In Florence, it's all about the food

July 18-21, 2014

(Edited: now with more pictures!)

So, life has taken over completely and I still haven't posted about our last two cities on our July Italy trip. It is now almost 2015 and we've since taken another week-long trip to Hawaii and have plenty of life updates to blog about, so I guess it's time for a little catch up. (I certainly can't leave Florence and Rome un-blogged and I couldn't possibly blog out of order, either.)

Florence started with a whirlwind. Instead of a hotel, we'd booked a 3 bedroom flat through homeaway.co.uk. After the disastrous flat we'd gotten in Brussels, I was extremely nervous about how this one would turn out. Luckily, it was a hit! I bit of a further walk from the central sites than I'd expected, but the exercise made us feel a little less guilty about all the pasta and gelato.

On the first evening, almost as soon as we arrived, my mom and I broke off for a pizza and gelato cooking course while the others searched out the newly-opened Brewdog Firenze.

so delicious, I couldn't resist a bite before I remembered to snap a picture

The next morning we had our only planned event: a walking tour that included skip-the-line entrance to see Michelangelo's David and il Duomo di Firenze, Santa Maria del Fiore. I've been to visit David three times now and my favorite part is getting up close (and personal) for the details: the veins on his hands and feet, the individually chiseled hairs, the finger and toe nails. David is magnificent as a whole, of course, but I am absolutely fascinated by the details.

The Duomo, in my opinion, is much more impressive outside than it is inside. For such an intricate exterior, the interior is very plain.

On my last visit to Florence I climbed the famous dome with my students and teacher friends. It was exhausting and a bit claustrophobic, so Joe and I decided to take on the famous bell tower this time. Because of the open windows and stairs that wind around the exterior of the campanile instead of the interior like so many others we climbed, Giotto's bell tower was actually much easier to climb that we'd expected. It also allowed for a pretty spectacular view of the city.

from the bottom, feeling accomplished

The rest of our time in Florence was spent mostly on three things: visiting the newly gentrified San Lorenzo market, drinking and hanging out at Brewdog Firenze, and playing games at home. The weather switched drastically from humid and hot to pouring rain, both of which drove us in doors and made wandering the city unappealing. We ate a total of 3 meals at the market in just under 3 days.

When I came to Florence in 2008, I fell in love with the beautiful displays of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, nuts, and other goodies sold at San Lorenzo market. Since then the upper floor has been transformed into a modern foodie heaven. You can order full meals or go tapas-style. There are vendors for every course and every type of Italian dish, plus grocery stores and a cooking school. There's a wine bar and a beer bar and even a store for Fiorentina FC soccer club.

On Sunday, Mom and I made our way to the market because we knew we'd loved wandering the stalls before. When we discovered the changes that had been made, we brought the rest of our party back for dinner. On Monday, when the pouring rain ended our desire to wander the city by foot, we returned to get dry and stuffed ourselves with treats again.

Joe, Janis, Julie, and Val also visited the Uffizi Gallery on an afternoon tour one day. This lead to what Julie refers to as Joe and Val's "Disney Princess moment." You may decide for yourself:

They made friends with a little birdie.

Visiting Brewdog felt a little bit like going home. The bar in Camden became our go-to hangout in London and we always felt welcome, included, and surrounded by supportive friends. Even though we didn't know anyone at the other locations, we got the same feeling of comfort in the Edinburgh and Glasgow locations when we visited Scotland. It was no surprise really that Florence felt the same. Italy was our last stop on a year of travel and Joe and I were both slowly adjusting out of our London life. We were back with family and heading home to California very soon, but hanging out at Brewdog felt like one last chance to say goodbye to London and ease ourselves out of the life we'd made there during our first year of marriage. In Florence, it was a home away from home (London) away from home (San Diego).

games, a Brewdog staple

looks like flirting

The benefit of our flat was that we got to hang out together in a communal environment instead of sitting on beds in someone's hotel room. That meant games. And wine.

bedets are for feet washing, right?

Monday morning we'd intended to walk across the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace and wander the Boboli Gardens, one of the Florentine sites I still have yet to see. Sky-shaking thunder and street-flooding rain changed those plans. Instead, our morning looked like this:

And with that, we bid farewell to Florence and boarded the train for our final stop: Rome.

Siena

Siena is, perhaps, my family's favorite place in Italy (and if it's our fave in Italy, it's kinda our fave in the world). So when I set out to schedule our time in Tuscany, it seemed obvious to me that we would have our headquarters in Siena.

Here are some highlights from our time there.

Since Siena was our base not our destination, we spent our day times away from there and usually only returned in time for dinner.

