Return to Firenze!

A long time ago, Kathy went to Italy with her cousin Paddy.  They were “chaperoned” by a priest who shall remain nameless and, as it turned out, the priest’s girlfriend.  Needless to say, it was a bizarre trip–lots of alcohol-fueled revelations and drama.  I’ll spare you the whole sad tale, but Florence was one of our stops. Though we attempted to see David, there was a huge line outside the museum, and when a large group of German tourists shoved their way in front of us, we got discouraged and abandoned the effort. It always nagged at me (I had read The Agony and the Ecstasy as part of my trip prep), so when Mike and I found ourselves wandering through Tuscany, I lobbied for a stop in Florence.  Mike was easily convinced.

After a short trip from Venice, we got off the train and tromped through the underground mall in search of an exit.  I spied a pair of motorcycle boots I liked–too expensive, bien sur.  Hmm, file those away for future reference…

Once we were outside and oriented, we walked to our hotel, the budget-friendly Hotel Savonarola. Nothing fancy, but clean, central, free WiFi and breakfast–it ticked all the boxes. It was still quite early in the day, so we dumped our bags and hit the streets.

We stopped at a little sandwich joint for lunch and the owner made nice with Mike–friendly folks around these parts!

After lunch we continued on toward the Galleria dell’Accademia.

And before I knew it, there he was…

So happy I finally got to see him!

The rest of the museum was okay, but David is clearly the star.  The painting below made us both laugh because the write-up discusses the legendary beauty of this woman.  It must be an inside joke because her eyes and nipples are equally askew. Or maybe it’s the strange symmetry that makes her beautiful?

The Duomo was crazy busy, so we contented ourselves with admiring the outside.  No shortage of Duomos around here, we’ll catch the next one.

The Christmas decorations were impressive, and the streets were packed! No off-season in Florence.

We walked across the river and had a drink.  Mike was keen to stay at the bar for dinner–they were offering apericena, a cheap buffet–but I held out for real food.  I did not regret my stubborness. We skipped TripAdvisor and just searched the streets for a place that looked tasty.  Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco (The White Boar) kindly squeezed us in, and man, it was good! I had the strozzapreti a burro (spinach and ricotta dumplings in a delicate butter sauce).  Very simple, but sooo tasty.  I’m going to have to work on my Italian cooking skills when I get back to life with a proper kitchen.

The next day we started our tourist activities with a visit to the Mosaic Museum.  This was an unexpected treat.  I’ve seen mosaic tables and stuff, but this was a whole other level.  The paintings that were done as a template for the mosaics were almost indistinguishable from the mosaics themselves.  Crazy stuff.

After that we walked across the river

and climbed the stairs

to the Piazzale Michelangelo, one of the best views in Florence.

There is a copy of David there, bien sur, er, certo.

On the way back down we spied multiple graffiti examples of the artist Blub, Italy’s Banksy, I gather.  He recreates classics with the addition of snorkel masks.

We continued on and grabbed a drink while we planned our evening.

We were both interested in trying a movie, anything to erase Justice League from our minds.

Our research uncovered a lovely repertory theatre, the Odeon Firenze.  They play movies in their original language, and that night’s offering was The Mountain Between Us.  Well. Given our stated objective of replacing Justice League in our recent movie memory, it succeeded in spades, because… this is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  It is a Hallmark movie with A-listers.  It is the most unbelievable piece of merda to hit the big screen.  Now, you might think that the amazing acting of Kate Winslet and Idris Elba would elevate this dreck.  You would be wrong.  So very wrong.  Where did they lose me?  Let me count the ways:  maybe it was in the very beginning when they charter a plane together because the HAVE to get back to New York: she is getting married the next day and he has brain surgery to perform.  Or maybe it was was when Beau Bridges had a stroke during the flight causing them to crash in the Rockies.  Beau doesn’t make it, but Kate, Idris, and Beau’s adorable golden retriever all survive handily.  Maybe it was when Kate bullied Idris into going to look for help in the middle of the freaking mountains during which he almost slid off a precipice and she almost got eaten by a mountain lion back at the plane.  Maybe it was when she bullied him again into abandoning the plane, only to fall into a frozen lake, get dragged out and into a conveniently located cabin, fall into a coma, and then once recovered have sex!!! Now that I’ve spent half of this blog post railing about this movie, you can probably tell that Mike and I hated this movie so much that we are happy we saw it, because we got hours and hours of entertainment dissecting how ludicrous it was!

After the movie we spied this adorable single person SMART car,

and I tried to recreate a photo that Paddy took of me in front of the Duomo, except that I am 27 years older and the weather is much much colder.

We wrapped up the evening with some tasty Asian food at FirenZEN Noodle Bar.  There was lots more discussion of how STUPID that freaking movie was!!!!!

Next stop, Siena. Oh, and I went back and bought those motorcycle boots!  Happy wife, happy life, eh?