Piazza Santa Croce was our first stop, as we strolled around to see our new neighborhood. The piazza is huge, sharply rectangular, and for this first night, it was packed with vendors of various types, selling leather bags, leather purses, jackets, leather anything. Others sold compact discs made from old American rock and roll records. We heard everything from the Beatles and Elvis to Miles Davis and the Mamas and the Papas. Oddly out of place were all the Bavarian food stands. The schnitzels and strudels and beer were everywhere. I know its October, but this is Italy! It was this evening, in the shadow of Santa Croce cathedral, and its domineering statue of Dante, that Christie discovered the miracle that is pecorino and honey. Since this evening, there have been whole treks to the farmer's market built on procuring cheese and honey to have on hand. After a tasty lasagna and a few glasses of prosecco, we moved on back to the apartment. It was getting late, especially after the voyage.
Our collective library of guidebooks had numerous suggestions for walking tours, complete with restaurants for lunch and dinner, caffes for that mid-afternoon wake-up and gelaterias for whenever. We found Vivoli around the corner from our palazzo. This shop seemed popular, and I fell in love with the cioccolatta al'arranciatta. The shop seems to close up on strange days, though. Monday for instance is not a good day to do anything tourist-related in Florence.
4 October 2008
One gelateria that was mentioned by several sources (including our "Civilized Shoppers' Guide to Florence") was not a gelateria at all but a chocolate shop called Vestri. Aside from the amazing candies we found warm drinking chocolate which, for 50 cents extra, can by topped off with a scoop of gelato. My personal nirvana comes topped with Crema Fiorentino, which is a very floral vanilla flavored gelato. If the electricity goes out for an entire day with out explanation, if there is no hot water for a couple days, even if the toilet pump stops working and floods your bathroom, cioccolatto bere con gelato will make it right.
12 October 2008
Christie asked to accompany me when I go out to sketch the city today. We walked down via Giuseppe Verde, sharing the busy, bright corridor with the morning’s busses, bicyclists and this morning’s noisy ambulance. It was a bright, beautiful morning. Really, glorious light. It was a bit colder, too. As if Autumn decided to tap us on the shoulder and be acknowledged today. Christie suggested we find a place in the sun. Piazza Santa Croce was too busy and hard to relax and focus. Besides I wanted to find a new place to explore.
We crossed the Arno, after a few twists and turns and turned west to find ourselves in the tiny, water-fronted piazza Demidoff. Quiet, sunny and sparsely populated with dogs and photographers, it was perfect for our needs. We set to work, sorting out how to pick a subject, frame it on our pages and begin composing the correct proportions. We chose a prominent loggia perched atop an otherwise non-descript apartment house across the river. It was a simple structure, with easy proportions and the perfect quick sketch project, I thought. After an hour or so, I moved over on the park bench to let Christie take a nap. It was time to re-charge I think. I walked around the piazza, and explored the central statuary dedicated to a beloved city patron. A few more minutes, feeling the excitement of living in Italy, enjoying this view of Florence and wallowing in the mix of cool breezes and hot sunshine. A thought crept up in my mind: I am leaving this place in 40 days or so. Time to wake Christie! I needed to get away from that thought or I might never return to New York.
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