and their families. This is well worth an hour or two visit if you have time while you’re in Florence, especially if you want a moving change of pace from painting and basilicas: www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/fl.php
This evening, on the recommendation of Daniele, we have another delicious (what else? but more expensive meal at La Cammilo in Oltrarno on Borgo San Jacopo 57, just east of the Ponte Santa Trinita bridge. Is there such thing as a bad meal in Italy? I’m sure someone somewhere has had one, but heck if I can think of one I’ve ever had.
Today is the day we’ve scheduled a guided tour in the Chianti region south between Florence and Siena. Based on friends’ recommendation, we’ve asked Laura Newman, who owns Accent Italy in Florence, to set this up. The excursion is expensive and is our splurge of the trip, but 30 years of marriage is something to celebrate, right? As much as we’ve enjoyed Florence, we’re still ready to do something different for a day and as you can tell, we like our wine, so a Chianti tour seems to fit the bill.
When we traveled in Italy five years ago with our family, we did a half-day self guided tour of Chianti that was simply a drive in our rented minivan from San Gimignano to Castellina-in-Chianti for lunch and one very enjoyable stop at a small wine and olive oil producer named Concadoro. Due to the heat that day, we cut our trip short before reaching my goal of Greve-in-Chianti. It will be interesting to see what our driver Daniele has in store for us today.
Daniele is very easy going but knowledgeable and we bombard him with questions from the get go. He’s an excellent, very calm driver and we’re making him earn every Euro to stay focused on the road while patiently answering our endless inquiries about Italy, its politics and history, the Chianti region, other Italian towns and cities, wine, comparisons with the United States, music, and much more. He takes us first, by coincidence, back to Castellina-in-Chianti for a walk through the pedestrian-only main street of this little village. We then wind south through the Tuscan hills to the Mazzei family winery at Fonterutoli, a medium-sized but state-of-the art winery south of Castellina on the Siena road. It’s another bright sunny day and we’re surprised at how green and attractive the Tuscan countryside still is in December, although clearly not as spectacular as our earlier trip in June.
Daniele is a big soccer fan and tells us about intense Italian soccer rivalries such as those between the two Roman teams and between Florence and Siena. I ask him if we are near the site of Montaperti, the battle in the 1200s I've read about at which Florence’s efforts to dominate Siena were at least temporarily defeated. He laughs and says it is far away, but that Siena soccer fans often taunt their Florentine counterparts with a clever bumper sticker that reads “I was at Montaperti.”
After an interesting personal tour of the winemaking operation at Fonterutoli, we sample four Mazzei wines — two made on the property there, one made in Sicily, and one made on the Maremma plains in southern Tuscany: www.mazzei.it/eng_143/ Not surprisingly, these wines are delicious. My wife likes their Chianti Classico the best. While each of the four are different, with my undiscriminating palate, they all seem great to me. I even like their grappa that we sample at the end of the tasting.
The wine helps us work up an appetite, so Daniele takes us to one of his favorite places in the area — Trattoria Oltre il Giardino. It’s located on a high hill in the small village of Panzano with a sweeping southern view of hills, vineyards, and olive groves. The deck is closed due to the cold and we can imagine how dramatic and colorful the vista would be in a warmer season.
The owner/chef is a warm grandfatherly figure who speaks no English. Nevertheless, he is attentive in serving us a mouth-watering bread and the freshly-harvested “new” olive oil, an array of bruschetti, and yet another delicious version of ribolitta. With Daniele translating, the owner explains in detail the steps he takes in preparing this classic Tuscan dish. We could go around restaurants in Florence and the surrounding areas just sampling the ribolitta.
Next Daniele drives us to Greve-in-Chianti, which he says can be overrun with tourists in the summer, but now in the quiet cold we have the entire trianglur-shaped village piazza to ourselves. Interesting to me in the center of the “square” is a tall statute of the Italian explorer Verrazano, who was born in Greve and later discovered the bay of New York. Unlike most explorers, who were born in port cities, Verrazano was born in Greve though it is well over a hundred miles from the sea.
Now the late afternoon shadows are setting in and on our way back to Florence, we stop at the American Military Cemetery and Memorial, just five miles south of Florence. This is the resting place of over 4,400 American servicemen (and some women as well) who lost their lives in the northern Italian campaign in 1944-45. Their white crosses symmetrically dot an immaculately-maintained sloping green hillside in a narrow valley. A wall with the names of hundreds more who were missing in action and a sculpted statue of an angel and eagle in flight on a tall granite pedestal crown the top of the slope. We are the only visitors, and as the sun sets behind the high hills, “Taps” is played and echoes across the valley in the cold crystal clear air.
