Finally, Florence redeems herself.

We finally had a meal in Florence worth raving about! Yesterday was a special day for Jim and I and we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner. Tony at Enoteca Pontevecchio recommended that we check out La Bottega del Buon Caffe. It’s a little off the beaten tourist track, but if we have anything to do with it, won’t be for long!

Finally, we have found a place in Florence that stacks up to our dinners in Ferrara. La Bottega is small: only one room with seating for about 20 people. We had reservations for 8:30PM, but there was only one other party there when we arrived. The last party arrived at 10:30PM for dinner! Just doesn’t happen that way in the US.

We decided to go for the full Italian experience: Antipasta, Pasta, Meat, Cheese and Coffee/Grappa. We had to skip dessert because we wouldn’t have been able to walk! Everything was delicious, but our meat course was the highlight of the evening. It was a slow cooked duck breast with vanilla and balsamic vinegar. It had been finished by a quick pass under a broiler, giving it a nice crispy texture. Heavenly!! The chef recommended a bottle of nerello mascalese from the winery of Passopisciaro in Sicily to go with it. It tasted like a hybrid between pinot noir and syrah and was a perfect match for the duck.

So if you are in Florence, make sure check out “La Bottega del Buon Caffe”, Franscesco Gasbarro is the Chef. (Via Pacinotti, 40r, 42r, 44r, 50131 Firenze, tel 055 5525677) We loved it!!

More posts to come!

Clearing out the back log of photos:

Wow - this trip was awhile ago! Back in March (OH SO LONG!!), Jim’s friend invited him (and by extension, me!) over to Ferrara to talk about him visiting Ferrara and to pin down dates. Ferrara is east of Florence, outside of Tuscany. Jim has always raved about how great the town is, and after visiting a few of the smaller towns outside of Florence I was wondering how different it could really be?

Well, there’s just something different about Ferrara. We were there in late March, still the low time for tourism. I think the first thing that we noticed was that there was NO english being spoken anywhere. Americans (and English speakers in general) are just LOUD. They (we?) don’t know how to keep our voices down in public places. Maybe it’s like hearing your name in a crowded room: we’re hardwired to pick out something that we understand from the babble of voices all around us. Maybe it’s easy to ignore Italian spoken on the train because we don’t understand most of what is being said and we can tune it out… I take that back. There have been a few girls on the bus to Sesto that I had to listen to. My mind couldn’t tune them out for whatever reason. I wanted to kill myself. Or them.

Anyway, we heard English on the street once and I had to turn and stare. It was a shock to my ears.

Ferrara is small and mostly ignored by American tourists. My Rick Steves’ book doesn’t even mention it, either in the Tuscany book (duh - it’s not in Tuscany) or the regular Italy book. The DK Eyewitness Travel book only has one page about it.

Ferrara was the seat of power of the Estes family. Come on, you know the Estes! OK, I only knew of them for two reasons. First - crosswords. Estes is a good crossword word. Second - one of the Dukes was pressured into marrying Lucrezia Borgia. You know Lucrezia Borgia, right? OK, so you don’t watch enough of the history channel. Poor girl was a pawn in the political games her father (THE POPE) was playing. A short article on her is here. Ack! Enough of the history. On with the photos.

Like most of Italy’s cities, the center is very old. I am standing on the oldest street in the city. (Still wearing that teal jacket too! Expect to see it in a few more photos…) The town of Ferrara is first mentioned in a letter in 754 (nope, not missing a one in front of that!). You could see which were the old roads; they were very uncomfortable cobblestone.

These road amaze me. There must have been generations that grew up without ever seeing a sunset!

We had three of the best meals that we have had in Italy (and two of them rank up with meals everywhere) in Ferrara. The second was Mezza Luna (the first was at this place Fantastic Thursday. Carlo took us there for lunch. But it was fancy and everyone expected it to be amazing. Jim and I got the menus without prices…). Carlo and his … friend, Manuela treated us to dinner. It was quite amazing. This is the three of us:

Jim ordered Insalate Capresi - basically tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese salad. This is what he got:

It was SO yummy. Amazing food, modern arrangements and a completely unassuming atmosphere. I’d go back.

The city center of Ferrara is almost completely enclosed by the original city walls. It is all dominated by the castle of the Estes family:

(I forgot the tripod, so you’ll have to deal with dual pictures.)

