… home!

Up at 7 am to leave by 8 for our 10:50 United flight. Although our hotel was practically on the airport grounds, we had some difficulty finding the correct entrance to the airport. Once inside, we couldn’t find the terminal to off-load our bags, so we decided to return the rental car and go from there, with all of our (heavy) bags in hand.

It turns out that most of the US airlines are now isolated in Terminal 5, which is not really shown on any airport signs or maps. Instead, you have to walk from the parking garage to Terminal 3, then catch a shuttle bus to Terminal 5. After you pass through two different security checks in Terminal 5, you catch a second shuttle – right back to Terminal 3, where the departure gates are actually located! Good thing we left for the airport early, and had a few extra hours to kill!

Always good to get home – and start planning the next big adventure!

… to Todi …

… to visit with our next-door neighbors from Coronado in their house in Tuscany.

We left the hotel around 10, stopping by Mia’s apartment to say goodbye and drop off unconsumed food, etc. Noel called, and said that it would be best for us to arrive there no later than 1:30 because they were planning to take us for lunch in the town and things closed by 2:30. Took A1 south from just outside Firenze all the way to Orvieto, and then took a small windy road east towards Todi, as the GPS told us to do.

We called Noel when we were close and he and Petra met us in the center of Todi for lunch at a lovely little restaurant. Pappardelle with wild boar sauce all around!

Todi is a beautiful little town perched on top of a hill. It boasts several cathedrals, and breathtaking views. One cypress tree is supposed to be the tallest in all of Europe, and is decorated each year at Christmas. The photo doesn’t do it justice!

  

  

  

We followed Petra and Noel back to their house, a lovely three story brick and stone home, with three bedrooms and three baths; very spacious and lovingly furnished. We brought a container of cantucinni we made in our cooking class with a bottle of Vin Santo (di Nonna) purchased during our walk in Firenze. We also tried some local wine, made from the grapes visible from their patio, costing 1 euro a liter. Quite tasty! After a good conversation on the patio, we left at sunset for the 2 hour drive to Rome.

… to the Pitti Palace …

… and a lot of other places in Firenze on our last wonderful day in the city. We started the day by taking a cab with Mia to the Pitti Palace, one of the many Medici residences in Firenze and elsewhere. They were one wealthy family! The Pitti Palace is filled with magnificent works of art, mostly canvases by artists like Botticelli, Raphael, Rubens, Bronzino, and just about every other Italian artist you can think of. In addition to works from the Renaissance, there were marbles from ancient Rome, Italian artists from the Impressionist period, and several galleries of fairly modern art. It sits across from a great group of buildings.

  

The palace itself is similar to the Louvre or the Uffizi in size and mag nificence. Like the Louvre, the Pitti Palace has an elegant apartment which was furnished for and used by Napoleon; perhaps most interesting was his bathroom, complete with a carved marble bathtub. With a little imagination you could picture him stepping into that tub and settling into some bubbles…

We were all very hungry by the time we left the Pitti Palace, so we stopped nearby in a tiny restaurant for lunch, Caffe degli Artigiani. They had very good salads and sandwiches. The whole restaurant was so small it was almost claustrophobia-inducing. Well-fed, we proceeded to two notable churches: the Santi Apostoli, on Piazza del Limbo, where the holy flints from Jerusalem are housed, and used to light the Easter fire every year; and the Holy Trinity church, which has an outstanding chapel painted by Ghirlandaio for the Sassetti family, who were friends of the Medicis. Mia provided a photo op of Ponte Vecchio – the old bridge.

  

Next we went to find a cameo maker who carves custom cameos near Ponte Vecchio; in walking there we spotted a shop which had antique micro-mosaic pins from the 1920s-30s. The cameo shop was close by, and we stopped and talked to the artist. Great chance for some window shopping! We even found a shop with jewelry making equipment!

  

    

On our walk we passed many small artisanal factories: art studios, embroidery on leather, puppet making. Each shop featured the actual craftsmen creating the items being sold. It was charming. We wound up at the old Santa Maria Novella pharmacy, and tried their perfumes one more time. We were planning to walk from there to the leather market, but decided instead to stop at JK Bar for a cup of hot chocolate and some petit fours (actually a big slab of coffee cake and some pistachios) on their lovely patio, overlooking the Santa Maria Novella church.

On the long walk home we passed Ristorante Buca Mario, one of three restaurants recommended to us by the clerk at our hotel. We decided to stop and have a nice farewell dinner. The food was delicious, including pappardelle with wild boar sauce and fried artichokes. For dessert we shared a fresh frutti di bosco (raspberry and blueberry) tart, on a vanilla pudding base, with fresh hand-whipped cream. Very tasty!