As we leave, the retired serviceman who superintends the cemetery thanks us for coming and gives us brochures on this and other American military cemeteries in Europe. He talks to us with a Southern drawl, but immediately speaks fluent Italian to some local contractors who drop by. He has befriended Daniele on other visits, and as we leave Daniele tells us that both of them bemoan the little attention the cemetery now receives from locals and even most American tourists other than veterans and their families. This is well worth an hour or two visit if you have time while you’re in Florence, especially if you want a moving change of pace from painting and basilicas: www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/fl.php
This evening, on the recommendation of Daniele, we have another delicious (what else? but more expensive meal at La Cammilo in Oltrarno on Borgo San Jacopo 57, just east of the Ponte Santa Trinita bridge. Is there such thing as a bad meal in Italy? I’m sure someone somewhere has had one, but heck if I can think of one I’ve ever had.
Dec 13th, 2010, 09:49 AM
#24
Is there such thing as a bad meal in Italy? I’m sure someone somewhere has had one, but heck if I can think of one I’ve ever had.>>
well according to a current thread on Venice, there's nothing but bad meals to be had there!
i'm very glad that you had better luck. personally i prefer the food in rome to tuscany, but that may just be me. anyway I'm loving your trip report, so keep it coming!
well according to a current thread on Venice, there's nothing but bad meals to be had there!
i'm very glad that you had better luck. personally i prefer the food in rome to tuscany, but that may just be me. anyway I'm loving your trip report, so keep it coming!
Dec 14th, 2010, 06:16 PM
#25
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Sat. Dec. 11, Morning
We have to get back to Milan today because our flight home leaves from Malpensa airport tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. Since Malpensa is about 30 miles to the northwest of the city, we’ll need an early start even staying overnight in Milan. We originally planned to leave Florence in the morning to spend the day in Milan, but there’s too much we still want to see. Since trains leave for Milan on the hour, we’ll shoot for the one at 2:00 p.m. Our only regret is that we haven’t taken time to hear any live music performance while in Florence (other than a street accordionist's version of “Jingle Bells”).
My wife still wants to finish some Christmas shopping for friends and family and I want to see the Bargello and the world-class sculptures they have there (another thing I’ve missed on our previous visits). But first we both want to climb to the top of the Duomo. Fortunately, the weather is fabulous once again and the Duomo access opens at 8:30. The 400+ step hike to the top of Brunelleschi’s famous dome, which actually takes place in narrow stairways between two “inner” and “outer” domes, is well worth the effort.
We are almost the only ones ascending and we even work up a little sweat despite the cold. We’re so glad we’re doing this now rather than with a slow-moving crowd on a hot summer’s day like the one we had in 2005. This time it’s the early morning sunlight that gives the city a warm glow when we reach the top. As bad as the weather was the first 3 days of the trip (which we fully anticipated), it’s been equally great for the last 3 days — plus beautiful Christmas decorations and no crowds at the sites! After taking dozens of pictures, we descend and my wife tackles her shopping while I go to the Bargello.
The Bargello, which dates from medieval times and has served as a police headquarters and a prison, now houses what may be the greatest single sculpture collection in the world. Its central courtyard and wide outdoor stone staircase to the second level are striking in the bright sunlight. Recognizable sculptures by Michelangelo, Giambologna, Bevenuto Cellini, Lucca della Robbia, and many others dot the first floor rooms. On the second level, the huge two-story Renaissance terrace and halls are practically deserted this morning. In fact I have the grand Donatello room — with his famous David that preceded and is the polar opposite to Michelangelo’s David — all to myself for at least 15 or 20 minutes.
Lunch: We meet back at the hotel and still have time for lunch before catching the train to Milan. We go to Trattoria Mario just a few blocks from our hotel. It is a chaotic, impossibly crowded working-class diner on the one-block long Via Rosini off Piazza del Mercato Centrale. We’re just in time before the lunch hour rush and are literally squeezed past the full tables of patrons to the last open table near the back. There are no menus, and we’re too far away to read the daily menu handwritten on paper and posted on the wall near the front of the restaurant. Our waitress, who speaks no English, senses what we’d like and brings my wife a fabulous steaming soup — like ribolitta but brothier, but not quite as liquid as a minestrone.
An Italian woman and her teenage grandson are seated at the two other places at our small table. They are very friendly, but speak no English. I heard her direct her grandson to sit next to the “signora bella,” my wife. I agree. After some minutes, we finally gather that they are visiting from Rome. The waitress now brings me ravioli in an orange and green sauce — I don’t know what the sauce is, but it looks and tastes great. We wash it down with a quarter liter of tasty red wine and have thick-cut French fries for “dessert.” Total bill = 16 E. Wow. If I lived in Florence, I’d be tempted to eat here every day.
