Firenza - Tuscany at its finest.

We arrived in Florence on Monday - after an uneventful (but for me, stressful - Thanks to David for calming me down.... ) train trip. I'm not real comfortable with train travel anyway -- due to a childhood incident on the subway in NYC -- so I was tense to begin with. There are about a zillion tracks in the Rome train station, and I wasn't sure how to find our train, or whether our ticket was okay, or where our seats were, or a million other things to worry about. We actually did sit in the wrong car, and were abruptly asked to move when the seats' real owners arrived. So I was really happy when we were seated in our correct seats, and the train pulled out of the station.

We were sitting across from two really nice women from Seattle, Helen and Carolyn, who also booked through Air France, so we had a nice talk about our trip. And two hours later, we all arrived in Florence without incident.

Our hotel - the Argentina - is nice, nicer than the one in Rome, actually. And it is a block from the Arno River (which David has nicknamed the Open Sewer; what a cynic. It's really okay. It's a dark color, but doesn't smell or anything.) The first afternoon we were here, we walked along the river, and down to the famous Duomo, which is quite extraordinary.

Then I think our jet lag caught up to us. We took a 2-hour nap, had dinner, and then came back and went to bed, and didn't wake up until 1 p.m. Tuesday!!! We felt better though.

After the big sleep, we went to the Ponte Vechhio (Old Bridge), where David enjoyed a $13 (!) gelatto.

We started to walk to the Piazza Signoria, and along the way, we stopped at a bookstore and spent 2 hours looking at maps and posters and handmade paper, and David bought an exquisite huge hand-painted map of the world circa 1600 for his son Austin, who is graduating from college in May with a history major. After about an hour, I sat in a chair and watched David studying the maps - he was obviously blissed out - and it made me so happy to see him having so much fun. The owner came over to me with tears in her eyes, and told me she was watching me watch him with such love and happiness in my eyes at seeing his delight that it touched her heart. He told me that it was his happiest moments of the whole trip, in that store.

We spent so much money there the owner is our new best friend.

On the way back to the hotel, David got an Italian haircut - very chic. The barber was cute as a button, but boy, did he need a haircut.


Wednesday
Today, we had a wake up call to prevent a repeat of yesterday's marathon snooze-a-palooza.

We headed by bus up to Fiesole, a really sweet little town on a hill looking down over Florence. We toured the 1,000-year-old church, and walked a VERY STEEP path to the top of the hill, where there is an old convent.

From the top, we had an amazing view of the Tuscan countryside. It was kind of foggy, so we could just make out the Duomo in the distance.

At the top of the hill, we stopped for lunch at a wonderful little outdoor cafe, where we were the only ones there. We sat under the loggia, which was draped with ivy and surrounded by flower boxes filled with colorful blooms.

And we had the best darn meal of the entire trip. We ordered white wine, and David ordered carpaccio as an appetizer, and I ordered fresh asparagus in puff pastry with a mild cheese sauce. David says it was soooo good that he will never eat carpaccio in the U.S. again.

Then we had the second course - for David, a homemade pasta with a spicy tomato sauce, and I had the risotto with porcini mushrooms and cheese. OH MY GOD - it was heaven on a plate. David's pasta was a bit too spicy for him though.

Next came the veal with wild mushroom sauce, and grilled vegetables. Again, amazing. Follow that up with a dish of fresh strawberries, and two cappuccinos, in an unbelievable beautiful hill top location in Tuscany, and you have perhaps a perfect experience. It was really extraordinary.

The price for all this gustatory fabulosity.... a mere 81 Euros, or about $105. In my opinion, worth every euro. I've had a few meals in the states that cost that much, and weren't anywhere near as good, or in as fantastic a location. A definite high point of the trip, so far.

Lots of famous dead guys.
This afternoon, we went to Santa Croce church, where there are graves of Dante, Michelangelo, Rossini, Machiavelli, Galileo - a virtual constellation of famous Italian dead guys. You could tell they are important, because their monuments were HUGE elaborate marble and gold things. Wow. This is Michelangelo's:


And this is Galileo's:


The church was built from 1294 - 1442. It's like a museum of famous artists and architects. There is a Chapel of the Novitiate decorated by della Robbia, and a Cloister of the Dead, designed by Brunelleschi, who built the dome of the Duomo.

I just love the churches in Italy; can you tell?



Tomorrow morning we are taking the train to Venice - my favorite city!!!
And it's my birthday - doesn't get any better than that.

Will try to write more when we get to the magical city on little islands.