My Italy Diary: Florence, Part 3

This weekend is Europe Arts Appreciation and all the museums are open free to the public; we toured both the Boboli Gardens and Palazzo Piti free yesterday. We met up with Donna and Mary this morning for coffee and then headed for the Uffizi to see about reservations for later in the day. The line were very long and there was an equally long line to get into Palazzo Vecchio, so we headed for the Duomo, Baptistery and Campanile.

Climbing 400 plus stairs to the top of the Campanile is not for the faint of heart, especially as there is no organization around ascending and descending, so there are people heading up and down at the same time. The winding staircase is very narrow, so narrow at the top that you have to hug the wall in order for anyone else to squeeze by. But you are rewarded at the top with a panaramic view of Florence. The facade is beautiful white, green and pink marble and together with the Baptistry and Duomo make up a stunning piazza.


















While we waited in line to get into the Duomo, Mr. Man and Donna went off in search of a pannini for each of us. The line moved so fast that Mary and I had to get out of line twice. We ate the sandwiches on the side steps and were harassed by a gypsy begging for money and rubbing her amply fed stomach. We finally had to move in order to get away from her. As it is Sunday, we were only allowed to enter the main aisle of the Duomo, but were immediately struck by its vastness and by its lack of interior decoration when compared to its exterior beauty and extravangance. Unfortunately, we were unable to see more than glimpses of the frescoes within the dome as we couldn’t really get close enough. Perhaps we’ll revisit this beautiful undertaking again before we leave.

The most famous thing about the Baptistry is, of course, its bronze doors. But, inside awaits beautiful mosaics in the dome. The original bronze doors are no longer in place, but the replicas are beautifully rendered. The giant figure of Christ in the dome is wonderfully colored against the gold background, and there is a great depliction of Hell which is so beautiful you almost forget its horrible content.

San Lorenzo market was next on our list, but it wasn’t much more than a tourist trap filled with booths of largely non-Italians selling seemingly poor quality goods. We continued on to find Mercato Centrale, which unfortunately was closed. So we opted for a glass of wine. We stopped at an outdoor restaurant called Antica Taberna del Botticelli and had the worst experience of our entire trip (worse than our surly waiter and horrible food at Casa Blanca in Viareggio)! We ordered a liter of white wine and some water, and once the waitress discovered we didn’t intend to eat, she took up our paper placemats. The place was by no means busy; there were perhaps four other tables being occupied.

The owner, a very fat, sweaty gentleman (and I use the term very loosely) with a jowly face and bulbous lips was strutting around in a white shirt unbottoned to almost his navel with a large, brash gold chain around his neck, shouting orders. As soon as he saw we didn’t have placemats he had another waitress bring us our check. She then stood a little to the side making it very clear that she wanted us to pay. When we looked at the check and saw it was €30,00 we asked to see the menu as we certainly didn’t remember a liter of vino de casa being that expensive. Well, we must have offended our fat proprietor for he came stomping over barking at us about restaurant and cafeteria, yelling and sticking his finger in Donna’s face—he was practically foaming at the mouth. At one point during this exchange, I picked up my wine glass to take a drink and he began shouting at me; while I couldn’t understand what he was saying, it was clear he didn’t want me to drink it. He then tried to snatch the money from Donna. A totally horrible experience. We finally decided to just pay, finish our wine, and move on, vowing to post warnings to others on the Internet—I will also leave a note in the book here at the apartment for others who follow us.

It was a little hard to leave this experience behind us and recover our joy of being in Florence, but we tried. We retraced our steps to Piazza della Signoria and joined in the line for the last entrance into the Uffizi; with only an hour left for viewing we headed straight to the highlights—The Birth of Venus by Botticelli, along with his other works housed there; the Leonardo room; Michaelangelo’s The Holy Family and The Venus of Urbino by Titan. We didn’t make it passed the second collection (the Leonardo room) before announcements of closing began.

Both Mary and I had read a New York Times review of Teatro del Sala and we all decided we would have dinner there tonight. We decided to go directly there, eat dinner, and make an early night of it. It’s located along Via de’ Macci between Santa Croce and Piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti. It was closed so we backtracked to a small restaurant we had seen on our way called Osteria de' Macci. This restaurant and its proprietor Alessandro were the highlight of our day and the best meal by far Mr. Man and I have yet to have in Florence. It has only been open for a month and so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It is very quaint and nicely appointed with white table clothes—a romantic atmosphere.

We were shown to a table with a view through a pass-through of the kitchen, where you can watch Alessandro and his assistant cook. Upon being seated, we were brought a delicious glass of Proseco and had a great discussion with Alessandro about the restaurant and Florence. Then he brought us the most wonderful bruschetta with tomatoes and delicate flavors of garlic and vinegar. Mary and I each had the soup of mashed white beans and clams, which was incredible. Pureed to a smooth consistency, this soup was neither too thick nor too thin. The flavor of the white beans together with olive oil and spices melded together perfectly. There was also a good amount of clams, served still in their shells (Il Passatino di Fagioli con le Vongole Veraci). Donna had La Vera Ribollita con l’olio dell’ Osteria; a tomato and bread soup that was also delicious. The olive oil is made in house and Alessandro made a gift to us of a bottle.

Mr. Man and I shared both a primi and secondi piatti of risotto (Il Risotto Mantecato alle Punte di Asparagi) with asparagus sauce—the lightest risotto I’ve ever eaten with a delicate flavor of asparagus; devine. This was followed by La Vera Bistecca Fiorentian (Tuscan steak) served with oven baked potatoes. This is a huge T-bone, cooked rare with a seasoning of salt and pepper that melts in your mouth. Both of these were accompanied by bottles of Pian delle Vigne Brunello di Montalcino, which we enjoyed so much that Alessandro soaked off the label for me. We all had dessert and then Alessandro made us limoncello, which was so good we had two more rounds. We continued to speak with Alessandro throughout the meal, which added to the overall experience and made us feel extremely lucky to have come across this jewell of a restaurant.