For the past couple of days, I've been curious about the group of white tents on Piazza Repubblica. When I finally walked up close, I realize it was a cup tasting event for espresso! Well of course I gotta try it, especially since it's FREE! Fast forward to the next morning, I'm dragging myself reluctantly out of bed with two big dark circles under my eyes. I'd forgotten about my "no coffee after 2pm" rule...
Since I acted like a tourist yesterday and had breakfast in the hotel, I decided to do things as the locals do today: have breakfast at the bar. The first place I saw after I left the hotel was
Cafe Gilli, a palatial-looking cafe with endless display cases of mouth-watering pastries. This looks like a good choice, I said to myself. Indeed it was. I ordered a cappuccino and croissant, the coffee was rich and creamy and the croissant passed my standards. Best thing of all? It only costs 2.5 euros! You can't even get a coffee at Starbucks for that price! No wonder I don't see any here in Italy.
The main event of this morning is the Accademia. I made the advanced booking via the same number used for the Uffizi. It really is a convenient system. I got there a little before 10am, and the ticket line was about a block long. The advanced ticket window, however, had nobody waiting. Score! I was a little miffed when I found out that the map wasn't free....being the cheapskate I was, I didn't get one. After walking through the gallery, I'm glad I didn't, because it's really quite small...
Since this gallery doesn't allow photography either, you'll just have to imagine what it feels like to stare upwards at a white, naked Renaissance man. Other than the famous David sculpture, the gallery also housed a few unfinished works of Michaelangelo, lots of sculptures from students of the nearby sculpture school, some very old artworks from Italian churches and a small musical instrument collection of the Medici family.
I have to admit: I wasn't impressed. Maybe because I don't know enough about art history to appreciate these pieces. But I feel more at home enjoying these artworks in their natural habitat: the church, even though the lighting may be imperfect and preservation conditions less than ideal. Here, they just felt cold and meaningless, just another piece of pretty art.
Having said that, I WAS impressed with the Michaelangelo pieces. According to my Rick Steves audio guide, Michaelangelo actually planned David's proportions based on its intend location (the spot before Palazzo Vecchio). Since people will be viewing the piece from street level, he deliberately made David's head slightly larger so it'd appear normal from street angle. Such precision! Also, if you look at the unfinished pieces, you'll notice he works freehand, unlike most other sculptors who typically made some sort of markings and initial plannings in the stone. This guy has god-like spatial-visual skills!
Anyhow, my excitement was at a high point when I left the Accademia (sorry Dave...), because my next destination is what my heart truly desires: the central market. I actually walked by this yesterday evening. Outside the market are seemingly endless stalls of leather goods, all of which seem to be selling similar things. The market was closed then, although strangely a guard kept on letting people onto the escalator to the 2nd floor. I didn't investigate yesterday but I'm ready to check it out now!
I guess they get a good number of Asians here, coz many stalls actually had Mandarin and Japanese signs. The lady from whom I bought copious amounts of porcini mushroom was also Japanese.
Black truffles! I don't really like them but still had to point them out...
This is a fruit commonly seen in Taiwan -- soft, juicy and sweet. I had no idea Italians harvested them too.
Dying for some strawberries and these looked awesome. But I knew they wouldn't last in the heat so I talked myself out of buying (and still kicking myself now).
This thing made me wish I had 4 stomachs like a cow so I can eat multiple lunches...I go ga-ga for porchetta back in the US.
Even their artichokes look prettier. They're purple!
Why on why do I only have 1 stomach!
This is why I had to pass all those other stalls of food. Nerbone, the god of cow stomach sandwich. This place was hailed as a must-try, and had lots of Japanese notes posted on its walls. The two ladies who sat next to me were reading a Japanese guidebook too. Who knew the Japanese liked offal meat?
There was a small line when I arrived, but it got to me soon enough. Too soon, actually, because I was still trying to decipher the hand-written menu. In my panic, I randomly spurted out a word I thought I'd seen before: lampredotto.
Well it turned out to be cow stomach stewed in tomato sauce with grated parmesan cheese. No sandwich. It was nice and tender, but I have to admit I'm not used to eating so much offal meat in one sitting so it got a little weird towards the end.
After Nerbone, I decided to head upstairs to see what other surprises the market held for me. This made me regret Nerbone...the 2nd floor was full of restaurants: mozzarella bar, lots of prosciuttos hanging from the ceiling, pizza, pasta etc. There's even a tiny corner occupied by Eataly! I really shoulda done better research...
It took me a while to wiki Pinocchio and Florence. Turns out the author of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi, was from Florence. Duh!
This little stall was outside the market. The very Taiwanese artwork made me smile. Unfortunately I was too full to try it.
After trying a good number of products at the Japanese lady's stall, I ended up with a big bag of goodies. I took it back to the hotel and rested my feet a bit before heading out to the duomo. In addition to the church, which is free, there were quite a few other attractions on the square, including the baptistery, bell tower, duomo dome, and museum. All of these are covered by a single 10 euro ticket (pretty good deal I think), which is valid for 6 days after purchase. However, once you enter one of these attractions, you have 24 hours left to visit the rest before the ticket expires.
Having visited the duomo 3 times, I'd say the best time for the duomo dome is in the afternoon, because that's when there's no line. The bell tower wasn't very crowded around that time either. But keep in mind both of them are 400+ steps to the top with few resting points in between, so think hard whether you can tackle both on the same day. I couldn't. Both the baptistery and museum were not crowded at all times. The museum actually only had two items on exhibit, everything else was closed for renovation, so it wasn't a huge attraction to me.
The baptistery was small, and only the ceiling and floor were standouts.
I went back to the duomo to access the underground excavation area. See what I meant about no crowd after 4pm?
Turns out the duomo was built on top of another very old church. This seems to be a recurring theme of many attractions in Europe.
Stairs leading to the bell tower.
Which offers up close view of the duomo dome
I can see my hotel from here!
Here's my iconic shot of Florence. Love the red roofs!
It would be quite inhumane if I didn't treat myself after the bell tower climb. So off to the artisan gelato place -- Edoardo, across from the duomo. I got zabaglione and limone, boring colors, but the flavors were amazing. The gelato was silky smooth, and the limone version even had tiny pieces of lemon zest. I liked this better than Grom.
After the gelato stop, I walked down to the Piazza Signoria area to check out the little shops. Of course there's one for Pinocchio.
Could someone please tell me what this sign means?
This is the tiny storefront of a violin maker. Don't see a lot of these in the US. Very cool!
Dinner tonight is at the
Cipolla Rossa Osteria, on the recommendation from Chowhound. Got a glass of Chianti with my chicken liver pate on bruschetta. It tasted ok, but because it was served warm, it also tasted more gamey than I'm used to...
The pasta was what almost made me walk out. Why is it swimming in copious amounts of sauce?! I thought only non-authetic American-Italian restaurants do this? Or is this a given for the English menu? It was disastrous, the cream sauce cloyingly rich and thick. A terrible disappointment.
So disappointed I refused to walk back to the hotel. Walking around randomly, of course I got lost again. Thank god for that 2GB data plan I got with my SIM card...
Pretty sights and some live music soothed my dinner disappointment somewhat. Tomorrow, I'd better get something good tomorrow...
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