Florence

Florence... was monumentally underwhelming. I really have no other way of saying it. I don't know if we somehow angered Hermes, the Greek God of Travel and Commerce (amongst other things) by wearing around our Nikes, which are named for the Greek God of Victory, but we had a rather average experience in Florence.

Our stay began ominously. By relying on the gospel of Rick Steve that everything North of the river was in walking distance, we found that our Hotel was most certainly -not- a pleasant stroll from the train station. Following a 45 minute trek across Florence, our backs aching and feet screaming, we arrive at our B&B to find nobody was there. We called the number we had, and Fulvio, our very nice, very accomodating host informed us that he had sent Jacqui an email that had informed us of two very important things:

1. Someone only monitors the check-in desk until 6pm... it was now quarter past 8 o'clock incidentally.

2. There was an unforseen emergency, and someone had become extremely ill, and he did not have a room for us as a result. At this moment, visions of myself going Jack Nicholson and having a 'Here's Johnny!' type of moment were alarmingly close to bypassing my frontal lobe's better judgement. Fortunately, Fulvio was very quick to inform me that he had booked us a room at the hotel at the end of the block. This effectively placated both Jacqui and I from reaching through the fiber- optic cable and giving our host an impromptu traecheotomy.

Let me add a caveat; this is not supposed to be a swipe at Fulvio or Relais Modern (our B&B), he was a very, very accomodating, nice and gracious host to us, and our room was clean, quaint and recently renovated. This was simply a cruel joke played on us by the fates. Apparently there must be karmic balance between the absolute high we had in Monterosso and what we did next.

So... we moved down the street and checked into Hotel de la Pace, and proceeded to collapse into a comatose state for about 20 min until we decided that our need for food was now an imperative directive driving every fiber of our being. The concierge provided us with directions and a reservation to Ristorante Academia, a little family-run restaurant that provided two of the best meals we had in Italy. For as much as the crowds and museums were average in Florence, the three sit- down restaurants we ate at were outstanding... Ristorante Academia, Trottoria Tito and the random place across from the Duomo with the outdoor air-condotioning (which is a marvel in and of itself) were ABSOLUTELY Outstanding... and when I say outstanding, I mean so good the food melts in your mouth, that you think you've died and gone to heaven, that your mouth is sending signals of rapture to your brain in such magnitude that you have to remind your medulla oblongata to continue to send involuntary functionary signals to the rest of your body good. I swear, this is not hyperbole, the food was really THAT good.

Our first dinner in Florence started with a salad with pears, proscuitto, walnuts, goat cheese and honey. Fortunately (and unfortunately I guess on some level) Jacqui said to hell with her lactose intolerance, so we were free to enjoy all matter of Italian cuisine! Our next course was a gnocchi with calamari and cherry tomatoes, followed by sliced duck-breast with vegetables and a raspberry glaze. The piece de resistance was the steak that Jacqui ordered... absolutely incredible. Finish the meal off with a few simple Italian desserts, and we were in foodie heaven.

Following another day of museums, including the Duomo Museum (which to it's credit was super cool), and Michelangelo's David at Gallerie d'Academia, we returned to Ristorante Academia, and indulged ourselves once again. Yum!

On our last full day in Florence, we went to the Pitti Palace, which was really cool, and the Uffezi Gallery, outside of the Venus de Milo and one other piece was again slightly overrated. Oh well.

On to the food!

Our last night there, we went to Trottoria Tito, and again, wow, food was incredible! No four courses this time, but Jacqui's beef stew was dynamite - but I have to say our dessert, a panna cotta covered in molten Italian chocolate made the meal. The whole meal taken together was incredible. Better than incredible. Can I say foodgasm in a PG-13 blog? Fooooooooodgasm... nom nom nom.

And really, that's about it for Florence.

Actually, let me add a comment here... sure my take on Florence sounds somewhat negative, but look at our attitudes with a grain of salt. By the time we reached Florence, we were somewhat museumed out from Rome. As cool as Florence had the potential to be on it's own, we had driven the Porche of Italian museum towns, and now we were being shoehorned into a Volkswagen. Nothing at all wrong with it, but it's just not quite the same as a Porsche.

Again, the people in Florence were very nice, especially Fulvio and our server at Ristorante Academia, Ava, a girl from Poland who speaks fluent Italian, French, English and presumably Polish, and the market was neat, and the bell tower climb was neat, but hey, for whatever reason, just wasn't our favorite part of the trip.

C'est la vie, qu'est ce que tu vois me fais?

Signing off from Florence, and looking forward to some serious R&R in Tuscany!