On Friday night we hopped on the bus to Toro alla Brace. This €29 GroupOn entitled us to a dinner of the famous bistecca alla Fiorentina, a €65 value. We had tried to make reservations here for last Friday, but there was a 1 day bus strike (transportation strikes are common throughout Italy) and we couldn’t make it there. We had reservations for 8:30pm, but arrived early. As with most restaurants in Italy they’re empty before 8pm, so we were the first ones seated.
We spent three days touring the Palazzo Pitti. Along the same lines as a Disney World 3-day park hopper pass, the Palazzo Pitti offers a 3-day pass which gets you into 7 “attractions” which includes: Palatine Gallery, Silver Museum, Gallery of Modern Art, Costume Gallery, Porcelain Museum, Boboli Garden, and Bardini Garden. All for €18. We saw fantastically frescoed walls and ceilings, breathtaking micromosaics, and Renaissance paintings belonging to the powerful Medici family that ruled Florence. I’m sure Cinzia will blog about that. Instead, I’ll focus on what we ate for lunch.
You meet a lot of characters when you travel. Some of them you get to know while others are just recurring people you see often enough in the streets or in shops that you develop a sense of familiarity. We’ve found several such characters on our trip thus far. One of the more colorful is Tony. He’s the owner of Trattoria San Lorenzo.
We stumbled across a small kiosk that had a few vending machines. It offered an array of products you’re not going to find in the States. One machine included pre-cooked pasta in tomato sauce. Apparently you purchased the pasta and used the wall-mounted microwave oven to heat your pasta so you could eat it immediately.
That’s right, there are a bunch of new pictures in the photo gallery under Florence. I added a new slideshow with 61 pictures takes between 28 September and 7 October. Now you can watch us get fatter right before your eyes.
We’ve been eating a lot more cheese here in Italy than we do back home. One reason is the wonderful variety of cheeses you have available to you in the Central Market. There are all kinds of cow’s and sheep’s milk cheese from hard, aged varieties perfect for grating to soft, almost runny, varieties perfect for smearing on a baguette. I’ve already spoken about the fresh mozzarella di bufala, creamy burrata, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and the varieties of pecorino cheeses in previous blogs. We just don’t have enough time, money, or room in our waistbands to try them all, but we have found a few we really like.
As we explore the city we inevitably walk through sections we haven’t traveled before. Tucked away on these winding streets you’ll usually find a gelateria. Many sell generic, mass produced gelato from manufacturers like Cinque Stelle or Queen Victoria, to name a few. What we look for are those that make their own gelato. These gelaterias will have a sign that says “gelato artigianale” or other such language stating that their gelato is produced on site. These handcrafted treats are always much better and often come in a much wider variety of flavors. We recently found three such gelaterias.
It’s not every weekend that you’re awakened by the sounds of a parade passing along a nearby street. But that’s exactly what happened to us these past two weekends. On Saturday, September 24th, was the Carro Matto parade and on Sunday, October 2nd, was the parade of the Bersaglieri.
While Cinzia was looking around on-line for local events she came across Dolcement 2011. This was to take place 1-2 October in Pisa. This would be their 7th year hosting the event. We decided to make a roadtrip, or treno trip, to Pisa on Saturday. Tickets were only €5,90 each, one way, from Florence. So, on Saturday, we headed off early and caught the 8:30am train to Pisa. The weather was great – clear, sunny, and in the mid 80s. In fact, we’ve had wonderful weather during our entire stay. Some days were hot, but there were only two brief spots of rain the entire trip.
Before heading to Italy I did a little research on places to eat in Florence. TripAdvisor is a good tool since you can get up to date reviews and opinions from actual diners. I was looking for small restaurants where the locals eat. I found Trattoria la Casalinga and Ciro & Sons.
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