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.