Now it’s time to zip back to the hotel, grab our bags, and get to the train station for the 2 o’clock train to Milan. On the way, we walk past a small church and think we hear singing. We step inside the small chapel, and realize a small choral group is practicing unseen in the balcony above us. We’re in a hurry, but a wait a few minutes for them to resume. They proceed to sing, in Italian, the sweetest-sounding a capella version of “Away in a Manger” that we have ever heard.
We have to get back to Milan today because our flight home leaves from Malpensa airport tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. Since Malpensa is about 30 miles to the northwest of the city, we’ll need an early start even staying overnight in Milan. We originally planned to leave Florence in the morning to spend the day in Milan, but there’s too much we still want to see. Since trains leave for Milan on the hour, we’ll shoot for the one at 2:00 p.m. Our only regret is that we haven’t taken time to hear any live music performance while in Florence (other than a street accordionist's version of “Jingle Bells”).
My wife still wants to finish some Christmas shopping for friends and family and I want to see the Bargello and the world-class sculptures they have there (another thing I’ve missed on our previous visits). But first we both want to climb to the top of the Duomo. Fortunately, the weather is fabulous once again and the Duomo access opens at 8:30. The 400+ step hike to the top of Brunelleschi’s famous dome, which actually takes place in narrow stairways between two “inner” and “outer” domes, is well worth the effort.
We are almost the only ones ascending and we even work up a little sweat despite the cold. We’re so glad we’re doing this now rather than with a slow-moving crowd on a hot summer’s day like the one we had in 2005. This time it’s the early morning sunlight that gives the city a warm glow when we reach the top. As bad as the weather was the first 3 days of the trip (which we fully anticipated), it’s been equally great for the last 3 days — plus beautiful Christmas decorations and no crowds at the sites! After taking dozens of pictures, we descend and my wife tackles her shopping while I go to the Bargello.
The Bargello, which dates from medieval times and has served as a police headquarters and a prison, now houses what may be the greatest single sculpture collection in the world. Its central courtyard and wide outdoor stone staircase to the second level are striking in the bright sunlight. Recognizable sculptures by Michelangelo, Giambologna, Bevenuto Cellini, Lucca della Robbia, and many others dot the first floor rooms. On the second level, the huge two-story Renaissance terrace and halls are practically deserted this morning. In fact I have the grand Donatello room — with his famous David that preceded and is the polar opposite to Michelangelo’s David — all to myself for at least 15 or 20 minutes.
Lunch: We meet back at the hotel and still have time for lunch before catching the train to Milan. We go to Trattoria Mario just a few blocks from our hotel. It is a chaotic, impossibly crowded working-class diner on the one-block long Via Rosini off Piazza del Mercato Centrale. We’re just in time before the lunch hour rush and are literally squeezed past the full tables of patrons to the last open table near the back. There are no menus, and we’re too far away to read the daily menu handwritten on paper and posted on the wall near the front of the restaurant. Our waitress, who speaks no English, senses what we’d like and brings my wife a fabulous steaming soup — like ribolitta but brothier, but not quite as liquid as a minestrone.
An Italian woman and her teenage grandson are seated at the two other places at our small table. They are very friendly, but speak no English. I heard her direct her grandson to sit next to the “signora bella,” my wife. I agree. After some minutes, we finally gather that they are visiting from Rome. The waitress now brings me ravioli in an orange and green sauce — I don’t know what the sauce is, but it looks and tastes great. We wash it down with a quarter liter of tasty red wine and have thick-cut French fries for “dessert.” Total bill = 16 E. Wow. If I lived in Florence, I’d be tempted to eat here every day.
Now it’s time to zip back to the hotel, grab our bags, and get to the train station for the 2 o’clock train to Milan. On the way, we walk past a small church and think we hear singing. We step inside the small chapel, and realize a small choral group is practicing unseen in the balcony above us. We’re in a hurry, but a wait a few minutes for them to resume. They proceed to sing, in Italian, the sweetest-sounding a capella version of “Away in a Manger” that we have ever heard.
Dec 14th, 2010, 06:56 PM
#27
I've just started and will look forward to finishing later. You had me hooked at "Milan". My niece lived there for 5 years, and dutiful Aunt Bokhara just had to visit several times. Love Northern Italy and will enjoy following you around Florence for a few days. Thanks for posting.
Dec 15th, 2010, 04:53 AM
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Thanks wayfinder45 and Bokhara2. Speaking of Milan -- after our brief detour to the church to listen to the Christmas songs (which, interestingly, turned out to be a Seventh Day Adventist Church in Florence), we barely made it to the train station for our 2 p.m. train to Milan. (This time, though, second class was available for 52E per ticket.) On Saturday afternoon, Milan seemed in gridlock. Our very nice English-speaking cab driver, who had the most high-tech, immaculate cab we’ve ever ridden in (fare: 12 Euros), patiently negotiated the traffic jams and back streets to our hotel near the city center — the Gran Duca di York.
