The vacation rental manager, Mine, had asked us to meet her right across the train station. I had a map all drawn out of how to get to the rental, based on the address she had given me, so I was a bit confused on why she asked me to meet her across the train station (via Della Scala 57). Angel and I went, while our parents stayed at the train station (no sense lugging all our luggage across, right?). It turns out that the rental we had agreed upon had no running hot water! So we scored a rental right across the station! Sweet! …Until she unlocked the security door and we realized there was no elevator… to get to the 4TH FLOOR of the building (which is actually the 5TH FLOOR by US standards, as Europeans don’t count the ground floor as the 1st… we counted 84 steps going up)! Angel and I almost fainted!
We climbed up the stairs and she unlocked the apartment, which I have to admit, is a really posh apartment by Italian standards. Flat screen TV, modern furniture, 3 really posh bathrooms, beds enough to sleep 8 people with room to spare, kitchen fully equipped… basically is a penthouse on the top floor of the building (now if only there was an elevator…). One of the bedrooms (the one Angel chose) has a spiral staircase leading up to it, which Mom and Angel love! Angel went to get our parents, and Mine called someone to help lug our luggage up all those stairs. I felt so sorry for the poor guy! He’s a pretty cheerful fellow, Filipino, who also happened to be the cleaner for our apartment. He hoisted one luggage up all the stairs and he looked ready to faint too… with 3 more to go!
The apartment was not yet fully cleaned when we arrived (we arrived 2 hours before check-in time, but Mine let us in anyway), so we sat waiting for the guy to clean. He whistled while he worked! It was kinda funny and hysterical at the same time… just cuz the whole day was full of problems already. When he was finished, we found out… mosquitoes had invaded the apartment! And then, the power failed! For the longest time we couldn’t figure out how to jump-start the electricity again, so we went down 5 flights of stairs to use the internet café next door to call Mine, and went up 5 flights of stairs to wait for help to arrive (which ended up being the Filipino guy). Angel finally figured it out herself and so we decided to get going on exploring Florence.
Mercato Centrale is one of the major markets in Florence, but Angel and I were expecting a Campo de Fiori-type market… doable in 5 minutes and overpriced. Boy, were we mistaken! It is a huge labyrinth of a market, with all these small streets and merchants squeezed next to each other, selling clothes (those “famed” Italian leather jackets), scarves, fake designer purses, luggage… as long as it’s not food, they sell it! It reminded us a lot of Taiwan’s Wu Fen Pu. We bought really pretty scarves there, for 1-2 euros apiece.
During our wandering, we came across a restaurant, Lorenzo de’ Medici, which had reasonable prix-fixe menu prices and a cute outdoor seating area. As it was raining pretty steadily, we opted for inside seating, which didn’t look as promising outside, but once you went inside, looked drop-dead Tuscan-style gorgeous. The décor and colors were very Tuscany, with wine bottles taking up a wall. There were actually many people already seated and eating, although it was pretty early by Italian standards to eat (no self-respecting Italian eats dinner before 8pm, I’m told). I ordered the 12.5 euro prix-fixe, first course consisting of a delicious tortellini with prosciutto and cream sauce,
2nd course scappollini with spinach (the spinach was divine! I think they cooked it in some kind of broth!),
and their own house-made red wine.
I gotta say~ they really know their wines. Tasting them back home, I’ve tasted many Italian wines that were bland, tannic and dusty. But here, they’re very drinkable~ no tannins, flavorful but not quite fruity like Napa wines are, and just… c’est la. Enjoyable.
Angel ordered ravioli with truffle cream sauce. We agreed that we have never tasted a truffle cream sauce that intensely flavored before, at a restaurant! I think we devoured that pasta within a minute of the waitress putting it down in front of Angel!
Dad had pizza and cappuccino:
And Mom ordered calzone (not quite the Americanized calzone… their dough doubles as the pizza crust dough, and is a lot smaller and flatter, with not as much stuffing as the American version):
The night of May 15th, 2010 is called “The Night of the Museums” across many countries in Europe. We got lucky, as I didn’t know this when I was planning the trip, but many EU countries are opening their doors and offering free access to their famous museums from 7pm to 1am. In France, the Louvre is free. In Florence, five of their museums are free, of which we picked the two most famous to go to, as the museums were on my must-visit list anyway. We went to the Galleria del Accadamia first, because it houses the Statue of David by Michelangelo. We got to the museum around 6:30pm and there was a huge line outside!
They don’t allow photography inside ;( so here’s the best I could do without the Statue of David:
The Galleria looks dinky on the outside and I thought we’d see the Statue of David real fast, then leave for the Uffizi Palace. I was wrong! It took a good hour to see everything (and I was rushing!), but David is truly spectacular and the focal point of this museum. He is so life-like, with veins carved so finely they look like they’re pumping blood! The muscles are also very real-looking… if you’re an Abercrombie model! Michelangelo is most definitely the master of sculpting. To imagine, the block of marble David is carved from, was a mediocre piece that was to be trashed because of its inferior quality. Not so inferior anymore! Over the years, David has survived a lightening bolt, hammer to his toes and arms torn out from a revolt in the 1500s that had the Medici family kicked out of Florence. A boy picked up the pieces of the arm and a couple decades later, sent the pieces in so that the statue could be restored. Originally set in the Piazza Signoria, the statue was moved to the Accadamia and a copy of the statute now stands in the Piazza, as well as a bronze statue in Piazza Michelangelo.
The Uffizi Palace is a must-see, although the line to get in was more than twice as long as the Accadamia :T The Palace was owned by the Medicis, and houses just a portion of their vast collection of artwork. It contains Raphael, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Joos von Cleef, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Filippo, and many others. It took Dad and me several hours to go through the immense palace (again, doesn’t look all the big from the outside!). The most recognizable piece is Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Joos von Cleef painted many a noble in his days and his style as a portraitist was much sought after… although his portraits all remind me of the prince in Shrek I! I wonder if that’s where they got the inspiration from… Raphael’s work surprised me, as I thought his lines would be more flowing and his colors more vibrant and luxurious. Instead, his portraits are stark and grim, with dark colors and stoic expressions of his noble subjects. I guess that was the fashion then? He is known for his very realistic, life-like portraits, but if that’s the case, then his subjects are just very ugly people…?
By the time Dad and I walked back to our apartment, it was raining and freezing. We got in, only for Mom to inform us (Mom and Angel opted out of the Uffizi) that there was no running hot water! We had to shower with freezing cold water!
Florence has almost restored our faith in Italy as a country, but keep in mind that all the Italian states were entirely different countries until unification in the 1800s.
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