Day 3: Florence
Sunday morning is warm and partly sunny….we get a late start and head over to the Piazza San Spirito for breakfast. The piazza is full of families hanging out, children running after pigeons, grandparents walking with their grandchildren. We sit in the pleasant tree-lined piazza just watching the passing scene. Our next destination is a coffee store down toward San Frediano that was recommended in one of my guidebooks.
Before we leave, we notice that mass is letting out so we decide to seize the opportunity to visit the church.—even though I haven’t brought the right guidebooks. The church’s very plain front disguises the grand Brunelleschi interior….all cool gray, strictly proportioned architecture and elaborate baldacchino. We walk around the church looking at the pictures and sculptures, aided by the much improved signage that we are finding in churches making it easier to identify the specific works. From my last visit to Santo Spirito, I seem to remember a recently-discovered early Michelangelo wooden crucifix but it is nowhere to be seen in the church. Just before we leave, in a side chapel (where they sell postcards), I find the crucifix…which had been lost for years and only returned to Santo Spirito in the last five years.
We head off toward the coffee store…I had checked its posted hours in a couple of books before we left…but when we arrive, it is closed up tight. On the way back, we stop at a market and buy some butter, coffee, bread and other supplies. We wander through San Frediano and Santo Spirito, taking the route along the river for as long as we are able.
After a short stop at the apartment, we head out for lunch and our afternoon sightseeing. We pass Piazza Santa Croce where there is a big international fair going on, seemingly dominated by German and Austrian food products—bratwurst, potato salad, kraut, breads, etc. We stop to watch a live demonstration of one of those all purpose plastic slicing and dicing tools that used to be shown on late night television in the US. The lady pitching the device is very skillful and also demonstrates a very handy lemon/orange juicing tool. It was all we can do to avoid buying one or two.
We stop in one of the cafes in the crowded piazza—the Enoteca Boccadama—for lunch. We have lots of time to watch the passing parade…..lots of tourists—a surprising number of Japanese---but a good number of Italians also….while we are being ignored by the waitress. We finally get menus and order a light lunch…..”fettunta” (Tuscan style garlic toast), assorted cheeses for Diana and a carpaccio of bresaola (air dried beef) with parmigiano and rucola for me. I had a nice glass of Chianti….. The food was fine but the service left a bad taste.
After lunch we try to find a “gelateria” to get the bad taste from lunch out of our mouths. We must be walking down the only stretch of Florence with no gelateria in every block. We pass a store that caters to Japanese tourists….Japanese staff and packed with customers. We escape the crowds in front of Santa Croce and several blocks down the street, we finally find some gelato—the sign says “home made ice cream.” [NOTE: We are very struck by the number of tourists and the fact that English is often the language of choice in restaurants and stores. Not that our Italian is so good, but we do like to try and speak Italian when we are here. The opportunity for speaking Italian seems less in Florence than anywhere else we have been in Italy.]
The gelato is fine…we sit on the steps of a church eating it and watch yet another tour group of Japanese march by. We then head back toward Santa Croce and decide to take a look at the Santa Croce leather school located in the back of the church. After entering the sales room, we get somewhat disoriented—where is the leather school or is there any more to it than the sales room? The next thing we know, we have purchased tickets to the church and entered the back of Santa Croce.
Santa Croce is a very large church (we overhear a guide say it is the 5th largest in the world)….part of the Franciscan order. St. Francis would have been very surprised at the grandeur and opulence of the church…not exactly the ideals he founded the order on. But it is quite spectacular and somewhat overwhelming. We have some difficulty orienting ourselves and at one point, I say we need to hire a guide to help us make some sense out of the church. But we take a few minutes to review the Santa Croce pages in the Blue Guide and Eve Borsook’s Companion Guide to Florence—both of which have maps and a legend identifying most of the key features—and then we are able to tour the church and “appreciate” what we are seeing. The Borsook book (1966 edition) combines a “road map” with well written and informative essays about the Giotto frescoes, the important tombs, the Pazzi Chapel and some of the other artists, as well as historical background for the church and the Franciscan order in Florence. This is our third visit to Santa Croce and definitely the most satisfying.
