Just a great Friday

(Photo: detail from the Duomo.)
Friday morning we got up earlier than usual since Susan wanted to bake fresh jam-filled croissants – I mean she had puff pastry dough sitting in the reefer doing nothing. But in fact the real reason was a former associate of Susan’s from Vermont, Steve S. and a friend of his John were coming up to Florence for the day and we had arranged to meet them at the Accademia at 9:00 am.

Naturally we had an ulterior motive here: we had asked Steve to bring us several items from the states: a couple of things Susan had ordered, some baking soda for her, and for me some aluminum foil (the Italians use something that looks like aluminum foil but is in actuality a metallic-looking rice paper).

A few days before they left for Rome where they were planning on spending most of their time, Steve had sent us an email inquiring about making museum reservations through an online company. (Strangely enough I had just a day or two before received an email from this same company asking if I was interested in becoming an affiliate and checked out their services and pricing. I declined that opportunity.)

Anyway, I told Steve I could call the museum reservation number directly for no charge (the online company charges a hefty commission), which I did and in all of 45 seconds they had reservations for John to visit the Accademia and for both of them to see the Uffizi. All they had to do was show up. (This was John’s first trip to Italy and he wanted to see the David – and since Steve had been to the Accademia several times before he was going to go off for an hour or two and explore the city.

They took an early Eurostar train from Rome at 6:30 and arrived in Florence a little after 8:00 am. (By taking an early “Happy train” they got in on a significantly reduced fare. Further evidence of what a great train and what a great value the Eurostar is here in Italy. Check out the Trenitalia website.)


(photo:John and Steve on the Ponte Vecchio.)
Well we met them on time and picked up our goodies in exchange for some of Susan’s goodies. We all chatted as John waited in line for his reservation time, sort of. Although the Accademia was supposed to have opened at 8:30 – and John’s reservation time was for 9:15 -- the doors were still closed at a little after 9:00 am. The word on the street was there was a “mini-strike” but that they would open soon and indeed, about 9:30 the doors opened and John went on inside. We said goodbye to Steve and planned to see them around 1:30 outside the Uffizi where they had reservations for an 11:30 entry.

Anyway we gave them one of our phones so they could call us and let us know if they needed more time or wanted to alter the meeting time and place.

As it turned out that was a wise move – giving them a phone – since they did indeed want more time in the Uffizi, particularly to enjoy the Leonardo exhibition which is there until the end of the year (I believe). They raved about it later over lunch and were clearly happy they made the trip up from Rome.

Sue and I ran some errands and about 1:30 pm started walking over to the Uffizi to meet up with Steve & John when the phone rang. It was Steve calling to say they needed more time so could we meet them a little later? “Sure of course”, and we decided to meet them at the Ponte Vecchio at 2:30. We met them on time amidst the mass of tourists crisscrossing the bridge and the first thing we all agreed upon was the need for food. So it was off to lunch (“pranzo”).

It was starting to get late in the afternoon for pranzo -- so many places close from about 2:00 or 3:00 and don’t reopen until dinner.


There was one place I had read about that was located on the southern side of the Arno (the “Oltrarno”) right along the river just a bit east of the Ponte Vecchio. So off we went to the “Golden View Open Bar” – the prices looked good and so did the ristorante and in we went. Since it as getting well past lunch we had our pick of where we wanted to sit and choose a table for four right on their tiny overhang outside and overlooking the Ponte Vecchio and Arno River. Touristy maybe but the air was fine, the view cool, the service friendly and the food as reasonably priced as it was tasty – and so were the wines. (Via dei Bardi 58r, ph. 055.214.502. www.goldenviewopenbar.com. “Always open”. They also have live jazz as well. Check their website for dates and times.)

We talked for a couple of hours swapping travel stories – although Susan and Steve briefly slipped off the deep end into “Medical Talk” but quickly pulled themselves back from the brink. We had a grand time indeed.

We paid the bill and then headed off to show them Susan’s school, which we found still open (usually there is little if anything going on there on Fridays). In fact her chocolate instructor, Andrea Bianchini was giving a private lesson. (Andrea is a renowned chocolatier in Italy.) Ironically his “bottega di cioccolato” (chocolate shop) was the next stop on our itinerary! (“La Bottega del Cioccolato”, via de’ Macci 50, ph. 055.2001.609. Check the website for hours: www.bottegadelcioccolato.com.)

