First Full Day in Florence

Sorry for the lack of posting. No Wifi. Also, there is no spell check and I'm may need to do some fact checking later on about what I wrote below because I'm in a rush to post something for everyone. We are in Rome and will go to Vatican city today (June 5, 2008), but I am back posting about Florence from last week. I didn't think would fall this far behind!

On our first full day in Florence Cary woke up and went down stairs for the breakfast the Lucchesi hotel provided. For a hotel breakfast, it was pretty damn good. I never took pictures, sadly because I was always tired during the breakfast hours, and there were too many people around, and I get embarrassed when people stare at me while taking pictures of my food. The eggs were scrambled, buttery, and decadent, and there were delicious sausages too. The usual white bread, jams, Nutella, pastry and fruits were available as well as champagne and fruit juices. I didn’t go down to breakfast initially because I wanted to sleep in, but Cary would have dragged me down had I missed it.

We wandered over to the area of the Palazzo Vechio and Galleria degli Uffizi.
Here’s me in the corridor near the Uffizi.

There are a lot of people selling trinkets and art. I saw this dog that looked like a giant Foxy Brown and had to take a picture for Shashar.
There are marble statues all along the corridor/piazza of notable Italians. Most are just standing with benign expressions and posses. The one of Machiavelli stood out because of his sinister pose and facial expression. Check it out.
Because of the large crowd in line for the Uffizi and in the Piazza, we wandered into the Georgofili building. Turns out that May 27 was the 15th anniversary of when the mafia used a car bomb to blow it up in protest of the imprisonment of a comrade (or so I heard from locals). There was an artist’s renditions of the incident and the firemen that saved people and pulled bodies out and the victims. It was an old historic structure that needed to be renovated after the blast. Lots of windows in the Uffizi and general area got blown out. After about 20 minutes in there we realized that it was the exact day of the 15th anniversary and that we were the ONLY ones in there (it was a library), and I got creeped out and we left.

The Palazzo Vechio is pretty cool. Even with the thousands of people (no joke, thousands) crowding the piazza, you can imagine people gathering in the same space hundreds of years ago and imagine the process of building the structures and statues, and you can’t help but be appreciative that it stills stands.

Here's a shot from the inside looking out. You can see Perseus holding Medusa's head which he has just cut off so that he can kill the Kraken which will soon be released by Poseiden upon Thetis' orders because Queen Cassiopeia said her daughter Andromeda was as pretty as Thetis. Oh no she didn't. You can also see a smaller replica of David on the right side of the picture.
Here’s Cary and I after lunch in front of the Loggia.
That night we went to Garga for dinner, which Mario had recommended. It felt like a "find", something off the beaten path down a darkish alley. But once inside, it seemed that a lot of people were American, or not Italian. It didn't matter, because it was good.I had the tagliatelle with ragu sauce. Fresh made pasta, so good. This was my favorite pasta in Florence. The flat ribbons that are made fresh are good enough to eat with just olive oil. But the ragu was amazing with it. Cary had the spaghetti with calamari and a citrus sauce. So good. We walked home along the Arno River and looked everywhere for Capacacio, a bar that we had heard about. We couldn’t find it, but found Noir, which turns out was Capacacio before it was closed down and renamed. Really cool bar, not crowded but with a few people, couldn't tell what the ratio of tourists to Italians was. There was a side room that was totally empty, so we took advantage and took some pictures. We walked home tipsy. Its nice to walk after a big heavy dinner and a few drinks.

Going from Venice to Florence, we noticed the striking difference. People, energy, lifestyle, food, architecture, fewer tourists, younger tourists.

We're off to see the Pope. Ciao!