Mercato Centrale is a large indoor market arena with many specialty food stalls, selling raw meat, fruit and vegetables, vinegar, olive oil, and many other items.
Truffles baby!!!!
We found this awesome store inside the market that sells wine and specialty items. I thought it would be totally touristy but the prices were dirt cheap! I bought a 750 ml red wine for 1.65 euros, Vin Santo for 5 euros, and a sparkling red frizzante for 2.2 euros. The lady was really nice and let us try three different Vin Santos, along with biscotti and baba rhum cake. She said to dip the biscotti in the Vin Santo, which is a classic Tuscan dessert. I’ve hated biscotti since I was little, but damn this was really good! And the three of us (Mom, Angel and I) all agreed that the bottle we bought was the best, and surprisingly, the cheapest of the lot. The biscotti isn’t what I thought traditional biscotti would be… dry, crunchy, hard as rock and tasteless. Instead, it is crusty outside but moist inside, and tastes like a pineapple crust (buo luo) with a stronger butter flavor. And paired with Vin Santo… heaven!
San Lorenzo Basilica:
Palazzo Medici Riccardi:
Palazzo Strozzo (these Palazzos are starting to look very much alike!)
The walls of the Palazzo are like a fortress! The stones are gigantic!
Lunch was yet again wandering around and stopping by different sandwich shops. We found that the shops near Casa di Dante (Dante Alighieri’s house) have cheap, large portions that are very flavorful.
We love the spinach & ricotta quiche:
This gelato shop looks like a funhouse:
We want to try making the dark chocolate gelato when we get home. It reminds us so much of a thick, dense dark chocolate ganache… it’s not really even gelato!
They have horse-drawn carriages trotting around all over the city, and they travel in the same lane as cars and pedestrians (because many streets have really narrow sidewalks, so pedestrians all walk on the street until they get honked at):
I was surprised that Dante Alighieri’s house is as well preserved as it is. The guy lived 1000 years ago! And I’m surprised they even know which house is his! There is a church next to his house and supposedly, this is the church where Dante met his beloved Beatrice, although he was already married to a wealthy and influential man’s daughter, Gemma. He incorporated Beatrice in The Divine Comedy, as the lady who leads him through the Inferno, then Purgatory and ultimately, Paradise. Beatrice has been the subject of many a famous artist’s work, featured in Botticelli, Michelangelo, to name a few.
Jennifer wrote her high school senior English AP thesis on Dante’s The Divine Comedy, but yet could not recollect a single detail to give the visit some more background for the rest of us. Useless. I think she copied her thesis from the Internet….obviously did not read it. I did not have Internet in high school, unlike some spoiled brats. We had to write everything out by HAND. Yup, including things COPIED from the encyclopedia. I didn’t know how to use an encyclopedia, dork.
Casa di Dante and Santa Croce Basilica were the two main attractions I wanted to hit today… but right when we turned the corner into the Santa Croce Piazza, we saw a very disturbing sight:
The crazy lady (her husband was shooting pictures of her the whole time!) was feeding not one, but dozens of pigeons!!!! One was on her hand! EWWWW! THIS is how the plague gets spread.
Santa Croce church is where all the figureheads of Florence are buried. This includes Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Florence Nightingale. The admission is 5 euros per person, so Dad, Angel and I went in while Mom shopped. Here are a few of the tombs~
Galileo:
The church explained this tomb as the “precursor” to the Statue of Liberty that France gave America… hmmm….
Michelangelo:
Machiavelli:
Dante’s tomb was being refurbished (they should really tell you that BEFORE you buy the tickets to go in!), so this is what it would have looked like:
Behind the church, there is a courtyard, another chapel and a museum of religious paintings. Dad really liked this painting:
After we exited (it was closing time already??? Time went by so fast today!), we saw an advertisement… for a gelato festival! But we won’t be here! ;(
It’s ok, we made up for that with Gianduja and Nocciola cakes, 2.5 euros each at Nencioni Pasticceria:
They were soooo yummy that our parents even liked them! Mom usually doesn’t eat sweets pertaining to chocolate and Dad avoids them too, but I think it’s cuz the cakes are soaked in liquor ~__^
Angel was our designated chef tonight ^.^ So we stopped by the supermarket for groceries. Angel found star-shaped ravioli!
She made ravioli with prosciutto inside, with a truffle cream sauce:
We paired the pasta with ciabatta and prosciutto,
plus the red wine we bought at the market today (Vino da Tavola Rosso Ripalta for 1.65 euros!). Wow, the red wine was excellent! We drank the whole bottle, with even Angel enjoying a couple of cups ^.^
Dessert was the biscotti we bought today, spread generously with Nutella. Tip: fridge the Nutella first. The flavor is more intense and the texture is a lot creamier that way!
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