Firenze...fast and hot

Florence is a wonderful town, usually busy and very compact.  We trained in over eight hours, first taking the bus from Nice to Monaco.  From there we caught a train to Ventimiglia, just over the border in Italy and bought our reservations all the way to Firenze.  We are using a Eurail Italy Saver pass while in the boot, so we only have to pay for seat reservations instead of tickets; some trains don't require reservations, and so we don't have to pay anything.  It really is quite a saver...we figured it would cost us about $1000 for the both of us, over six travel days without passes.  However, we were able to purchase two passes for $406, which included a 20% off special for just Italy.  Pretty cool, huh?

From Ventimiglia we went to Genoa, and then on to La Spezia and Florence.  Because we planned for Florence the night before (at 23:30) we were not able to couchsurf but had reserved a residence just outside the city.  The advent of a residence versus a hotel is that the residence has a fully-stocked kitchen with pots, pans, cups, silverware, etc, so you can cook your own meals to save money, instead of venturing out to the busy and potentially expensive restaurants.  With that, we spent 26 euros at the supermarket for two dinners, lunches and breakfasts for two people.  I can't even begin to guess what that would have been out in the wild...

We happened upon a 'local's favorite' pizza place our first night (we were looking for the grocery), and then climbed into our big bed for a nice long nap.  We awoke the next morning at 10:30 (we're on vacation, right?) and began our day.  I went shopping, Princess made some ColaCao and before we knew it, we were off into Firenze.  We got off the bus at the end of the line and headed to the Piazza Repubblica.  The piazza is huge...most in Italy are very large...and it was busy with people.  We had accidentally happened upon a long weekend holiday, so even on Monday during the day the square was packed.  From there we went directly to the Duomo, the dome of the Santa Maria Nuova church.  The facade is amazingly ornate and the church bigger than my eyes could take in.  We didn't go in though...aren't most old churches all the same?

We did a half loop around the Duomo then took off down the street towards San Lorenzo.  San Lorenzo is the mausoleum and old living quarters of the Medici family, so we thought it would be interesting.  Upon arriving at the Piazza SS Annunziata, we encountered a very inviting scene.  A huge wine tasting!  There were over eighty wineries from all over Europe, showing off their Slow Food skills.  How could we not join in?  We paid ten euros for one glass to share, and then began our day with whites.  We went straight to the Mosel area, sipping some very nice Rieslings.  One of the Riesling tastings included eating chocolate first and then sipping the wine.  Amazing!  The first one started with Venezuelan dark chocolate, and the second with a Saffron and Curry White Chocolate...OMG (yes, Hollywood said OMG)...our mouths exploded with that one, first with the chocolate and then with the amazing flavors of the wine pairing.  We bought a bar for future testing...  We moved onto reds and olive oils from there, tasting through nearly 30 wineries over the whole day.  We bought a bottle of five-year old Vin Santo, and later had to purchase some soft aging cheese (because it was delicious and it was "born" on Hollywood’s birthday!) and rich smoked meats.  Unfortunately, my palate was shot after all the reds, so in the evening we tasted through a dozen other Vini Santi for comparison.

It’s safe to say (and to assume) that we missed the San Lorenzo.  We took off from the plaza, and bee-lined it for the Galleria degli Uffizi, a giant museum at the edge of the Arno river, for a 16:15 reservation we'd made earlier in the day.  The reservation was not free, though it was quite inexpensive compared to the other option: waiting between 1-2 HOURS to get into a museum that took 2 hours to see and closed in 2 hours...any questions?  Before going into the museum, we stood proud in front of the statue of Michelangelo's David, gazed up at Perseus clutching Medusa's severed head and witnessed Hercules conquering a Centaur.  The many statues in the area are quite impressive, especially given their individual history or the history they refer to...a must see!

