Ok, so we’re still not up to date on the blog posts. We initially thought we’d have nothing to do in the evenings in Torre Orsina. During those long evenings we’d write our blogs, pick out some photos, and have them all ready to post once we arrived in Florence where our apartment had WiFi. That clearly wasn’t the case as we had very little down time in Torre Orsina (which was a pleasant surprise). But it did leave readers asking questions like, “Where are you guys now?” and “Can you post pictures of your apartment?” We’ll, now that all of the photos from Torre Orsina are posted in the Photo Gallery I can turn my attention to Florence. But wait, we’re heading back to Torre Orsina tomorrow morning! We’ll arrive Saturday around 2pm (if the trains and busses cooperate) so Cinzia can assist with preparing for the party. Sunday is the big day -- Virgilio’s 99th birthday party. It’ll be held in Luigina’s dining room on the first floor. Everyone should be in attendance and we’ll take plenty of photos and maybe even a video or two. We depart Monday at noon and should get back into Florence by 5pm. That will leave me with even more photos and videos to post! (Cinzia’s 11 minute tour of Torre Orsina video took just over 4 hours to upload to YouTube.)
All that said, I’ll probably jump around with my blog posts. If there’s some topic you’d like me to discuss, just let me know.
Ok, so here is the view from our apartment window in Florence. You can see the bell tower and parts of the Duomo. We’re on the 2nd floor, but since Italians refer to the ground floor as floor zero we actually have to climb 2 flights of steps to get to your door. So far we’ve walked to all the major tourist sites like the Duomo (just down the block), Piazza Signore, Santa Croce, and the Pointe Vecchio just to name a few. We haven’t taken any tours yet. We’ll leave that for later hoping that the temperature drops a bit. Today was in the low 90s.
Ok, so here is the view from our apartment window in Florence. You can see the bell tower and parts of the Duomo. We’re on the 2nd floor, but since Italians refer to the ground floor as floor zero we actually have to climb 2 flights of steps to get to your door. So far we’ve walked to all the major tourist sites like the Duomo (just down the block), Piazza Signore, Santa Croce, and the Pointe Vecchio just to name a few. We haven’t taken any tours yet. We’ll leave that for later hoping that the temperature drops a bit. Today was in the low 90s.
So, if we’re not taking tours what are we doing? Well, today we got out of the apartment around 9am and found a nice little café to have a bite. The fig tart and gianduia cake were delicious.
After that we did a little shopping for gifts for the relatives in Torre Orsina. Then is was lunch time. We headed back to the apartment and had prosciutto and melon. We bought the melon yesterday at the grocery store and the prosciutto at the Central Market.
After that we took turns napping or reading while the other person used the computer. We didn’t emerge from the apartment until 6pm when we walked to the train station to buy our round-trip tickets for tomorrow’s travels. It’s 7:45pm now and we’ll start dinner in 30 minutes or so. We’ll make linguine with fresh tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and basil. We have some left over sausage with peppers and onions from yesterday’s dinner as well. That should clear out the fridge.
One nice thing about Italy is the produce. The tomatoes are red, ripe, and solid – and were buy-one-get-one for only €0,98 for a kilo (note that the Italians switch the decimal point and comma in their numbers). So I got almost 4 ½ pounds of fantastic tomatoes for under $1.50. If only everything were as cheap in Florence. You routinely see Cokes for sale for €2,00 - €3,00 (that’s $3.00 - $4.50 each, and they’re not that big). Last night we tried a pizza place we had passed during our many walks through the city. It was called I Ghibellini. Cinzia had a 4-cheese pizza with sausage and black truffles, called The Dante, and I had one with tomatoes, mozzarella, black truffles, and an egg (sunny side up right in the middle of the pizza), called The Giovanni. Both were amazing. Cinzia had a quarter liter of house white and I had a bottle of water. The total bill was €24,60, or about $38.25.
Afterwards we had some gelato. The shops offer 6 to 8 different size cups. We didn’t have the smallest, but the next size up, and always two flavors. The cups were €3,50 each, but they were good. Cinzia had crème with balsamico & Alice (mascarpone and gianduia crème) and I had sheep’s milk ricotta with fig and caramel & Morena (flower of cream with cherry syrup and cherries). Yes, each of the 2 flavors are on each side of the & sign. We’ll track our flavors for those that like to guess the gelato flavors in the photos.
After dinner we need to pack a few clothes for tomorrow’s trip and wrap the gifts before heading to bed. We’ll catch up when we return in a few days. Ciao.
After dinner we need to pack a few clothes for tomorrow’s trip and wrap the gifts before heading to bed. We’ll catch up when we return in a few days. Ciao.