Last Full Day in Florence

 

I'm going to miss Florence for many reasons, but one reason is this view out of my bedroom window. 

 

I'm even going to miss the view hanging out of our kitchen door/window people-watching, checking on "Dogi", the dachshund who took naps all day on the sidewalk outside the boutique store underneath our apartment, and "hidden romance" between me and the Italian Stallion working right across the street and who always seemed to be outside whenever I was in the kitchen. 

 

 

But today, is our last full day in Florence.   We are ending with a private tour on Michelangelo. 
On our way to meet our docent, we passed some registered street artists, who wait as long as a few years for the privilege of drawing on the streets of Florence.

 

Our docent for the tour, Patti, was very knowledgeable about everything Michelangelo. She took us in and out of many small and large museums.  Unfortunately, in so many of them there were no pictures allowed.  Luckily, this early Pieta of Michelangelo was one that I could photograph.

 

The highlight of the tour, of course, was David.  He was SO much larger than I expected and just amazing.  It's hard to imagine he started out as one huge piece of marble.

 

 

Florence - the city of Renaissance, bells ringing throughout the day, cobble stone streets, winding alleys, ancient towers, proud and generous people. I'm leaving with great memories...but for now I'm training to Rome on one of Italy's great high-speed trains for some new adventures. 

Florence Market Day

Word of the Day:  SHOPPING!

 

Today was reserved for shopping for local food products and leather in the San Lorenzo neighborhood of Florence.  We started out with a typical Italian breakfast of a small pastry and coffee at Alma and Claudio's coffee stand in the market. I have learned since getting here that Italians aren't big breakfast eaters - they will have a small pastry and coffee mid-morning.  I'm loving it - as I'm not a huge breakfast eater/lover myself. 

Alma and Claudio have been in the market for decades and they are on my aunt and uncle's list of "old friends they have to stop and see/drop off a small gift".They are a sweet couple and are HUGE Florence soccer fans.  The team color is purple and everything in their little counter coffee shop is purple, down to the cash register.

 

Next stop, Conti's vegetable and speciality items stall.  This is Stephano, the owner of the Conti's stand.  This stand has been in his family for generations.  Stephano is the nicest man.  He just let me come behind the counter to look at things, gave me tastes of REAL balsamic vinegar, which is thicker than maple syrup and sweet. 

 While my aunt and uncle flew around the inside of Stephano's stand, filling a shipping box of products which they seemed to have memorized in their heads...I got to know Marta the dog.  Marta is Stephano's hunting dog - and I think would be a perfect companion to my dog at home, Bo.  What do you think, Dad?

 

 

 

The Central Market is filled with different little stores, all under one roof.  Each little store seems to have its speciality...cheese, bread, pasta meat, fish, wines, jams/jellies, dried fruits, etc. 

 

 

 

After shopping inside the food market, we came outside and shopped the leather market.  WOW!  The leather stalls go on and on and on - most of it the real thing...some of it fake.  My aunt taught me some tips on how to tell if it was real leather, a good local product, a good price on a designer product, or fake. (Hint:  Don't purchase anything where the label looks stamped in crooked, always look for the stands that display their Florence "certification" number, try and buy from a stand that ALSO has a store- which is usually just behind their stand, and NEVER buy anything being sold on a sheet...as these people can grab their sheet with their items and run from the police quickly if they are being chased.

 

 

As you can see from this purchase - this student got an A+ in her leather class! 

 

 

 

The Uffizi Gallery

 

First day waking up in the city and something tells me I'm going to like this place.  Today...the Uffizi Gallery - Disney Word to an Art major.

The Uffizi Gallery is on the other side of the Arno from our apartment, just a few blocks away. So after a stop at pastry/coffee bar, we were off to meet our docent, Patricia for the day.  My aunt and uncle hire docents for the "important stuff".  Our docent had several advanced degrees in Renaissance art and history and definitely encouraged us to get in discussions with her about the art.  I was excited when we would go around a corner and right in front of me was an original masterpiece I studied at school. 

The Uffizi Gallery, one of the most important museums in the world for works from the 13th to 18th century, has multiple masterpieces from Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinici, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio...and the list goes on and on.  Different people are drawn to different artist, my Aunt is a Botticelli fan - her favorite piece is the one shown below, The Birth of Venus.  In the Uffizi, Botticelli has a whole ROOM devoted to his work.