When we leave there are still a lot of tourists sitting on the steps of the church, but the international fair seems to be winding down—the paella stand has only a few spoonful of rice left in their huge pans. We decide to walk over to the Hotel Orto de’ Medici (about a twenty minute walk) to see if I can catch one of my clients who is staying there. The route takes us through a more modern (18th century?) commercial district of Florence…some of the streets are pretty gritty…but it gives us a view of another part of the city. We pass the Teatro Pergola…one of the major theaters in Florence. We had seen posters for a Murray Peraiha recital for the night before but had decided not to go. We see that the posters on the theater have “annullato” pasted on them—he has apparently cancelled his European tour due to illness. There will be many other opportunities to hear music in Florence.
We also pass a storefront called “Pastasciutta”….inside are vending machines for soda and water as well as machines that dispense hot meals that are advertised as “fresh, not frozen.” Is this part of the future of Italian food?
And one of the walls we pass is plastered with posters, including this one…
At the hotel, we find that my client is out so we leave a note. We take a taxi (Euro 7.00, about a five minute ride) back to the apartment and spend some time relaxing, reading and writing. It is very nice to have such a spacious, comfortable living room.
We make reservations for dinner at I Quattro Leoni….a well reviewed trattoria on a quiet piazza on the way to Santo Spirito. The place is very attractive and bustling, but one thing surprises us. Perhaps we have been seated in the “foreigners” room, but all the diners are speaking English and all communication with the waitresses is in English….something that we are finding is extremely common in Florence. We enjoy our dinner very much for the most part…..I have gnocchi with a rucola pesto (the gnocchi are light as a feather and the pesto is fresh and vibrant) followed by trippa alla fiorentina—the tripe is tender and the tomato sauce is rich and savory. Diana’s primo is excellent—fiochetti with asparagus and taleggio sauce -but her secondo—a plate of mixed fried meats and vegetables is not successful..the batter is too heavy. We drink a nice Chianti (Remole 2001) which costs Euro 10…in Washington, it retails for about $8.00. Dinner comes to about Euro 50….which seems to be in the lower range of our dinners so far. We have a nice conversation with the American couple next to us…they are from Chicago and come to Italy frequently. On this trip, they have studied Italian with a private tutor for a week and have also been studying art with a private guide who shares their spiritual connection with the art…they said that had spent four hours in the San Marco Museum the day before with the Fra Angelicos.
It is a nice ten minute stroll back to the apartment.
Before we leave, we notice that mass is letting out so we decide to seize the opportunity to visit the church.—even though I haven’t brought the right guidebooks. The church’s very plain front disguises the grand Brunelleschi interior….all cool gray, strictly proportioned architecture and elaborate baldacchino. We walk around the church looking at the pictures and sculptures, aided by the much improved signage that we are finding in churches making it easier to identify the specific works. From my last visit to Santo Spirito, I seem to remember a recently-discovered early Michelangelo wooden crucifix but it is nowhere to be seen in the church. Just before we leave, in a side chapel (where they sell postcards), I find the crucifix…which had been lost for years and only returned to Santo Spirito in the last five years.
We head off toward the coffee store…I had checked its posted hours in a couple of books before we left…but when we arrive, it is closed up tight. On the way back, we stop at a market and buy some butter, coffee, bread and other supplies. We wander through San Frediano and Santo Spirito, taking the route along the river for as long as we are able.
After a short stop at the apartment, we head out for lunch and our afternoon sightseeing. We pass Piazza Santa Croce where there is a big international fair going on, seemingly dominated by German and Austrian food products—bratwurst, potato salad, kraut, breads, etc. We stop to watch a live demonstration of one of those all purpose plastic slicing and dicing tools that used to be shown on late night television in the US. The lady pitching the device is very skillful and also demonstrates a very handy lemon/orange juicing tool. It was all we can do to avoid buying one or two.
We stop in one of the cafes in the crowded piazza—the Enoteca Boccadama—for lunch. We have lots of time to watch the passing parade…..lots of tourists—a surprising number of Japanese---but a good number of Italians also….while we are being ignored by the waitress. We finally get menus and order a light lunch…..”fettunta” (Tuscan style garlic toast), assorted cheeses for Diana and a carpaccio of bresaola (air dried beef) with parmigiano and rucola for me. I had a nice glass of Chianti….. The food was fine but the service left a bad taste.
