OK the food first.
Wednesday night we met up with Melinda and Dave for dinner at Trattoria Cibreo, on via de’ Macci (right near the corner of Borgo La Croce). Back in the winter Susan and I had eaten at the Ristorante Cibreo with Nan and Jay who were traveling from Virginia. The four of us had such a great meal at the ristorante that night that Susan and I were determined to try their trattoria right next door – the same great food out of the same kitchen but significantly less expensive -- all of which by the way is true. In addition, they also have a Caffe Cibreo across one street as well as a dinner theater across via de’ Macci. (photo: detail from one of the doors at the front of the Duomo.)
Melinda suggested we get there early since they don’t take reservations and the trattoria only seats maybe 30-40 people max so we arrived at 7:00 pm just a few minutes after Melinda and Dave. After we sat down the waiter/maitre’d/head guy/only guy came to our table and handed us menus and we ordered prosecco all around. A few moments later they brought us four large white wine glasses filled with delicious sparkling wine and we knew we were off to a great start.
Throughout the evening we noticed that the majority of the clientele were tourists, or at least people of non-Italian extraction: French, British, Americans, lots of tourists to be sure. Yet the simple menu was in Italian only and the fellow who handled the entire room superbly with just one staffer to assist him, patiently explained each item on the menu to those who required it: in French, in English whatever; pretty impressive.
Our food was delicious: the first course (“primi”) of polenta for Susan and Melinda was creamy, buttery and ever so smooth and tasty, while Dave and I had a sformato of potato, rather like a soufflé I suppose and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. For the secondi or second course, Melinda’s pureed salt cod on toast was scrumptious and Susan’s cod stew was equally delicious. Dave and I both had veal but prepared differently. His was more of a roast while mine was thin slices with a tuna sauce with capers (“vitello tonnato”) and served cold. Outstanding.
The waiter suggested a wine from the producer Il Grillesino in the Maremma in southwestern Tuscany, a wine similar to Morellino di Scansano which was well-paired with everything.
The portions were perfect as well and the prices reasonable indeed. Food and wine came to a total of €114 for the four of us. Not bad, not bad at all, particularly for Florence.
After dinner the four of us strolled for a bit and said arrivaderci – hoping to catch up with each other either in Paris or maybe back in Florence. It has been great being able to meet up with these guys, to talk about food, wine and travel and surviving as independent travelers. Such relationships are the hallmark of independent travel in fact and one could hardly survive otherwise.
Now the bank.
It turns out that while we were gone to Puglia there had been a fire on the ground floor of our apartment building. It had apparently started at one of the computer workstations in the bank there and gutted the suite of offices but fortunately remained contained to just the bank and since it had happened when no one was there were no injuries. But, and we’re not sure of this, we think the bank was the source of our WiFi connection ever since we’ve lived here since our connection is now gone totally. Coincidence perhaps.
But what has us most amazed is the speed with which the bank is being readied to reopen. They have been working almost round the clock to clean and remodel the bank.
Meanwhile . . . if you were to be here in Florence right now you would find much of the Duomo and the baptistery across the piazza both in serious scaffolding – with virtually no work being done on either structure, or at least none we’ve ever seen.
Go figure.
Still hot here in Florence.
Wish you were here.
Steve
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