I'm a Caravaggio fan.  One of his pieces we stopped to discuss was his Medusa.  Medusa, with her hair turned to snakes.  However, if you look closely at this painting of Medusa, which he painted on a shield, you will see the face is that of a man, not a woman.  A self-portrait of Caravaggio.

After exploring as many masterpieces with Patti as possible, it was off down the tiny stone streets of Florence to find a meal. 

Then, back to our great view of watching Florence from our windows...with our nightly search of the best gelato after the sun goes down of course.  Bella!

Moving to the City

Word of the Day:  Venessa

 

 

We left our beautiful scenery of the Tuscan country-side for our next stop, Florence.  

 

 

Florence "skyline" is dominated by Brunelleschi's dome. We stopped by Michelangelo's Park before we turned in our rental so I could get a overview of the city, as the park sits on top of hill.  Then, it was off to find our apartment.

 

 

We knew our apartment was on the Arno river, but our apartment is ON the Arno river.  Our apartment is a dream come true!  We can open huge windows (and electronic shades) on one side and look over a tiny stone street where we can watch people and out the other side are huge windows that look over the river and the Ponte Vecchio bridge (more about the bridge later).

 

 

 

 Then there is my favorite chair that faces onto the river and bridge.  I feel just like a "Venessa" in this chair drinking my Coke.  Coca-Cola Italia has started putting different names on their bottles, just for fun, so you can try and find your name and post a picture of yourself on their Facebook page, or try being someone different for the day.  I don't know about Abby, but Venessa sure is loving Florence.

 

 

Today there were festivals all over town for San Lorenzo - with live music in different piazzas. We were able to sit in our living room, with our HUGE windows open and listen to the live music that was being performed on the bridge, it was beautiful.  Abby agrees with Venssa...Florence is beautiful!

The Red O...Volterra Day

 

Word of the Day:  OH - as in "Oh, My"!

 

On our drive up to Volterra for the day, we came across this huge red O in the middle of nowhere.  So, we stopped for a picture.  I later did some Internet research and discovered it is an art piece by a local artist, Mario Staccioli.  He places his art to teach people the importance of taking in their surroundings. 

 

Volterra is a medieval hill town - here I am at the bottom of the steps.

 

 

And here is a picture of the over 300 steps you have to climb to get inside the city wall! I now know the meaning of hill towns. 

 

Volterra is known for many things, alabaster stone is one of them.  You can find almost anything made of alabaster down the many winding, tiny streets and ally ways of Volterra.  "New Moon", the second "Twilight" movie was filmed here - so we had to visit the Torture Museum to put ourselves in a little bit of a "frightened" mood.  However, the museum was filled with REAL artifacts - some dating back thousands of years - of how people used to be tortured or punished.  Can you guess what this torture device did?

Ewww!  People couldn't talk wearing this device - it was either to keep people quiet or to make them whisper confessions so the device could be removed.

 

We also visited an Etruscan Museum - where they had over 600 funeral urns that were carved with scenes from the person's life.  All of the urns were from the B.C time period.

 

I also got to see the original piece of artwork, the elongated boy - Ombra della Sera (Shadow of the Evening).

 

 

After a full day, it was time for a nice long lunch outside at a great restaurant.

My First Wine Pairing Lunch

Word of the Day:  1993

My first wine pairing lunch was at Vignamaggio Vineyard, a magical place.  It is not only a vineyard where quite possibly Chianti wine was first made, but it has with beautiful vistas, tons of history and great wine.

 

 

Before our wine pairing lunch, we went our a tour of Vignamaggio with Sandro.  Sandro doesn't' give tours anymore, but he knew my aunt and uncle were coming and he did the tour and lunch for the  day, as the three of them have become friends over the years - which definitely worked to my benefit, which you will understand in a few minutes.  I learned a great deal about the wine making at Vignamaggio. They study the small plots of land all over their 100 acres so they grow the grapes that best fit with the soil and sun.  They don't water the grapes, they want the vines to struggle to become stronger.  They hand pick all of the grapes and they use gravity instead of machines so the grapes don't become bruised.

Vignmaggio, literally means "hill with water".  Vignmaggio villa/estate was built around this well to protect the water from being poisoned or tampered with, as the original Gheradini family who built Vignmaggio, were not the most popular people.  However, they did have a daughter who became famous long after she died, Mona Lisa.  Mona Lisa Geradini was born at Vignmaggio in 1479.