After lunch we try to find a “gelateria” to get the bad taste from lunch out of our mouths. We must be walking down the only stretch of Florence with no gelateria in every block. We pass a store that caters to Japanese tourists….Japanese staff and packed with customers. We escape the crowds in front of Santa Croce and several blocks down the street, we finally find some gelato—the sign says “home made ice cream.” [NOTE: We are very struck by the number of tourists and the fact that English is often the language of choice in restaurants and stores. Not that our Italian is so good, but we do like to try and speak Italian when we are here. The opportunity for speaking Italian seems less in Florence than anywhere else we have been in Italy.]
The gelato is fine…we sit on the steps of a church eating it and watch yet another tour group of Japanese march by. We then head back toward Santa Croce and decide to take a look at the Santa Croce leather school located in the back of the church. After entering the sales room, we get somewhat disoriented—where is the leather school or is there any more to it than the sales room? The next thing we know, we have purchased tickets to the church and entered the back of Santa Croce.
Santa Croce is a very large church (we overhear a guide say it is the 5th largest in the world)….part of the Franciscan order. St. Francis would have been very surprised at the grandeur and opulence of the church…not exactly the ideals he founded the order on. But it is quite spectacular and somewhat overwhelming. We have some difficulty orienting ourselves and at one point, I say we need to hire a guide to help us make some sense out of the church. But we take a few minutes to review the Santa Croce pages in the Blue Guide and Eve Borsook’s Companion Guide to Florence—both of which have maps and a legend identifying most of the key features—and then we are able to tour the church and “appreciate” what we are seeing. The Borsook book (1966 edition) combines a “road map” with well written and informative essays about the Giotto frescoes, the important tombs, the Pazzi Chapel and some of the other artists, as well as historical background for the church and the Franciscan order in Florence. This is our third visit to Santa Croce and definitely the most satisfying.
When we leave there are still a lot of tourists sitting on the steps of the church, but the international fair seems to be winding down—the paella stand has only a few spoonful of rice left in their huge pans. We decide to walk over to the Hotel Orto de’ Medici (about a twenty minute walk) to see if I can catch one of my clients who is staying there. The route takes us through a more modern (18th century?) commercial district of Florence…some of the streets are pretty gritty…but it gives us a view of another part of the city. We pass the Teatro Pergola…one of the major theaters in Florence. We had seen posters for a Murray Peraiha recital for the night before but had decided not to go. We see that the posters on the theater have “annullato” pasted on them—he has apparently cancelled his European tour due to illness. There will be many other opportunities to hear music in Florence.
We also pass a storefront called “Pastasciutta”….inside are vending machines for soda and water as well as machines that dispense hot meals that are advertised as “fresh, not frozen.” Is this part of the future of Italian food?
And one of the walls we pass is plastered with posters, including this one…

At the hotel, we find that my client is out so we leave a note. We take a taxi (Euro 7.00, about a five minute ride) back to the apartment and spend some time relaxing, reading and writing. It is very nice to have such a spacious, comfortable living room.
We make reservations for dinner at I Quattro Leoni….a well reviewed trattoria on a quiet piazza on the way to Santo Spirito. The place is very attractive and bustling, but one thing surprises us. Perhaps we have been seated in the “foreigners” room, but all the diners are speaking English and all communication with the waitresses is in English….something that we are finding is extremely common in Florence. We enjoy our dinner very much for the most part…..I have gnocchi with a rucola pesto (the gnocchi are light as a feather and the pesto is fresh and vibrant) followed by trippa alla fiorentina—the tripe is tender and the tomato sauce is rich and savory. Diana’s primo is excellent—fiochetti with asparagus and taleggio sauce -but her secondo—a plate of mixed fried meats and vegetables is not successful..the batter is too heavy. We drink a nice Chianti (Remole 2001) which costs Euro 10…in Washington, it retails for about $8.00. Dinner comes to about Euro 50….which seems to be in the lower range of our dinners so far. We have a nice conversation with the American couple next to us…they are from Chicago and come to Italy frequently. On this trip, they have studied Italian with a private tutor for a week and have also been studying art with a private guide who shares their spiritual connection with the art…they said that had spent four hours in the San Marco Museum the day before with the Fra Angelicos.
It is a nice ten minute stroll back to the apartment.
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