  

  

We walked Mia home and went back to our hotel to pack, never a pleasant task. It seemed particularly disorganized this time, perhaps because the lack of storage drawers at the AC Hotel had kept us living out of our suitcases.

… to Lucca for another cooking class …

… so Mia could learn, too. We met Mia a little after noon to walk to Carabaccia, a restaurant recommended by the concierge at the hotel. Lunch was great: prosecco to whet our whistles, bruschetta, cream of potato and carrot soup, penne and spaghetti with artichokes.

Well fed, we climbed in the car for the drive from Firenze to Lucca. Lots of interesting things to see along the way. A really big (odd) bird. A beautiful tree against the bright blue sky. Beautiful houses and churches.

   

  

Our class with Chef Paolo Monti started promptly at 4 pm, with the making of cantuccini, the traditional little biscotti of Firenze, which are often served with Vin Santo dessert wine for dunking. The cantuccini was followed by two appetizers: a chicken liver pate spread for bread, and a similar spread made from roasted eggplant. Both were yummy – and easy to make. We ate the spreads with bread as we were cooking.

  

We also made a pork roast with roasted potatoes. Frank cut little pockets in the roast and filled them with a combination of chopped herbs, then covered the roast with strips of pancetta, wrapped it in foil, and roasted it in the oven.

     

Several pastas followed – a ravioli stuffed with swiss chard, pine nuts, bread crumbs, cheese and egg, as well as spaghetti and fettuccine, and “poorly cut pasta” - maltagliati; an interesting bread crumb salad; and a Tuscan Bolognese sauce. When we finished our cooking chores, the chef prepared several courses of the food we had cooked, and had us served in the restaurant.

  

We ended the meal with the cantuccini and Vin Santo, as well as a selection of homemade “-cellos” and “–cinis” of the chef’s creation. There were coffee, orange and pepperoncini varieties. The chef joined us to talk, and told us the recipe he follows starts with ½ liter of pure alcohol, in which you steep the rind of lemon, orange, basil leaves, etc. for a few weeks. Remove the steeping substance and add a simple syrup made by boiling twice as much water as the liters of alcohol (in this instance, 1 liter of water with 400 grams of sugar). The sugar must be completely dissolved, and the syrup cooled before it is added to the alcohol mixture. The concoction is bottled and chilled before serving. For the coffeecello he used ½ liter alcohol with 1 liter of expresso, and did not steep anything in the alcohol. The pepperoncino was made with 6-7 dried tiny hot peppers, plus 2-3 slices of sweet red pepper. Now if only there was someplace in Maryland to buy pure alcohol…

Dinner over, we drove home in the rain in what seemed like a late rush hour; according to Mia, Easter Monday is traditionally a day when families leave the city to do something in the country to celebrate spring, and we met all of them coming back to Firenze at the same time as us. 

… to the Duomo to see the Scoppio del Carro …

… the traditional Florentine Easter celebration. Wikipedia says, “On the morning of Easter Sunday, the 30-foot-tall antique cart (in use for over 500 years), moves from the Porta al Prato to the Piazza del Duomo. Hauled by a team of white oxen festooned with garlands of the first flowers and herbs of spring, the cart is escorted by 150 soldiers, musicians, and people in 15th century dress. Meanwhile, a fire is struck using the historic flints from Jerusalem at Chiesa degli Santi Apostoli. It is then carried in procession to the cathedral square by members of the Pazzi family, clerics, and city officials. The cart is loaded with fireworks while a wire, stretching to the high altar inside the cathedral, is fitted with a mechanical dove (the "colombina"). Shortly thereafter, at the singing of the Gloria in excelsis Deo during Easter Mass, the cardinal of Florence lights a fuse in the colombina with the Easter fire. It then speeds through the church to ignite the cart outside. During all of these stages, the bells of Giotto's campanile ring out. The complex fireworks show that follows lasts about 20 minutes. A successful display from the "Explosion of the Cart" is supposed to guarantee a good harvest, stable civic life, and good business.

The procession began in front of Mia’s apartment about 9:00, with the fireworks slated for the Duomo piazza at 11:00 am. As we walked down Mia’s street at about 8:30 we could see the brindellone sitting in the middle of the street, fully strung with various types of firecrackers, and marchers in medieval costumes milling around. There were drummers, pipers, flag wavers, ladies and lords.