 

The villa is beautiful - so beautiful that "Much Ado About Nothing" movie was filmed here.  After our tour, we sat down to a wine pairing lunch.  Now, being under 21 in the USA - I know NOTHING about wine - I don't have any idea what it taste like ;-) So, I was very surprised to see mother's giving their children as young as 4 at our lunch tastes of wine.  I learned that they start babies drinking "baby wine" - 1/2 water 1/2 wine as early as 6 months old - just a dropper full a day.  There isn't drinking age over here, they grow up with it at many meals, so it isn't a big deal.  In fact, people don't really go out "to drink", they drink their wine with food.

 

We tasted 4 wines, each with a different course.  This was our first, which was my favorite - even beating out the flour-less chocolate cake with homemade cream and sugared raspberries.  The course pictured above was hard to describe, it was tomatoes, red and yellow peppers and ricotta cheese - served over a cream sauce and olive oil.  I could have eaten these as my entire meal.

 

1993 - my "word" of the day - my birth year...and the year this very special bottle of wine was corked.  As you can see from this picture, I was very happy AND surprised when Sandro presented this bottle of wine to me.  I saw him talking to Uncle Patrick; he wanted to know my birth year.  Aunt Wende had already told him this was my first wine tasting and that I was VERY new to wine - so he wanted to give me something special to remember the day and to remember that wine should be enjoyed with good friends and family around a table.

 

I'll remember Sandro...and I hope I will get the chance to visit Vignmaggio again one day.

PS- NO to all my friends who want me to open this bottle when I get home - this bottle is going to be under tight security for many years.

Cerataldo Market Day

 

Word of the Day:  Homemade!

 

In Tuscany there are no Superstores, like Walmart and Target, instead the different "departments" arrive in vans and trucks and line the streets for blocks and blocks one day a week.  This is my friend, Erika's, families "vegetable stand/truck" - at the Cerataldo street market.

But, before we start cooking for the day it was off with Erika, her friend, and Zoe the dog to shop at the fashion vans/trucks.  (I found some great deals, Mom!)

OK - back to our cooking day.  First we shopped for our ingredients - and some of the food you just don't see in Indiana like these zucchini.  They look like tiny pumpkins!

Once we got back to our apartment, Erika and I started the prep work.
 

And started all of the cooking.
 

 

In progress in this picture is the beginning of a homemade ragu sauce on the back burner and the beginning of papa al pomodoro (their version of tomato soup that you can eat with a fork).

 

For our homemade pasta, we made pici.  A pasta made with just flour and water.  Pici is hand rolled, so we didn't even need a pasta machine.

 

 

When we sat down we started with our papa al pomodora, sage chicken, fresh sage pesto, zucchini with herbs, homemade pici pasta with homemade ragu sauce, and fresh white peaches in white wine and sugar.  (Another new thing I learned, their sugar isn't as sweet as ours - it's beet sugar, not sugar cane.)

 

Another great day in Tuscany - with new found friends!  (Erika and her mom at their vegetable stand/van...and me:-)

 

 

Siena

Word of the Day:  Hills - STEEP Ones!

Today we started out early - we left this beautiful morning scene from our villa apartment...

 

to this beautiful scene, our destination for the day, the Duomo in Siena.

 

OK, let's talk hills. Siena is a medieval city of bricks and steep twisting alleys - that they still use as roads.  I'm beginning to understand why they have smaller cars over here!  We had to climb this street, plus several other ones, to reach the Duomo.  I'm standing under one of the neighborhood flags - the 17 neighborhoods here are very competitive with each other and compete in various things throughout the year.  The most famous is a horse race in their piazza twice a summer when they fill the very large piazza, Piazza del Compo, with sand and race the horses.

But, our main reason for the visit was the Duomo - which includes many forms of Tuscan art.  It is hard to describe the size of this church. 

 

This stained glass window is directly above the main alter.

What's under the actual dome?  This beautiful piece of artwork.  Aunt Wende says every time she is here and looks up she is sure she feels angels. 

I noticed many people weren't looking up at the ceiling, and too bad - because this is the ceiling.
 

Even the floors are beautiful  - there are 59 etched and inlaid marble panels throughout the church covering much of the floor.  We also got to visit the newly discovered "crypt", where amazing original frescoes remain all done by an unknown artist. The crypt was an old entrance to a Roman church. We could see original pieces of columns  and pieces of marble artwork, all a few stories under ground under where the Duomo stands today.  They had built part of the floor in the crypt as see-through so it was if we were standing on the ceiling looking down into an older church - even though we were already underground a few stories. No pictures allowed in the crypt :-(

Siena - the hills were worth it!