Another Great Dinner

Trip to Italy - Journal Entry #11 - September 23, 2009 - 9:45 pm

I am really tired tonight and we have to get up early tomorrow to take the train to Venice in the morning, so I will not write much tonight. We had another great (long) day, although I wish Dad's leg felt better. He is having a bit of trouble getting around and I know he's in some pain.

We had a really fun dinner tonight. We just started wandering around and peeked in a few different restaurants, reading menus, etc., and ended up at a little trattoria between Santa Croce and the Piazza della Signoria. Our waiter was a really cute young guy and he must have taken a sine to us because we received complimentary shots of limoncello at the end of the meal. I'm licking my lips just thinking about it.

Gastronomic Delights

It was not long after our sojourn in Italy began that I realized that some of my favorite pictures to take were of food! Whether it was through a shop window or at the dinner table, everything looked so good I could not help put take pictures. And so here are a few of the pictures of edible delights that I took while in Florence.

The first is a window full of sweets at Gilli's - a restaurant and pastry shop in the Piazza della Republica.

The second is a case of

gelato. There seem to be gelato shops every 50 feet in Florence!

The third is our antipasto at the Ristorante Leo in Santa Croce.

The fourth is of the fresh mushrooms for sale in the

farmers market.

And the fifth is the bruschetta and pizza Chris and I shared at a cafe in the Piazza della Signoria.

And if you think these are the only edible photos that I took in Florence, you are greatly mistaken!

I'm getting hungry now and need to sign off.

David and Dinner

Trip to Italy - Journal Entry #10 (continued) - September, 22, 2009 - 9:35 pm

I am likely to spend a lot of money in this fair city. The leather goods here are just amazing and, given the quality, reasonably priced. With luck, after this

trip, I'll have very little Christmas shopping left to do!

Following our visit to Santa Croce, Chris & I returned to

the hotel to rendezvous with Dad so that we could walk together to the Galleria dell'Accademia where we had 5:00 p.m. tickets to see The David. We made one little detour, first, however, for gelato at a shop on the Piazza della Signoria. Yum! This time, we got the chocolate chip.

Until about 30 or so years ago, The David stood in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It was moved inside -- to the Galleria -- to protect it from deterioration caused by exposure to air pollutants and the elements. A replacement statue (pictured here) now stands in the Piazza where the original formerly stood.

The David truly is a marvel. You can actually see veins running down his calf and his arm. Unbelievable. It was crowded in the gallery where The David stands, but we were still able to get up very close. We also enjoyed the several unfinished works in the gallery leading up to The David. These works allowed us to appreciate how statues are caused to emerge from huge blocks of marble. Even though I saw these examples, I still find it hard to grasp the skill involved in causing a figure to emerge from stone -- especially a figure as large and realistic as The David.

For dinner this evening we went to Ristorante Leo in Santa Croce. It was just of the Piazza Santa Croce. It's a family owned restaurant and we were served by all members of the family -- father, mother and son. Tonight, our meal consisted

of antipasto and tomatoes with mozzarella followed by osso bucco (for me and Dad) and penne and salmon in tomato sauce (for Chris). For our wine, we enjoyed a nice Chianti.

As we left the restaurant and walked towards the Piazza Santa Croce, we walked into a huge concert scene. The square was teeming with people and a stage had been erected in front of the church. Clearly, a concert was a bout to begin. Unfortunately, we were too tired to stick around and wait for the music to begin -- too bad.

But, as we walked along the Borgo dei Greci, we ran into a different form of musical entertainment. It was some sort of percussion group. They were marching in a group, maybe 25 to 30 people (men and women) and their instruments were a wide variety of drums.

And they were dressed all in red. They also moved in unison in some sort of dance formation. It was a really unique (and really loud) sound. Great fun!

Getting a Feel for Florence

Trip to Italy - Journal Entry #10 (continued) - September 22, 2009 - 9:35 pm

After settling into our room, we headed off for an early lunch at an outdoor cafe in the Piazza della Signoria. We each had a different kind of pizza. Yum! As we ate, we got our bearings in the Piazza which houses several statues, the rear of the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Vecchio.