View of the main churches in Siena from near our hotel

Piazza del Campo in the evening

Val at the fountain across from our hotel

My mom and I have fond memories of what we call "the cave restaurant" from our 2005 trip when we were in Siena for the Palio and watched the race in the kitchen with the locals at our dinner restaurant. We chose to seek this restaurant out again just the two of us and found it! It's called Antica Osteria Da Divo and is just around the corner from the cathedral. If you're in Siena, it's definitely worth checking out.

I also insisted on visiting Siena's cathedral because of its unusual black-and-white stripe interior. My mom had never been inside despite being to Siena twice before.

star motif dome interior

We stayed at the Hotel Villa Liberty for the second time. This hotel strikes the perfect balance as far as I'm concerned: homey but not bed-and-breakfasty, close to town but quiet, beautiful view and fair priced.

Julie and Val enjoyed the company of staff, too.
This one even gifted Val with the biggest lemon we've ever seen.

Our time in Siena was limited but it's always nice to return to someplace familiar and comforting. My mom and I have many memories of visiting Siena with my dad in 2004 and 2005, so it's almost like visiting him in a way. It was nice to share this gem with our fellow travelers this year and continue the tradition.

enjoying the perfect Italian light lunch: prosciutto e melone, olives, bruschetta

Tuscany: A real look

So yeah, it's been two months since my last post and almost 3 months since these things actually happened. I'm sorry. Things have been a little crazy since we got back stateside to say the least. Still, I won't feel right if I don't finish out the posts about our Italy trip, so here it goes.

July 17, 2014
On our second day with Lello, we only had one request: Montepulciano for Julie. Other than that, Lello had full reign. This was one of those days where the experiences we had could never have been without a local to organize for us. Not only would we most likely never have found our lunch stop - possibly the best meal we had for the entire trip - but even if we'd found it ourselves, I doubt we'd have felt confident enough to go so far off the beaten path without Lello.

First stop: Cortona
A quick coffee and walk stop in the morning. Tuscany's hilltop towns really do have excellent views.

Next on the schedule was "lunch with family." None of us really knew what that meant, but I don't think we expected that it would end up being one of our favorite memories and one of the most authentic experiences we had. The Lungarella family of Bettolle, a small city in the province of Siena, welcomed us like old friends. Mama (Sara) and my mom (Joanne) got on beautifully. Of course, when we arrived at their "summer kitchen" and my mom saw that they were making scratch pasta, she jumped right in. When the two women discovered that they'd both lost their husbands and both had been contractors who'd built their custom kitchens, it was like nothing could separate them (even the fact that one spoke only Italian).

The table set for all of us - visitors and residents together - was simple but perfect. Instead of feeling like guests in a restaurant, we ate with our hosts, sharing as much as we could with only Lello and the daughter, Selene, to translate. (Selene, it turns out, is an aspiring singer. Check her out here.) The food was real home cooking: ravioli that was sweetened because that's how the family likes it, fresh linguine with a simple tomato sauce, slow cooked sausages and potatoes, a big wooden bowl of salad, and the creamiest tiramisu we'd ever had for dessert.

When it was time to go, no one wanted to. We made such a connection with this family during our afternoon together that it felt like we'd spent weeks there.

Mama with bruschetta and wine

Selene on the left. The family dog, who Joe named Mr. Nubbins 

and created a theme song for, on the right.

The 2 year old granddaughter of the property, Sofia, was enough to entertain us all afternoon. Instead of holding aside the curtain leading into the kitchen, she usually just walked straight through it, letting it trail over the top of her head all the way to the end. She was also pretty smitten with Joe and spent significant time either chasing him or playing soccer with me. Even though we were at the house for "lunch" for over three hours, none of us really wanted to leave.

Our afternoon stop was at Boscarelli Winery for a private tutorial on Vino Noble, the other wine of the region. Admittedly, we were full and wine drunk and it was very hot out, so we were not super interested in the lecture on wine varietals this afternoon, especially since our visit to il Cocco had been so fantastic the day before. The view was beautiful, the wine was tasty, and didn't leave without making a sizable order, though.

Our final stop in the Tuscan hills was Montepulciano, a special request because it was the filming location of Volterra in the Twilight Saga: New Moon. We didn't realize that the famous fountain that Bella splashes thru to stop Edward from revealing his sparkly self was actually created for the movie and isn't a permanent fixture of the town, but the square was still cool and the town hall (aka headquarters of the Volturi) was exactly as pictured.

a photo grom the filming of New Moon

other views of Montepulciano

Our whole group: Janis, Sarah, Lello, Joanne, Julia, Joe, and Val