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!
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!
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