  

   

At 9:00 with the church bells pealing, the parade commenced. First came two mounted policemen on black horses, followed by each of the groups of marchers. A donkey cart full of sand followed the townspeople. Just after the donkey cart came the brindellone, pulled by four huge white oxen with sprays of spring flowers attached to their headpieces. Than came two small hand pulled carts filled with flowers, olive branches, and Easter eggs. A street sweeper was the tail end.

  

  

    

Groups of costumed marchers joined the parade along the route. We hurried to the piazza between the duomo and the baptistery which was already crowded;  we found a place to stand about five rows from the barricades. The procession arrived about 10am. From 10 to 11am we heard parts of the church service being held in the baptistery, watched the pyrotechnics guys go up in a cherry-picker to place a pole on top of the cart, and then a fireworks display on top of the pole, and another person rig extra fireworks on each side of the cart. About 10:45 the people pulling carts after the brindellone handed flowers and olive branches to the waiting crowd and the priest walked along the barricades with holy water, blessing the crowd.

   

Promptly at 11, the church bells began tolling, and the clay dove rocket flew out of the church and ignited the fireworks display, then returned to the church. Many of the first fireworks were firecrackers, each louder than the last, before beautiful displays of fountains, waterfalls, pinwheels, etc. It was an amazing! The smoke from the fireworks became so thick that it was hard to see the cart. The display lasted about 12 minutes. In the grand finale, three flags unfurled at the very top of the cart.

 

When it was over, the crowd dispersed very slowly, because of all the barricades. We made our way back to Mia’s apartment to begin cooking Easter dinner. We hadn’t been in the apartment for long before Frank spotted the brindellone returning, being pulled by a tractor, with the oxen following patiently behind. The brindellone garage is across the street from Mia’s apartment, and it took quite awhile for them to get it safely parked inside.

Mia and I took a taxi to the antique market, and spent a happy hour or two browsing the stalls before cabbing it back to the apartment where Frank was resting. Dinner was our traditional scorpelli in brodo, with a salad, veal and roasted potatoes. A good time was had by all. Frank crowned the day by passing five kidney stones when we got back to the hotel!

… to a lot of places in Firenze …

…. and walk more than 10,000 steps.

We reserved Saturday for a walking tour of Firenze with Mia, seeing the sights and taking pictures. The weather was drizzly at the worst of times, cloudy at the best. We started with the Santa Maria Novella pharmacy, one of the oldest pharmacies in the world. It was originally operated by the Dominican monks shortly after their arrival in Firenze in 1221, when they began cultivating medicinal herbs to prepare medicines and ointments for the convent. In 1612 the pharmacy opened to the public. Today the pharmacy sells soaps, perfumes, and potpourri in additional to the traditional “ancient preparations.” It is a beautiful and unusual place to visit (Via della Scala, 16).  

  

  

Medici Chapel tickets must be purchased by 1 pm; we waited in a long line to get in to see an interesting exhibit of items relating to the history of the Medici family. Artworks included paintings lent by the National Gallery in DC, as well as museums in Boston and Detroit. After viewing the splendors of being Medici, and trying to understand the family tree (Pope Leo X was Leopold the Magnificent’s son, and Pope Clement the VII was Leo’s illegitimate cousin – I think!), we left the Chapel to walk through the nearby leather market.

Next was lunch at the Trattoria Toscana Gozzi Sergio, on Piazza S. Lorenzo. The line here was also long, but we eventually were seated and had a very nice lunch – pici, etc. – followed by cantuccini and Vin Santo for dessert.

  

We walked from the leather market to the Orsanmichele building, where Mia gave us a tour of the Ghiberti bronze statues. Inside the Orsanmichele church we saw the square rectangular holes in the walls where grain was once poured when the structure was a commercial building, before it was turned into a beautiful church. The altar is breathtaking. We also at some point looked at the bronze doors on the baptistery next to the duomo, and noted the sophistication of the doors by Ghiberti (he did two doors but one is currently off the premises for restoration and cleaning).

  

At 6 pm we had a wine tasting scheduled at the Cacio Vino enoteca with Mia and her friend Brad. Her enoteca friends had ordered a special lambrusco for us, and had saved Mia a bottle of her favorite white wine. They served the wine with a platter of local Tuscan meats accompanied by bread with a beer spread and a melon balsamic vinegar. Next was a platter of Tuscan cheeses, all of them various types of parmesan. The wines were delicious. Before we left, they gave Mia a large chocolate egg for Easter, and for us, a bottle of lambrusco.

  

We walked from the enoteca to the Conad grocery store to buy the ingredients we needed for Easter dinner. Then we went to Brad’s apartment, where he had prepared a lovely dinner of beef broth with tortellini. After dinner, we caught a cab at the piazza. A lot of steps in one day!