Home again, home again, jiggity, jig

For two nights now Scott and I have awakened in the dead of night not knowing where we were. In the dark, home seems foreign. By the light of day, it is a delight.
After arriving home about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, I began dinner while Scott unloaded the van. I had already decided on the drive home from Houston that I was going to make one of my favorite dishes from Italy (and one that I wrote of in the blog) of spaghetti with anchovies, capers and hot pepper. We had stopped at the store on the way home and I picked up some arugula, a few blood oranges and looked at the fennel, but passed them up as they were small and gray, obviously past their prime. So a simple salad would accompany the pasta dish. We had brought home a stash of anchovies in olive oil and the giant capers they use (I have seen them here but at about 6 times the cost of the ones we bought...however, not buying them might have helped offset the 90 Euro charge from the airline for overweight luggage), so as Scott unloaded the van, I began tearing through the suitcases for provisions. And I proceeded to try to recreate the dish I ate so often in Italy. I have to admit I was anchovie shy, not wanting them to overpower the dish. In retrospect, I wish I had doubled the amount of anchovies. When dinner was just about ready, I realized we'd have no where to eat as the dining room table was stacked with a months worth of mail and various things I'd pulled from the suitcases while looking for ingredients. Scott said, "I'll take care of it..." and dashed outside. A few minutes later he walked back in and made a few spritz (he'd found the bottle of Campari we'd hauled home and there was, remarkably, an ice cold bottle of Italian sparkling wine in the fridge from before we left) and said, "Let's go eat!" and he led me outside. He had set up 2 hay bales in the driveway, one as our seat and one as our table. He'd opened the van doors and dialed the radio to our local classical station. We set our plates down on our makeshift dining table and breathed in the warm, sunny Texas Hill Country air and felt so glad to be alive. We looked around and Scott said, "Do you know what we would pay for a hilltop like this in Italy?" Indeed, I could probably make an educated guess and for right now, our hilltop is heaven. Yeah, when I went to our local grocery store this afternoon, I realized so much of what I wanted wasn't available but, on the other hand, I encountered a neighbor and caught up on some local gossip, saw that the blood oranges were on sale (and I stocked up) and felt happy with the familiarity of the place.

I have plans for a new garden, one based on what I saw on our trip. I brought home seeds for me and to share and hope to be able to better recreate some of the meals we had with some fresh produce from our garden. And of course, we are busy planning our next trip to Italy, probably in October/November of 2009.

Life is good.

Goodbye to Florence

Well, we are off to the train station to go to Rimini for 2 days. Our last morning in Florence was full of packing (can we really fit all this stuff in the 2 new suitcases we bought?) and then caffe, caffe and more caffe. We went to the corner to the shop where Anna always has breakfast but she was not there. We had a caffe and went to our favorite shop in the market to have another and say
good-bye to Benita, the proprietress. We shared a piece of freshly made apricot tart and then she brought us out a piece of chicken liver pate on toast. Not exactly breakfast food, but it was the best we have had yet. We wandered through the vendors stalls on the way back to our room and when we returned, Marco invited us to breakfast. We walked to the other corner and had caffe and a pastry with Marco. So now we are all caffein'ed up and ready to haul our very heavy bags to the train station. Ciao ciao Florence...we will miss you!

Art and Food

With all the warnings I had read about the Uffizi...long lines, surly staff, odd hours...we had an extremely good experience. Walked up to the window, paid for our tickets, went and ate lunch and when we returned we stood in line for about 15 minutes before we were let into the gallery. FIVE HOURS LATER we exited. It was exhilarating and exhausting! It was a good idea I think to go on a Tuesday as it was not crowded at all and we could linger in front of the paintings that captured us (most all of them). There were no photos allowed or this page would be full of them. There was a painting that I can't get out of my head. It was a portrait of a young man, a teenager really, by the painter Perugino. It was from the 16th century, I believe, but the picture could have been a photograph of a teenage boy today. He just had the same careless look, half bored, half arrogant, that I sometimes see on adolescent boys. Like perhaps his father had forced him to sit for this painting and he was not very happy about it. I liked that the painting was ancient and contemporary at the same time.
The morning of our Uffizi trip, we went to the market. Scott had told the wonderful folks that run our "hotel"; Marco, his gal Natasha and his sister Anna (marcosplaces.com) that I would make dinner for them. Marco is a vegetarian so I decided on a big salad of arugula, shaved fennel and the wonderful blood oranges that are everywhere here now. When I got to the market, the raspberries were beautiful also, so I decided to add those to the salad. I made a light vinaigrette out of the juice of an orange and a lemon, some of the great olive oil here and a bit of salt. I bought some roma tomatoes, small zucchinis (with the flowers still attached) and pine nuts to make a sauce for some pasta. Anna added a jar of broccoli raab that her mother had sent up from Southern Italy. It is spicy, similar to the taste of mustard greens and wildly delicious. I served some over the pasta but also ate it piled on some bread we got at the bakery. A bottle of Chianti rounded out the meal. It was a simple meal, but the company at the table made it great. Marco and Scott talked a lot of politics and Anna made us espresso afterwards and served some wonderful sweets she and Natasha had picked up at the pasticceria (pastry shop) at the corner. These folks are so much fun. Marco is a card, 28 years old and itching to make his mark. Natasha is from Russia and incredibly beautiful. Anna is so sweet, I feel like she is one of my own children. I just want to hug her all the time. They have made our stay here in Florence extra special and I would recommend this place to anyone.

