Florence, day 3

I really wanted to ride in the morning, but my hopes were dashed by heavy rain, as forecasted.  As the day unfolded, we would see bright summer sunshine, thunderstorms and clouds.  Crazy weather, in short.

We started by heading back to the Boboli gardens *again* in the rain.  We stopped along the way at a map store and bought a beautiful engraving of a lamprey and an unusual but stunning map of Bilbao.  We even did the bargaining in French!   I really love the pedestrian areas that are slightly away from the major sites.  There are so many art supply stores in Florence -- you really get a sense that it is still very much dominated by fine art.  In other words, fine art has not been relegated to the History of the city.

After a lot of kid carrying, who were by now even more tired than before, we arrived at the Pitti palace/Boboli gardens to find… another line!  Yay.  By the time we got our tickets, the rain had stopped.  It was a very, very dirty rain apparently and I noticed brown spots all over the hoods of the kids' jackets where it had dried out.

The Boboli gardens were impressive.

Then it was back to Vini e Vecchi Sapori, where more incredible food was consumed.  One big difference was that he offered us the zucchini saffron pasta which was not on the menu!  We also had an arugula salad with parmesan and raw artichoke.  Having never had raw artichoke before, I did not know what to expect, but it has a delightful snap and flavor.  I'll definitely be trying to re-create that one

There was also more caprese salad

More risotto, this time with truffle oil

The Most Perfect Pasta Ever, i.e. saffron and zucchini flower pasta

potato and butter ravioli with sage

Tiramisu before

and after

and a little wine of course.  By this time it was a beautiful sunny day outside and I was lightheaded from all the food (and possibly the wine), but it felt like I was in a movie.  The young manager (I think his name is Thomasso) was singing along to Imagine as he ran back and forth between the tables, the sunlight was streaming in, the kids were … not as loud as usual.  It felt pretty good.

Next, the long walk back to the hotel with kids on shoulders, then packing of the car, then seven and a half hours of driving to get home.  Some of the Rube Golberg autoroute had caught fire, so we had to reroute.  We got in around 10 PM after leaving before three.  When Zoe saw our exit she started chanting "We love Ben-to, and not the car!  We love Ben-to and not the car!".   Indeed.

Florence, day two

A new day, rife with possibilities for us to get fat!  But first, I went for an early morning ride.  I left at 6:30 and rode around the hills just west of the city.  The previous evening I did a little recon to avoid getting totally lost (and did in fact get a bit lost) and it all went pretty well.  The cobbles beat the hell out of me, but it felt glorious anyway bumping along the ancient streets on my bike.

I don't know why, but there is something magical about riding in Italy.  I think it has something to do with how passionate the Italians are about the sport and the bicycle.  As I was turning the cranks up a steep section of climbing through olive groves and huge sprawling villas, it brought back memories of evening rides through wheat fields in the Loire valley.  It was a lovely way to start the day

After having an excellent breakfast we walked to the Duomo where we were confronted with the first of several mega lines.  Even without kids, once lines get to a certain length I just give up.  Note to self:  April is too late to visit Florence!  Next time we will go back in winter again.

We continued on toward the Old Bridge:

Chloe wanted to buy me some big braided gold chains, but I demurred.  Instead, I wanted some of those David boxer shorts but Chloe mouthed the word "Noooooo".

Next: to Boboli gardens, which were unfortunately closed.  Chloe and I, having carried the kids a lot of the way there were nearly in tears.  At least we got this picture

Chloe and I noticed how easy it would be to climb up the walls, but I resisted the temptation in favor of not spending the night in jail again (just kidding mom!)

And then went to get espressos and gelato

By the time we were done, it was lunch time.  We found a small place with a river view which was fine.  I don't even remember the name

We then wandered around the pedestrian area 

until we got to the Duomo museum

which was pretty nice.  It was interesting to see all the models for proposed façades for the Duomo.

We went into the Duomo itself, the basement mini museum and the Baptistry.  I love the gruesome depiction of the devil tearing up and eating little bad dudes.

By this time, the kids were almost dead, so we went back to the room to prepare for the main event:  dinner at Vini e Vecchi Sapori.  

It's always a good sign when the salad mis-en-place looks like this

We started with local ham (hand cut a few seconds earlier by the grandpa) with mozzarella

And then we continued through a dizzying array of food so amazing that I forgot to take pictures of a lot of it.  There were hand made ravioli with potato, butter and sage.  A caprese salad, an absolutely unbelievable frittata with artichoke hearts, and finally a superlative asparagus risotto.  

The risotto itself was of course perfectly cooked -- no mushiness and a slight hardness in the center.  The small tender slivers of asparagus were magically firm and flavorful, and there was a small amount of Taleggio mixed in.  We also ordered a Tagliatelle with meat sauce for the kids.  Dessert was the same wonderful raspberry tiramisu as last time, which is to say probably the best tiramisu we have eaten (and we somehow end up eating a lot of tiramisu).  I received some pretty dirty looks from Zoe for taking a few spoonfuls of hers.  Also, there was a meringue ice cream cake

We also went through a healthy amount of Chianti.  It might have been the wine talking but Chloe and I agreed that there is pretty much no where else in the world at which we would rather eat except perhaps sushi at the tokyo fish market.   The price for all of this, including wine?  87 euros.  Anyway, the meal was so good that despite our plans to leave early tomorrow, I asked for reservations for lunch the following day.

