Florence, day two
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.
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