On Wednesday, we visited the Accademia which houses Michelangelo's David. It is a small museum with David as its' centerpiece. And what a centerpiece. It takes your breath away. They have a fine collection of paintings and it was nice that each painting was accompanied by an explanation of the artist, what the symbolism in the painting represented and details about the restoration. Some descriptions even showed sections of the paintings before the restoration work began. Fascinating!

We walked and walked that afternoon and got lost in the maze of back roads that lead up to the Piazzale Michelangelo. This is the point at which you are overlooking the entire city of Florence and some of the surrounding mountains also.

Lucca in Bloom

Back on the train and another 20 minutes or so and we were in Lucca. My fascination with this city lies in the ramparts that circle the city. These walls; which are 40 feet high, 50 feet across and with a circumference of 2 1/2 miles are from the 15th century and remarkably preserved. On top it's like a promenade, where townfolk take their evening strolls on foot or bikes, teenagers congregate to raise hell, old men gather on the benches to argue and parents bring the kids to run around the playgrounds. There are places where you can peer over the edge of the wall into enclosed greenspaces where catapult balls {I assume them to be catapult balls} are strewn about the grass. You enter the walls through enclosed walkways, really tunnels, that gradually take you higher and higher until you exit at the top. You are overlooking the city up here and what a grand city it is! Incredibly clean and well laid out, the grid of streets are clearly visible from the top. During our visit the trees that lined the streets were all in bloom, great cup shaped flowers in pink and white, and we walked out of the ramparts to the city inside the walls to experience the fragrance. We didn't have much time in Lucca, it was getting dark and we had a train to catch back to Florence. But we decided it was a town that deserved more exploring on the next trip.

Pisa-Town of the Leaning Tower

The train ride to Pisa was short, maybe 20 minutes, and I was having second thoughts. I mean, The Leaning Tower of Pisa??? It seemed so...touristy! But it was on the way, so we got off the train, bought 60 minute bus tickets and hopped a bus to the Campo di Miracoli, the Field of Miracles {not to be confused with the Field of Dreams}. It still seemed kinda' cheesy when we stepped off the bus with about 20 other folks. We walked towards a rock gate with vendors on either side {anyone for a genuine plastic replica of the tower??} and passed into a wonderful {and yes, tourist filled} expanse of gorgeous green lawn. Hundreds of people were sprawled out on the grass...some reading, some making out, some sleeping...and beyond them were the Baptistery, the Camposanto and...gasp...THE LEANING TOWER! It was pretty darn cool to tell the truth and well, we were tourists I told myself, so get over it.

A Trip To The Ocean

On Monday as we were heading to the train station Scott suggested we go to Livorno first to "stick our feet in the Mediterranean" and then head on to Pisa and Lucca on the way back to Florence. It was about an hour and a half train ride and by the time we got to Livorno, it was about 60 degrees and sunny. A beautiful day! We didn't know where the train station was in Livorno in relation to the ocean, but we headed off in the direction of the breeze and made a direct route through downtown and to the sea. It was a long walk but extremely pleasant. The ocean was so blue and quite clear. There were huge ships, cabin cruisers, tug boats and little rowboats all coexisting at the docks. We made our way to a rocky shore and climbed over the rocks to the water. Tiny crabs scrambled out of the way and I finally sat on a flat rock near the waves, took off my shoes and socks and dipped my feet into the icy water! It felt so good! We strolled back to shore and stopped at a little restaurant half a block from the ocean. We ate seafood of course, and lots of it: polipo {octopus}, squid, shrimp, smoked fish shaved like proscuitto, all on a bed of rucola {arugula} with warm crusty bread to mop up all the juices. We smiled through the entire meal. The waitress enjoyed our rapture. We finished the meal with some creme caramel and caffe {espresso}. We left the restaurant very happy and sauntered back through town to the train station to catch a train to Pisa.