We were pleased with our choice there — it has an appealing exterior, small but clean modern rooms inside, and a much better bathroom than we had in Florence -- and it's only a couple minute walk to center-city Milan. We walked to the Milan Duomo, as you know the famous “wedding cake” cathedral that was completely scaffolded on our previous visit. On Saturday, it gleamed a creamy white color against the blue skies and fading sunlight. The huge square in front of the Duomo, and in fact the streets leading to the square, and Via Monte Napoleone were a complete madhouse, jammed with tens of thousands of Italians who we presume were both locals and out-of-towners Christmas shopping in the center of Italian chic. Just glad we didn't have to contend with those crowds in Florence.
We were pleased with our choice there — it has an appealing exterior, small but clean modern rooms inside, and a much better bathroom than we had in Florence -- and it's only a couple minute walk to center-city Milan. We walked to the Milan Duomo, as you know the famous “wedding cake” cathedral that was completely scaffolded on our previous visit. On Saturday, it gleamed a creamy white color against the blue skies and fading sunlight. The huge square in front of the Duomo, and in fact the streets leading to the square, and Via Monte Napoleone were a complete madhouse, jammed with tens of thousands of Italians who we presume were both locals and out-of-towners Christmas shopping in the center of Italian chic. Just glad we didn't have to contend with those crowds in Florence.
Dec 15th, 2010, 05:51 AM
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Florence is one of my favotite cities and I have thoroughly enjoyed your trip report. You have brought the city and the area to life for me. We spent a week in late September of this year at a wonderful farmhouse near Greve and Oltre il Giardino in Panzano was one of our favorite restaurants. We had two delicious meals on the terrace. Thanks for your reminders of our wonderful trip.
Dec 15th, 2010, 10:48 AM
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MRand, I was so happy to read that you stopped at the American Cemetery outside Florence. Since our first visit to the Normandy beaches many years ago, my husband and I have made a point of visiting American cemeteries wherever we can in Europe. Not all of the interesting history in Europe is ancient, and these cemeteries are somber but beautiful monuments to the debts we owe the last few generations. Unfortunately, I wasn't surprised you were the only visitors; that has been our usual experience.
Dec 17th, 2010, 11:37 AM
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MRand, what a wonderful trip report of Florence, and your writing is just lovely! I'm going there in September for the first time, and now I'm so impatient to get there after reading this report. I especially like the tip to climb the Duomo first thing in the morning. I'm hoping I can cram in as much as possible in the 4 days I'll be there. Can't wait to read more!
Dec 18th, 2010, 05:51 AM
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Thanks mamcalice, Jean, hikrchick -- thank you for your kind comments. We had a fantastic time and we were sorry to leave Florence after only six days.
hikrchick -- since several posters like you have commented they are going to Florence, for quicker reference I may go back and post an outline simply indicating the activity we did or restaurant where we dined throughout the trip, then link to the longer report if anyone is interested in reading the gory details. That may be a more useful for those like you contemplating a trip there soon.
Also hikrchick -- run, don't walk, and purchase or check out from your local library The Teaching Company's "Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance," by Prof. William Kloss, a Smithsonian art historian: http://www.teach12.com/tgc/courses/c....aspx?cid=7140
In my opinion, this is as tremendous a visual introduction to the history, architecture, and art of Florence as you can find anywhere. Since Prof. Kloss has a deliberate way of speaking, if you watch it on a laptop, you can speed up and condense a 30-minute lecture into 20 minutes. I didn't get to watch all the lectures before we left and we definitely missed some things I wished we had seen while we were there.
hikrchick -- since several posters like you have commented they are going to Florence, for quicker reference I may go back and post an outline simply indicating the activity we did or restaurant where we dined throughout the trip, then link to the longer report if anyone is interested in reading the gory details. That may be a more useful for those like you contemplating a trip there soon.
Also hikrchick -- run, don't walk, and purchase or check out from your local library The Teaching Company's "Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance," by Prof. William Kloss, a Smithsonian art historian: http://www.teach12.com/tgc/courses/c....aspx?cid=7140
In my opinion, this is as tremendous a visual introduction to the history, architecture, and art of Florence as you can find anywhere. Since Prof. Kloss has a deliberate way of speaking, if you watch it on a laptop, you can speed up and condense a 30-minute lecture into 20 minutes. I didn't get to watch all the lectures before we left and we definitely missed some things I wished we had seen while we were there.
Nov 6th, 2013, 03:52 PM
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My fiance and I are going to Florence on Nov 30, 2013 and will be staying until Dec 8, 2013.
Reading your daily report has given us a lot to look forward to. We are more excited now than ever. Thank you for your detailed reports.
Reading your daily report has given us a lot to look forward to. We are more excited now than ever. Thank you for your detailed reports.
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