We arrived at Andrea’s shop on Via de’ Macci and his sister was working the showroom wrapping several of the traditional cakes for Easter (“pasquale”). Called “Colombo” these cakes are formed in the shape of a dove and can be found literally everywhere in Italy at this time of year. In Andrea’s shop the cakes are completely covered in chocolate.


We had no sooner walked in than Susan’s other chocolate instructor, Michele, saw her and invited us all into the back room where they were in the process of preparing more chocolate treats for their inventory. Naturally fresh samples flowed from the preparing table to our hands (and by extension our mouths). Since the space was rather cramped I moved back into the small showroom – dominated by an enormous chocolate egg which was being raffled off apparently for 3 euros a ticket -- and chatted with Andrea’s sister Stefania while she was working – she made me an offer of sampling more chocolate which I could not refuse.


After we left the “bottega” we headed walked up Via de’ Macci maybe 200mts or so to the “mosaic laboratory” and showroom – Susan and I had been her once before and we thought this was such a cool place we wanted the guys to see this too. We weren’t disappointed and neither were they.

The woman who had shown us around the small but very inspiring workshop and showroom was as amiable as we remembered, a genuinely friendly person who obviously enjoyed awing her listeners with describing these most impressive of ancient skills – Steve was particularly taken with the instrument used to cut the stone: a wire strung between the two ends of a bowed piece of wood. That was it! Seeing these old skills and tools put to use in was indeed awe-inspiring and all of us agreed this place was clearly worth the stop; a long stop in anyone’s journey. “I Mosaici di Lastrucci”, Via dei Macci 9, ph. 055.241.653. Very close to Santa Croce. Open most of the day and into the evening.)

From Via de’ Macci we turned right onto Via S. Giuseppe and walked up to Piazza Santa Croce – although before getting to the piazza we stopped at the entrance to the leather school, located in the old cloister behind Santa Croce and went inside. Unfortunately they were just getting ready to close and so there was only one man working his table but Steve came away from the school with a new belt, which was hand-cut to fit him.

The weather Friday had begun a bit overcast but close to the end of the afternoon as we strolled across Piazza Santa Croce the sun came out to stay at least for a while and we enjoyed our leisurely walk through the historic center of Florence. We had hoped to get inside Santa Croce to see where some of the world’s heavyweights lie at rest: Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli but the church had closed just before we left the leather school. Another trip perhaps.

Anyway we now had an objective: John wanted to find a phone card so that he might call his son back in the US and after one or two stops were eventually successful. As we searched for a place to pick up a phone card we stopped briefly at the intersection of Via Corso and Via Proconsulo trying to decide what the next move would be when our collective eyes caught sight of someone skipping in the opposite direction – that’s right skipping – someone clearly caught between two genders and dressed with an eye for confused identities. It just added to the day being filled with the intense power of this most unique of cities.

It’s amazing to think of the large number of years of college education represented by the four of us and yet it took us easily 10 minutes or so to figure the phone card thing out. But we figured it out of course and after John left a message for his family we headed off to our favorite hangout Paszkowski’s for an aperitivo. We sat outside overlooking the Piazza Signoria and marked this occasion as our first warm evening sitting outside at a café sipping prosecco. And to top it all off we were sitting with a couple of friends, enjoying the (almost) warm evening air and talking about, what else, Italy and travel.

After our aperitivi the four of us walked to the train station and after a few minutes at the fast ticket machines Steve and John had their return tickets on the 8:53 pm Eurostar for Rome. We waited with them and chatted until the train arrived. We said our good byes and they headed off to board the train.

Susan and I then walked back to our neighborhood and since it was nearly 9:00 pm we thought we would try a nearby local ristorante, the Cantina Barbigianni on Via S. Egidio for dinner. (Via Sant’ Egidio 13r, ph. 055.248.0508, www.cantinabarbagianni.it. Open for dinner only, 7-11:30 pm.)

The “cantina” was rather minimalist in décor but made up for that by being “maximalist” in service (thanks Joan). The food was imaginative and the wines well priced with a nice selection by the glass. We enjoyed a superb meal and a couple of glasses of very tasty wine: another prosecco of course with the first course and a Valpolicella with our second course. No dessert or coffee for either us however and after we paid the bill we headed home and to bed. We couldn’t help smiling as we walked down S. Egidio to Via dei Servi and our apartment, commenting upon the fact that it had been a truly wonderful day spent in the company of really nice people.

Twice in one week. Man are we lucky or what.

Wish you were here,

Steve