Frenetic Florence

Ahhh, it is so lovely here in Florence. We had a wonderful lunch yesterday at a small trattoria down the road from our hotel. I had an amazing {and amazingly simple} dish of spaghetti with anchovies, capers and chilis. Anchovies here are different than in the states. They are not terribly salty, but more flavorful and rich. Scott had papparadelli pasta {very wide ribbons} with a wild boar ragu. We had a mixed meat platter as an appetizer, which we have very often in this landlocked part of Italy. They slice the meat right at the counter on these beautiful bright red meat slicers that look like works of art. Indeed, some restaurants display the meat slicers in the front window. We usually find a gelato stand for dessert and I'll tell you, my waistline has suffered from rich gelato everyday!

Last night we walked the Market Road which has stall after stall of vendors hawking their wares. Hundreds of stalls! Beautiful leather goods, incredible cashmere and silks, gorgeous pashimas {I bought quite a few of these}, glassware, souveniers of Florence, knock offs of designer sunglasses, sculptures of David and on and on. We stopped to look, JUST LOOK, at a booth of leather coats, one booth of probably 20 or more. The salesman had us walk into his shop behind the booth to try on coats. The smell was wonderful surrounded by hundreds of coats. He kept pulling out coats and helping me into them, "Now look, look into the mirror...how beautiful it is on you!" Most of the coats were priced at 400 Euros or more {a bit less than $600} and he said not to look at the price tags...ahhh, yeah! He pulled out a calculator and said, "Here, this coat I sell you for this..." and he shows me on the calculator 201 Euros. Wow! Half price, but ah...no thanks.

We bought a bottle each of Prosecco and Campari last night and "drank" our dinner while viewing on the computer all the pictures Scott has taken thus far {maybe 400 or more}. I was amazed at how great they have turned out on our inexpensive little digital. He has a good eye.
We sat and drank our "spritz" and ate hazelnuts and grissinis {super skinny breadsticks that I am addicted to...I want to ship a case to Hoffman Haus to use with Friday night hors'd'oeuvres...they are incredibly cheap, but look so elegant perched in a glass} and by the time we were done looking at all the pics we could barely make it from the desk in our room to the bed. I woke up at 4 in the morning with a splitting headache, took a few aspirin and went back to bed. Felt much better this morning when I woke up and after a shower and an espresso was raring to go.

We walked the Piazza della Signoria today and stood in awe in front of the statues. Scott took many pictures. Most of the sculptures are from the 1500's and some are startlingly violent. Cellini's Perseus {sculpted in 1545} shows Perseus, dressed for battle, holding Medusa's severed head. Medusa's body is at Perseus's feet with "curly" blood spilling from the neck. A copy of David is also in this Piazza {I believe there are a total of 9 David's in Florence, including the real one in the Accademia} and he stood regally with a pigeon perched on his head. We had hoped to go to the Uffizi, but it will have to wait until later in the week. It being Sunday, the town was full and the line to get in the Uffizi Gallerie snaked about 3 blocks.

Tomorrow we will take the early train to Lucca and Pisa {you know, the leaning tower...} and be back here by dark. Tomorrow may be the last sunny day until we leave so it will be a perfect day to be outside.

Just a note...we have no access to our e mail here. I don't know why, but KTC shows an error sign every time we log in. So if you have e mailed us, we are sorry, but we can't respond. Boy, will it be a mess to deal with when we return!

More later. Ciao!

We Have Landed in Heaven!

After Bologna, the Gods have smiled on us! Our hotel here in Florence is one block from the train station, on a lively and busy street. No hauling our bags on and off busses and the train station had no stairs so we could roll our bag dolly {one of the best purchases we have made} all the way from the train to our hotel. It is the 4th floor of an old building and run by a young man named Marco. He reminds me so much of Emilio, the husband of Laurel, same friendly, outgoing attitude, ready to accomodate and have a good time. When we hauled all our "stuff" up here and they showed us our room, I almost fell to my knees! A double bed! The first we've seen in Italy! And the room is large! And comes with a computer with internet {and it is free...we have paid dearly for internet access}! And they have a washer and dryer for us to use! AND A KITCHEN!!! I can go to the magnificent market they told us about and buy produce and COOK!! We immediately asked for 2 more nights in addition to the 3 we have already booked. Now THIS feels like a honeymoon! And we are done doing motorcycle stuff, so no appointments to make, no one in particular to see, just Scott and I and TIME to ourselves.
The train ride from Bologna to Florence was spectacular...like coming from San Antonio {flat and non descript} to the Hill Country with terraced rolling hills filled with olive trees. It was like every picture you have seen of Tuscany and I was immediately smitten!
Scott had splurged and bought 1st class tickets so we had room to stretch out and drink service. So nice! If you had asked me yesterday {or two nights ago when they kicked us off the bus because it had no where else to go}, I might have said, "Okay, I am ready to come home..." but now I want to stay here forever!!