Florence, Food, Fog

[den]

Yesterday was mostly spent at the factory, then Bruno took us to lunch. "Do you like pasta?" he asked. I had fresh tortilini with melted butter and sage, while Aaron went for a pizza. I suppose you can't expect minions to appreciate good food, but the pizza did look nice.

Here in Tuscany they do an oil that is beyond extra extra virgin olive oil. It's cloudy, or turbid according to Bruno, and doesn't keep more than six months. To go with my tortilini I had Tuscan bread covered in this olive oil and salt, and beans covered in olive oil, salt and pepper. It was all washed down with a new chianti. Apparently for breakfast the locals toast thick slabs of bread, rub garlic all over it then cover it with olive oil. It sounds very yummy but not for breakfast. We finished off with an espresso. It came in a cup 2" deep and 1.5" wide, and was 1/2 full of a mouth-numbingly strong black syrup. Now THAT's coffee.

Today was spent wandering around the old town. We walked to the top of the bell tower of the Duomo, then into (and under) the Duomo, marvelled at the dome built around 1300ish, found the fake statue of David that replaced Michaelangelo's original when it was moved into a museum, and wandered around a Medici palace. Aaron declared he needed a cheeseburger for lunch, but we couldn't find a Maccas or KFC anywhere. He had to settle for a chickenburger at an Irish Pub. Soccer was on the tv: Australia vs Uraguay.

Chickenburger, 1/2 pint of beer, chips and a coffee: €10.00
Australia beating Uraguay


Later we crossed the Ponta Veccio with all the gold shops. Apparently there is more gold traded on that bridge than anywhere else in the world.

About then my ankle decided to remind me of the time I fell off the glacier in New Zealand and started to complain. We wandered slowly back to the hotel along the banks of the river.

Right now I'm trying to organize a TGV to Rome. The city is only 2 hours away by train, and we should be able to "do" some of the sights there in a day.

Comments

[ursuscal.livejournal.com]

In $US how much is 10 Aussie dollars?

[ursuscal.livejournal.com]

Oops. I mean Euros. I gotta learn that new currency sign...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

EU1.00 = AU$1.40, is it was a little expensive.

But Australia beat Uraguay! We qualified for the World Cup! WOO HOO!

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're having a wonderful time (apart from the ankle), Florence is fabulous, all that art and architecture, mmm. If you like ice-cream, be sure and eat lots, I still dream about the little place just down from the baptistry with the cream cheese flavour* *sigh*

*uh, that's the ice-cream that was cream cheese flavour, I'm sure the baptistry is more building-flavoured....

[ms-interpret.livejournal.com]

I think I would die in Italy. There'd be no food I could eat! God that food sounds divine though. *drool*

**Looks back at her gluten-free doughnut and cringes.

I want pasta!!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm jealous *sniff* :).

The food sounds delicious! No garlic for breakfast coming from the eaters of vegemite?! :D Actually I would eat garlic for breakfast if there were cheese and olives and extra bread and maybe some sausage and maybe an orange or two. That coffee sounds divine, the only thing close if perhaps turkish coffee, and I can only have that once in a while.

Real pizza is just baked crust and sauce drizzled with olive oil and garlic and sold in roaside stands there, but I am not sure about Florence. It's snowing here:P. Figures:D.

I want pasta!

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

I am jealous *sniff"!

No garlic for brekfast from the eaters of vegemite?!:D Actually, I would eat garlic for breakfast provided there were olives, cheese, extra bread, maybe an orange or two, and some sausage. The food sounds delicious! The coffee sounds divine, and reminds me of turkish coffee which I can only have once in a while.
*******

Re: I want pasta!

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Mate, you have got to come here. After Australia, of course.

A wood fired oven pizza with tomato paste, olive oil and 2 of maybe 3 toppings is amazingly filling, unlike these crunchy crust pile-everything-on-top pizzas the companies try to push as real pizza.

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

God, I love Florence. The pizza there is, btw, divine - although I usually went for the veal steaks. Mmmmm.

The square where the David is has another museum (the name of which escapes me for the moment) where Donatello's David resides. It is my favourite statue of all time, and I squeed rather loudly when I found it there - having not realized it was there at all until I almost tripped over it - much to my mother's bemusement.

Make sure you have ice cream while you're there. They know how to do it right.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

There are 3 "The Davids." One in Piazza de Michelangelo overlooking the city, on in the main square where the original was, er, originally, and the real one in the museum. It's all just... wow.

[camstone.livejournal.com]

Oh man... enjoy it all! Wish I was there to say "Heya!"

Remember... memories of a lifetime are made this way... take your time and enjoy them! Don't try to fit in too much... just "enough."

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Yesterday in Rome we saw Flavian's Amphitheatre in Piazza de Coleseo (silly English speakers call it The Coleseum), the Forum, and took a tour that went past the old Pope's home. That was all. No museums, galleries or other ancient sights. More about this in my next entry.

Dude! I stood in the Coleseum!

[trede.livejournal.com]

Well, actually it was the silly Latin speakers who called it the Coleseum. :P