Grenoble to Florence

We drove to Florence today.  There's no getting around the fact that it is an expensive slog.  At least the section through the Maurienne is beautiful and I scan daydream about riding the high cols.  The section after the tunnel is a maddening section of pay booths every 10km or so with inexplicably different fees to pay.  The road from the foothills down to Genoa is just tedious and awful.  The causeways and viaducts around Genoa however are kind of amazing, if a bit bewildering.  I really felt like I was in a Rube Goldberg machine a few times.  We passed Carrera and the amazing never ending fields of tree farms before eventually reaching the city outskirts.  There, the Tomtom GPS happily delivered us to a nondescript alley which was supposed to house the parking garage.  Of course, there was no parking garage -- it was actually several blocks away and on the other side of an impassable avenue.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that kind of thing anymore.

After five more minutes of exciting Florentine traffic, we made it to the parking garage, unpacked the car and walked the stuff over to the hotel -- the Residenza il Villino.  The room was not as opulent as Villa Antea, but the location was much better.  And when you have two kids that are not particularly willing to walk, that is an important consideration.  The owner/operator was very nice and showed us around,  Zoe impressed us both by instant memorizing the electronic keypad combination and would let us in ever time we came in and out of the hotel.

First order of business: Gelato

At Rivareno.  "Service with a sneer" is the motto here, but damn is that some amazing gelato.  Especially the nocciola.

We wandered around for a while and then went back to the hotel before going to our first dinner reservation at Acquacottam just down the road.  The first problem was that between the time we sat down and when we received our appetizers, one and a quarter hours passed by.  Meanwhile people were served out of order and the general demeanor of the patrons started to border on rebellion.  The kids were of course going completely nuts, as expected.  The food itself was fine, but not what I would call wonderful.  I really don't understand how it gets so highly reviewed.  Perhaps it's another case of people who are unused to how good Italian food *can* be pumping up the ratings for a decent but unexceptional restaurant.  Chloe and I were disappointed not just because it was such a let down, but because we worried that perhaps our stellar memories of the food of Vini e Vechhi Sapori had just grown with time, and that it would also be a let down.

Plans re-made

Today we looked at the weather forecast to find that it was supposed to rain for our glorious climbing trip to St. Lege du Ventoux.  Our dreams of pulling down on tuffs were dashed.  Having promised the kids (and ourselves) a vacation, I scrambled into last minute trip mode and we decided to go to Florence.  It wouldn't be inexpensive of source since tourist season has already begun (not to mention automate fees etc) but we loved Florence the last time and had been talking about going back ever since.  I'll admit that a big part of what we were looking forward to was a visit to the most amazing restaurant.  It took a little doing to figure out all the plans, and my hopes for staying at an agriturismo along the way back did not come to fruition, because everything was booked.

Bento gets chased up a tree

Bento is my little buddy.  He follows me around the yard and house as I do chores, occasionally looking up and meowing at me.  Unfortunately, he also follows me out to the car, which usually ends up with my spending the next five minutes making sure that I don't drive over Bento.  He just isn't that afraid of engines yet, and I worry about him.  I was therefore happy when I started the car and saw him take off at maximum speed towards a tree.  "He's finally afraid of cars!", I thought to myself.  Shortly thereafter however, I discovered the real reason:  pursuit by a big unleashed dog.  Bento shot up a nearby tree with admirable speed:

but then required rescuing by me:  not easy.

Porte

Rode Col de Porte with Martin… A beautiful day and nice ride

Charmette (almost)

The road needs a little work up there

Graft #1 successful

Chasing Pigeons

Internet back!

but its the old internet… we're waiting for activation from the new provider so we can tell Bouygues to piss off. We have now not had internet for much more time than we have had internet (ever since we moved in October).

The weather has been beautiful over the last week, but our dreams of a full fledged spring were dashed by rain.

you don't see that every day

The cat

Bento has become popular with the castle kids, to his great misfortune. He is chased, and generally given more "love" than any cat could handle -- even a half kitten like Bento. He has been less of a hit with the castle cats, who have as expected looked upon this new arrival with suspicion. Because Bento is still small though, he tries to make friends with them and yesterday came back with a nice scratch on his nose. Apparently the other day the kids cooed as they watched Bento try to make friends with a particularly large and fluffy neighbour, rolling on the ground in front of her while the other cat hissed and arched her back. The kids were convinced that they were "falling in love" like in the movies though, and very excited.

Chloe loses her mind

A while ago I foolishly mentioned the existence of something called the Birthday Challenge (http://www.birthdaychallenge.com) which inspired chloe to do something crazy:  40km of running with over 7800 vertical feet of "up" and 4000 calories over the course of a day.  The kids and I did some support, and although she did not even notice it, I went out beforehand and wrote "Allez Chloe" in chalk on the ground.  Midway through we met her up at Mont St. Martin to bring her water and say hi.  She eventually called us from her second run up to Mont. St. Martin (this time with lolo) and we drove up to pick her up.  Congrats, CZ!!  My Bday challenge will be to eat 40 croissants.

New internet, at last!

Well actually we are paying for two internet connections, and one (Bouygues) has never really worked, and the other has not officially been in stalled yet, but we have wifi access from the middle of the yard. Anyway, we should be back in business soon.

Today, on this first real weekend day of Spring weather, we all went into town for some supplies for Ozenya: I'm going to attempt to make okonomiyaki, and ice creams for everyone at the green arch. The center was absolutely mobbed with people, so we all gave up pretty quickly.

Earlier, I did a ride up col de la Placette, the Grand Vervier, 1000 martyrs and back. The new bike position feels better on the knee, so I am quite happy. All told: 78 km and 1470 meters of climbing. I was taking it easy, but even so it felt pretty hard today.

Into town

For ice cream