An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Ugh, alarm at 7:15, sure could have used a few more hours, but we had to get up to get to Florence to meet Francesca, our guide for the morning.
Another beautiful day, breaking over the rows of bursting grape bunches outside our windows. Traffic was light, and all was going well until we got somewhat near the Stazione, where we were supposed to park and meet Francesca. We ended up driving around the city for about 40 frustrating minutes before stopping to dash into a hotel and get directions and a better map. (note to our readers: please don’t ever bring this experience up to either one of us!)
Found our lovely guide and set off to see the sights. Started at the Medici chapel, which was stunning - especially the recently discovered room underground where Michealangelo lived/hid for 3 months when the Republic collapsed, and left the walls filled with his charcoal drawings. The three of us then wandered all over the city with Wendy and Milton getting what seemed like an entire Renaissance Art/History class in 4 hours, with some world-class shopping thrown in. We also stopped in a store specializing in a type of Florentine artwork called “pietre dure” (”hard stones”) that uses cut, inlaid hard stones, mostly marble (but also lapis and malachite) in all different shapes, shades,patterns and colors, to create flat, framed pictures, mostly landscape views and traditional still-life motifs of fruit and flowers. We were blown away, having never seen anything like it, and it being so striking, beautiful and unusual.
We finally parted from Francesca and lunched at Il Cibreo. Interesting in that there was no menu, just a recitation of today’s specials. We started with the fish soup (spicy, hearty and delicious) and their famous yellow-pepper soup (tasty). Actually, we started with several little appetizers they brought us before ordering; all were good, especially a soufle of ricotta and spinach. Entrees were mussels in an exquisitely herbed oil, and a mousse of cod fish that was sort of a super-gourmet whitefish salad. We went with an Italian Chardonnay today, which was quite oaky and flavorful. Dessert was a warm chocolate creme brulee, topped with crystallized caramel (mmmmm) and a sliver of flourless chocolate cake which our waitress just gave us since we couldn’t decide. We asked for some strawberry sauce (which came with a different dessert) on the cake, but she said the chef is very touchy about his recipes, and she would get fired if she allowed that.
Then, it was back into the eternal city, no, wait that’s somewhere else. Florence was quite fun: vibrant, but really overflowing with tourists (imagine!); lots of great shops - Madison Ave. types and some wonderful arts/ceramics/antiques; centuries-old buildings with facades of marble, different colors of paint, or aged terra-cotta; really one of the most interesting melanges of styles and content in the world.
Then we discovered the Museo Dell’Opificio Delle Pietre Dure.
It was a museum of the type of art mentioned above (thank you, Fodors), including old workshops (Opificios). We were mesmorized, marvelling at piece after piece of the most intricate, richly colored and detailed works of art we’d seen in a long while. It’s only been open for two years, and is clearly off the tourist path, as there was only one other person in the whole place.
“We” then perused all (well, it seemed like all) the fancy stores (just looking, though), eventually arriving at the shop of Pietre Dure we’d scoped out earlier. Andrea (a man’s name in Italy) and Barbara, the owners couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. (sounds like a given in a sales biz, but not after our experiences thus far!). We settled on three items, negotiated briefly, and then chatted for about 45 minutes before writing it all up. Allegedly, they will be shipped to NYC with no customs headaches (a la Morocco rugs) in a few weeks, but we took photos of them just to be safe.
Driving out was infinitely easier, though we did go a bit out of the way, and we were back at our villa after a long day, for some tea and relaxation.