florence

the last time we stayed here, we were in the newly renovated stables. this time we are staying in another newly renovated building. i went for a run and went up to the old stables. it’s so beautiful here. i got back and p had gone to the small nearby village to get some breakfast for us.

we had pastries and coffee sitting on our little patio, looking at the olive trees and the distant town on the hill. we hung out for a long time and eventually decided it was time to go into florence. it took us 45 mins and we parked in the train station garage – these are all things we remembered from our last stay here. we grabbed some lunch at a place on a smaller road behind the station. it was ok. not great, but we were very hungry. then we wandered down along the river to the ponte vecchio – the old covered bridge – covered with high end jewelry stores. then over to the uffizi gallery which was closed (monday) and into the palazzo vecchio. they had an exhibit of damien hirsch and i thought it would be interesting. it turned out to be just this one piece that he had spent 18 months working on – except that he had jewelers actually doing it. it was a human skull totally covered with real diamonds. it looked like sequins. we had to buy special tickets. there was no line, but they made us wait. when we walked through the door, it was a very small dark room with just this diamond covered skull sitting under a glass cover, lit brightly. 2 security guards stood by the exit. and then we left. we realized that they only let one group in at a time. it was a bit absurd – but that’s the low-art artist in me talking. tshirts of the skull cost 48 euros. i guess he has to pay for those diamonds somehow... we walked through the rest of the palace – incredibly ornate, walls and ceilings covered in renaissance paintings/frescoes. very beautiful, but we sped through it. afterwards, we made our way in search of the famous gelato store. i remembered it was near the church st croce – and we found it, but it was closed on mondays too. so we went and found another gelato stand instead. we wandered over to the duomo and walked around it and the baptistry. we were too late to go in. i led us on a search for some previously favorite florence shopping spots. then it was time to look for another old favorite. as we were preparing to come to italy, i could visualize the restaurant where we had had the bowtie pasta with fresh peas. it was so delicious, that, over the years, we have tried to replicate it over and over, without success. i suddenly could see the place and remembered that the name started with “coco” something. with the miracle of the internet, p picked up his ipad and typed in a couple of things and voila! he found the name of the restaurant. so we made our way over to “coco lezzone”. i had failed to write down the exact address, but p remembered from the google, that it was in a certain neighborhood near the river. there, we asked a few people, some of whom did not speak english, but understood my bad italian and knew the name of the restaurant. (it is amazing that we can figure out what people are saying, not knowing italian). we found the restaurant and it was just as we remembered. the first dining area looked sort of like a bathroom with its white and yellow tile. we were seated in the interior dining room. amazingly, the bowtie pasta with peas was on the menu! farfalle a la pissole. we all ordered a plate. p also ordered soup – he couldn’t decide between 2 different soups so the man said he could have half half. the soup was so thick, that it came in its bowl half/half and didn’t mix. one was tomato bread soup and the other ribolito – meaning re-boiled soup – made of cabbage and vegetables. i was glad he ordered it because i had wanted to try ribolito. it wasn’t my favorite, but the tomato bread soup was great. meanwhile, the farfalle with peas was amazing. i will try again to make it. i think i needed many more peas and some are pureed and act as a sauce. jj ordered roast chicken that we shared. i had an order of beans which the florentines are famous for –even being called the “bean eaters”. these were pretty expensive beans, being that a plate of them cost the same as the pasta. later when we calculated the exchange rate, we realized that this is NOT as cheap as we thought. each small pasta plate and bean plate cost 12Euros which is equivalent to $18. anyway, the waiter then asked if we wanted dessert, but jj was so enamored of the farfalle (which has always been her favorite pasta shape) that she ordered another plate of it instead of dessert. i think she is growing. the best was the response of the waiter, who said “mama mia!” or something like that. the only thing we didn’t like was that at the end, when the waiter gave us the bill, he told us that the service charge was not included, so we dutifully left a percentage tip. typically in france and italy, it is included and we realized later, that he just told us that because we were not italian. he would never tell an italian that, because it was a normal menu. maybe we were being too typically american by not ordering 3 or 4 dishes each, and he felt he had to subsidize things, even though the total wasn’t cheap.

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