After lunch, we walked to the boulevard overlooking the Arno and had our first look at the Ponte Vecchio. Although we were pretty far away, the bridge looked absolutely packed with people. This city, in fact, is swarming with tourists. Rome seemed busy but this seems even busier.

And here, pedestrians, rule. They swarm the streets, and our taxi driver from the train station had to wait patiently as he crawled down main streets where people filled the thoroughfares. And this has remained the case all day. In the central parts of the city, there is little car traffic. I think they must know to stay away.

Our first "attraction" of the day was the Uffizi Gallery, where we had 1:00 p.m. reservations -- which meant we got to enter through the short line, which really was a great advantage. The Uffizi has someamazing works of art, but I had expected it to be bigger. With our audio guides in hand, we toured the main floors of the gallery. We saw some fabulous Botticelli's as well as works by Michaelangelo, Titian, Lippi, Bronzino and Leonardo da Vinci. One added bonus offered by the Uffizi Gallery is perhaps one of the best views up the Arno from the second floor south gallery. The view takes in the Ponte Vecchio and three additional bridges beyond.

After theUffizi, Dad needed a rest so he went back to the Hotel. Chris and I soldiered on and headed for Santa Croce. This Church is best known for all the really famous people that are buried here, including Michaelangelo, Galileo, Rossini and Dante, to name but a few. But Santa Croce is also well known for its stained glass and a series of frescos by Giotto that adorn the altar. To our great dismay, we saw none of the frescos and few of the stained glass windows because the entire interior of the Church is undergoing massive renovations. There was scaffolding everywhere! Oh well. We were still able to see most of the tombs (about half were

under plastic) and we toured the chapels, the courtyard and a small museum on the grounds. The outside facade of this Church also is quite beautiful -- featuring a mosaic of different colors of marble.

Florence Welcomes Us

Trip to Italy - Journal Entry #10 - September 22, 2009 - 9:35 pm

Whew! It's been another very busy day -- our first in Florence. This is a really neat city. There's a vibe here that is quite unique. I can't explain it. But I really like it.

Our new hotel -- The Hotel Pierre -- is quite beautiful -- several cuts above the Hotel Due Torri in Rome, although we really liked that hotel, too. Here, we're all sharing a room, and it's a very elegant room with a bathroom about four times the size we had in Rome. All the furniture is a pale green with hand painted accents. And the floor is highly polished parquet with area rugs. It's very comfortable, which is nice since we're always so tired at night!

On a Train to Florence

Trip to Italy - Journal Entry #9 - September 22, 2009 - 6:20 pm

We took the train to Firenze today -- having said goodbye to Rome. [Boo hoo.] The railroad station was an experience! There were about 25 tracks/trains all lined up in a row. We looked for our train number on a schedule board and found that we were departing from track #1. Our tickets also told us that we were in coach #9. We trundled down with all our luggage and found our Eurostar train waiting. Each coach is surprisingly long and it took us quite some time to get down to coach #9. Then, we had some small difficulty finding places for our luggage. Dad and Chris both had to leave their bags at the very ends of the car because they were too big to fit in the overhead storage areas. Once we got settled, it was an incredibly fast trip. We were on a high speed train. We left cloudy Rome at 9:00 a.m. and we arrived in sunny Florence at 10:20 a.m. It was so nice to be back in the sun!

A Few More Vatican Photos

Before I move on to chronicle our days in Firenze (Florence), here are some final, additional pictures taken at the Vatican.

The first is a view of the Vatican from one of the bridges to the east. This was my first view of Vatican City as we approached on foot from our hotel.

The second photo here is a set of sculpted figures that appear before the central door into the Basilica. The scene depicted is St. Peter receiving the keys to heaven. These keys are a dominant Vatican symbol they appear throughout the City -- incorporated on columns, on coats-of-arms, on walls, etc.

And the third photo here is a shot of one side of St. Peter's Square. The Square is surrounded on about two-thirds of its circumference by a series of columns, 4 columns deep.

And if you stand at particular spots set out in the concrete surface of the Square, and then look towards the nearest set of columns, you are faced with a view of what looks like only a single row of columns. Then, if you turn around and look to the columns on the opposite far side of the Square, you will be able to see clearly that the columns are 4 deep. It's a neat trick of perspective. Who knows how they did it!