The Uffizi held quite a bit of art, much of it relating to artistical interpretation of the time of Christ.  We have nothing against art of that kind, but it tends to fill most of the European museums, so day after day, museum after museum, of seeing the same thing can make it get very old very quickly.  Besides the Christian art, there was much art referring to the gods of our history, both Roman and Latin - Princess' favorite was the Birth of Venus painting, as well as busts of emperors and leaders of ancient Rome.

From inside the Uffizi we had a picture perfect view of the Ponte Vecchio - the old bridge that used to be the gold storage of the ruling families and is now completely filled with jewelry stores...coincidence?  After the museum we walked by all the stores and then slowly made our way back home for pasta, sautéed pork with peppers and a nice salad made by Princess herself.

Before starting dinner, Princess ran off to do a load of wash at a nearby laundromat.  Instead of paying an extra 4 euros to have our laundry dried immediately, we opted to let it all hang out.  For this we borrowed an iron and ironed every piece of clothing that wasn't a shirt or sweater and then hung it up.  Socks, underwear, jeans...you name it, we ironed it.  Whatever wasn't dry in the morning was ironed again in the evening.  Now this is what I call living!

The next morning we arose early for a tour of San Gimignano, Siena and Montalcino.  We were picked up at our hotel and then boarded a very full tour bus at the main square.  The tour was comprised of four Americans and two Timor(ians?)...yep, all of them squished into an 8 passenger Mercedes van...horrible!  During our tour, our guide Alejandro, originally from Chile but a resident of Italy for the past 14 years, educated us about the local area, landscape as well as Italian life.  Our favorite topic of his regarded Italian marriages...if you're not fighting at least once per day, it's because one of you is sleeping around.  Hilarious...but is it true?

We stopped first in San Gimignano, a wonderful old village referred to as the "Manhattan" of the Middle Ages.  It's where every rich family in Italy went to pronounce their wealth and power, principally by killing off any potential local challengers, and then building a taller tower than any standing (or by destroying any taller tower in the city). At one time some 72 towers stood tall in this "Manhattan" of Italy, but only perhaps a dozen remain. We walked through the village, taking lots of pictures (petting the puppies and kitties) and then basked in the immense views of the countryside.  The village was decked out in Christmas ware, including the pigs...

From there we went to Tenuta Torciano, where we tasted Chianti - regular, classico and riserva as well as olive oil and truffle oil.  Princess immediately fell in love with the truffle oil, much to my dismay, and demanded that a bottle be taken along to Crete.  I vehemently said no, and so we left the winery with a new bottle of truffle oil.  (Yea! Yummy! ;])

Our next few hours included lots of picturesque landscapes and an absolutely gorgeous sunset, as well as a tour of an abbey where monks still chant daily.  The Abbita di Sant'Antimo is very beautiful, and almost devoid of traditional religious art.  It was very nice to see something so simple, with just nice architecture and stonework, versus seemingly overzealous shrines and statues made of gold, with storytelling stained glass windows and the traditional run-of-the-mill church decoration.  Outside a brother walked with his parents around the grounds, and we took in the green grass and olive trees.

The last stop of the day was at another winery near Montalcino, where we toured the facilities and tasted more wines.  The Manager of the winery, Nonno Mario, who only spoke Italian, and loved the ladies, made a point of having Hollywood model in front of the casks and cased wines.  And yes, Hollywood lived up to his name, entertaining all present.  This time around we tasted through i rossi Montalcini, starting from a very simple IDG red, which means there are no ultra-specific laws regarding production, to a rosso Montalcino and finally to a pair of Brunello di Montalcino.  Brunellos are very sumptuous and tasty, mainly because they are required to be barrel-aged for at least four years and then aged a further six months in the bottle.  They are usually quite expensive in the US, but the cost of shipping from Italy doesn't make up for the difference in price.

We ended our tour back at the train station, a whole nine hours after leaving.  We very much enjoyed that tour, and recommend a similar one to anyone visiting the area.  We purchased our train reservations to Venice on the way through, and then ran home for a quick dinner and a restful sleep.  Ciao!