It is one of the few castles in Italy that is surrounded by a moat. Originally built for defense, the Estes family took is over for their home, blah blah blah. You can tour the castle. The downstairs is pretty boring. There is a ton of history (in both Italian and English) and you could spend a couple of hours just reading about the history of the castle and the town. However, the action is downstairs: the dungeon!!

It’s kind of a cramped place! I would hate to have been down there before electric lights. This is actually the dungeon where they kept one of the king’s relations (nephew? That’s the problem with taking so long to post stuff!). He had an affair with the young wife of the king. TO THE DUNGEON WITH YOU!! She at least had a room with a window that got some fresh air.

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You can see writing on the ceilings. I think it is modern, but Jim says no…

Me in the walkway. They must have all been pretty short back then because I was close bonking my head!

Think back to the picture of the castle. Remember that great big tall tower? You can climb it. What do you think of when you think of climbing the tower in a castle? Big stone steps? Rickety wooden stairs winding around the inside of the tower? Well, they had metal steps. That you could see though.

Let’s get this straight. I don’t like heights. No siree. Not at all. I can’t even look up at tall things without my stomach flipping over. If I’d had known about this, not a chance on God’s green earth. But we bought the ticket for the tower (an extra charge) WAYYYYYY down on the ground floor. I lead out through the door to start climbing some stone steps…. And almost knocked Jim over backing into him. Not a good thing.

The view was … high. Jim liked it. He likes hauling me up to the tops of building (coming soon, me in Lucca on the top of a great big freaking tall tower).

Yeah, forgot the tripod so you get to see the ledge where I propped the camera. Notice that I am NOT standing on the outside of the railing. This next picture is one of Jim’s favorites:

My stomach was doing flip-flops just seeing him lean over the edge to get the picture.

Oh, it’s not that bad you say! This the view (so Jim and the camera says, I didn’t look down. In fact, my eyes were closed the whole time except for this picture) when you look down:

Man, that just sucks. I don’t even like looking at it now.

That’s it for now. More pictures coming soon… Or not. Heading to Venice today to pick up my friend Lisa. She’s coming to visit for a few days!! I promise, I’ll post the rest of the Ferrara pictures on Monday and then some from Venice!

Sighting of the elusive freezilius dihydrogen oxide in Italy

Oh glorious day! In more ways than one. Highs near 70. Clear skies, a slight breeze, what else could make this day perfect?

ICE IN MY WATER!!

Oh glorious day.

Jim and I headed out for lunch today and somehow ended up at Piazza Michelangelo. We meant to go to the pizza place near the apartment, but just kept walking. Piazza Michelangelo (which you might remember from an earlier post) has great view of Florence. We just stood and admired the view and I soaked up some warmth. There is a little cafe on one of the terraces and we decided to have lunch there instead.

We were expecting horrendously expensive prices, but they weren’t that bad. My sandwich was 4 euro and Jim’s pasta was 7 euro. They really gouge you with the drinks though. Espresso was 3 euro (you can get it for 0.90 euro at any bar), water was 2.50 euro for 33 cl (330 mL ~ 1.5 cup). But the best part about the water: it came with a glass with three ice cubes. Oh glorious day!

The gelato was also horribly expensive (7 euro - get real!!) so we left and tried some at another stand up on Piazza Michelangelo. Five euros for one small and one medium - not a bad price if it were actually gelato. It was more like ice cream. What’s the difference you ask? Gelato is usually made from whole milk, while ice cream is made with cream. (I had to look it up, don’t worry.)

We had the most AMAZING gelato last weekend. Don’t remember where, might be able to find it again, might not. I had mango flavored gelato. (For those of you who don’t know, I ADORE mangoes.) Eating that gelato was like eating a fresh mango, but without the strings getting stuck in your teeth. Heavenly.

That is the same day that it snowed in Florence. Yup, you read that right. It snowed. I almost cried.

That’s all for now. It a double bonus today! Two posts for one. Working on more posts - with pictures!

If only…

There are two things that are keeping us from feeling like we really fit in here.

1. Knowing where to buy things.

In the states, if I want to buy index cards, I know where to go: Meijer. It’s where you buy everything!

