Today is packing day. Cinzia washed all our clothes yesterday in our tiny washing/drying machine. Our landlord Cecilia will be here at 6pm to look the place over and calculate our utility bill. We have tickets on the “fast train” to Rome tomorrow at 1:10pm and will arrive at 2:45pm. It’s 9am now. Cinzia is still sleeping. We’ll hit the Mercato Centrale one last time to pick up something for lunch and get some cheese and fruit for dinner. We’ve had a great time here in Florence and are looking forward to Rome.
So, let me catch you up since our day on Thursday. On Friday we planned a day trip to San Gimignano. Since there is no train station in San Gimignano you have to take the train to Poggibonsi and then a bus takes you the last 7 miles to San Gimignano. We got there before noon and had lunch at a place recommended to us by the owner of Fat Clemenza’s back home in Fort Walton Beach. Dom said he spent many a night at Trattoria Chiribiri, so we gave it a try. Delicious food! We both had a pasta course and a meat course and both were great. In fact, we think we even spotted a photo of Dom hanging on the walls from the 1980’s. The town itself is filled with tourist shops selling ceramics, linens, salami, wines, and knick-knacks of all sorts. We picked up the elusive olivewood lemon reamer. We also had some great gelato. This gelateria made flavors that tasted like the Roche and Raffaello candies and were amazing. The best part of San Gimignano isn’t what’s inside the walled city, but what’s on the outside. The views from our walk around the city walls were absolutely beautiful. The leaves were just turning and the grape vines lining the vineyards were golden yellow. If only the pictures could capture the vistas. You can check out 50+ photos which I’ve posted in our Photo Gallery plus a couple videos in our Video Gallery.
On Saturday our little calendar said “Lunch at Natalino’s and Truffle Night”. So back we headed for another round of Finocchiona and Lardo e Tortufo sandwiches. I’m sure there was some gelato in there afterwards. Over at the Mercato Centrale we decided to buy a fresh truffle. You may recall from an earlier blog that the white truffles were going for something like €2.700/kg. Well, with the heat of this past month and lack of rain there were fewer truffles to be had at this point in the season. Prices are up to €4.900/kg! The smallest white truffle they had would have cost us €52! That was a little much. We decided to go with a larger black truffle for €22 as they were only €1.400/kg. We picked up some fresh tagliatelle pasta and planned on making a butter sauce. Cinzia put the truffle in a glass of carnaroli rice to rest until dinner. By dinner time the rice had a strong truffle aroma. Without our truffle shaver we did our best to shave it and work it into our sauce. It didn’t have that strong truffle aroma we had hoped for, but the dish turned out fine all the same. We have half left which we’ll bring with us to Rome.
For dinner on Sunday we had picked up some fresh crespelle alla Fiorentina the previous day. Cinzia’s had these a couple times in restaurants. They are ricotta and spinach rolled into thin crepes and cooked in a white cheese sauce. We bought 6 crespelle and I made a béchamel sauce with parmesan cheese. They came out great. But I’m skipping ahead. That afternoon there was a Sicilian festival in town. It was another foodie event with all types of cheeses, breads, sweets, olives, and seafood. We had arancini for lunch. Not oranges, but large fried rice balls that look like oranges. Some were filled with prosciutto and cheese and others had meat and ragu. They were all delicious. We also picked up some pastries for dessert that evening and some cheese for today.
Once again, back in our apartment, we hear drums. Another parade of some sort. We rushed out of the apartment and headed for Piazza della Signoria where we met the crowds. The drums and horns accompanied the "Sbandieratori di Firenze" (Flag-Wavers of Florence). We watched their displays until they made their way from the piazza. You can check out a video in our Video Gallery. Around 6:30pm Cinzia was on Facebook and chatted with her brother, David. He popped up a videophone application on Facebook, which she never knew existed, and they were able to have a phone conversation. Since we have a video camera in the laptop he could see her and she even carried the wireless computer through the apartment to give him a tour. After the call ended Cinzia was able to do the same with her mother. That call lasted a bit longer and when it ended a little after midnight it was time for bed. Oh, by the way, Italy changed their clocks on Sunday, so we’re an hour back already. As always, check our Contacts page for our local time.
Today we’ll pack and have a wine and cheese dinner. Cinzia is up now and making her coffee. We’ll buy 3-4 more types of cheese and pick up grapes and pears to go along with it. I’ll get a baguette later in the day. We still have some of that fig jam and balsamico left too, and Cinzia has one last bottle of red wine. Dinner will be easy and tasty. We’ve had great weather these past couple days with temps in the lower 70's and sunny. More of the same in store for us today too.
The next time we’ll chat is from Rome. Happy Halloween!
The next time we’ll chat is from Rome. Happy Halloween!