If I want knitting needles and some more yarn, you go to Meijer. Or JoAnn, or Target. Or if you want the really good stuff, you go to Yarns for Ewe. The point is, I know where to go or have a good idea. But over here, big super stores like Meijer aren’t that common. So if you are in the city center and want some index cards, where do you go? I have absolutely no idea. I looked at the big Coop grocery store, because over in the US, that’s where they would be. But no dice. In fact, trying to find paper over here is an ordeal. Paper is expensive. I just wanted to find a simple, cheap notebook for practicing my Italian. HA!! It was a multiday trek to locate something reasonable.

I’ve learned to knit while I was over here too. I brought one skein of yarn with me to practice on. I’ve used that up and need to buy some new supplies. I checked the IperCoop (HyperCoop - in the mall. Kind of like a super Walmart or Meijer) but nothing doing. There is a yarn store that is close to the Ponte Vecchio, so I went there. It is run by a little old lady and she followed me around the store the whole time. The yarn didn’t have prices so I left. It was making me nervous. Jim and I found another store that looked like a good candidate. It has lots of craft stuff and yarn in the window. When I went to look, it was closed for siesta. ARGH!!

This is one of the biggest issues that I am having right now. But the other:

2. Knowing how to ask for specific things.

Yes, I have my phrase book and my dictionary but it only has very general phrases. It doesn’t have the important phrases like:

“I would like 300 grams of sausage that isn’t in a casing.” The local butcher made us some sausage the other day and it was AMAZING. But how do I go and ask for it again?

Another example: “What grapes are in this wine? Is this a region or a producer?” We like wine and we have really enjoyed exploring all of the different grape varietals available here. But while at a bar or a wine tasting, how do you ask these things?

Another example, this one at the lunch/coffee bar: “I want that sandwich.” or “What is orzo?” A lot of the places where you can eat lunch are take-aways. There is a large selection food in a glass case and you say or point to what you want. But if you want clarification on something, it is almost impossible for me right now because of the language barrier.

Slowly we muddle on.

This little piggy went to market…

Today, I went to the Casine Lenten Market. What is that do you ask? I really have no idea. I just found out about it in the handy “The Florentine” magazine. “The Florentine” is an english magazine that comes out every other week with articles and a handy calendar of events. It’s how we found the Chianti tasting.

The paper said that is was a market with clothing, food and household goods. I decided to check it out. Left the hubby at home with a lame leg so it was just me. (Maureen, don’t worry. He just pissed me off so I kicked him. Just kidding. He pulled a muscle.) First of all, it was a GORGEOUS day here in Florence. High close to 70 with not a cloud in sight. First of all, a couple of picture taken along the Arno:

The building on the hill is some fort that was used to guard the old city. The tower-y looking thing in the foreground is one of the old gates of the city of Florence. They tore the walls down in the 1800s but left some of the towers and gates.

In the second picture, you can’t see them, but those little white specks on the banks are actually fishermen. As I was walking back, I saw someone catch something but I didn’t hand around to see if they kept it or threw it back.

The market was about a mile long. There was a line of stalls on either side of the walk that were filled with all of the cheap crap that you could need. There were vendors with shoes, another vendor with socks, one with underwear, shirts… Any type of clothing you could imagine. Mostly the food stalls were candy stalls. The noise was overwhelming. Some of the vendors were acting as barkers and calling out how wonderful their stuff was. I understood about one word in ten.

I didn’t buy anything because there was something unsettling to my American senses about buying underwear or socks from some on who was in essence selling from the sidewalk. I like my socks and undies to come in nice, sanitary (and untouched) packages.

When I first got to the market, it was around 9:30AM and it wasn’t that crowded, but you can see from the first picture that by the time that I left, it was hard to move around. It was filled with older women first thing, but as the morning wore on, more and more families were there. The food vendors started breaking out the grills and frying up food for lunch. If I’d had more time, I probably would have grabbed lunch but Jim and I had lunch plans with the Count!

What count ask you? Count Sebastino from Villa Calcinaia, one of the chianti producers in Tuscany. He invited us to brunch with him and some friends at the place where we check email, Rifrullo. We had lunch with him and 8 or so British ex-pats. It was a lot of fun and a relief after two and half weeks to speak English. Of course, all of the Brits spoke fluent Italian. That was embarrassing, but we had a good time.

Ok, so this isn’t from lunch today, but you don’t know any better!

That’s all for now. In upcoming episodes: Italian TV and Via Dei Bardi. We will also have a special episode with a guest author - “Wine we have been drinking.”