Flotown Art and Food

Fresh off a our large bus tour around Italy, we were ready to actually enjoy the city of Florence. Our scheduled tour had notified us that we would be the only two people on the tour. Music to our ears. Of course the downside was we wouldn’t be the only people at the Uffizi Gallery or the Accademia.

The Uffizi is a real museum. It houses a lot of different pieces and had several “masterpieces”. Elizabeth seems to have taken a shine to Botticelli based on her experience at the Uffizi. She also liked the 400 some odd portraits that line the Uffizi’s walls like crown moulding. All  the portraits were painted by one man who captured the most famous nobility, clergy, artists, etc. of the time. I was also pleasantly surprised with the Uffizi. Our tour covered many different artists and styles, not focusing on anything in particular.

A familiar sight. This was part of series of paintings depicting Florence at the time. It was like looking at an old photograph.

The ceiling is adorned in oyster shells.

Post coffee break, we headed to the Accademia. Everyone goes here for just the David statue. Our guide also showed a few works here worth viewing, but only after viewing the David.

The statue is worth every penny. Massive and beautiful, it’s truly incredible.

The other things to view at the Uffizi

Includes the Medici coat of arms.

Not done with enjoying art for the day. We also headed to a modern art exhibit in town. Having exhausted my appetite for old European paintings, I suggested we visit a traveling Guggenheim collection.

We were not able to visit the Guggenheim in Venice and I was bitterly disappointed. Luckily, this exhibit seemed to have left the Venice location dry. It was quite extensive. Sadly, I still don’t like modern art, particularly the collections from the Guggenheim, but I knew this before I entered.

Then why go? Because it was different from anything we saw in all of Europe. These collections of “art” hardly qualify, but we find it interesting nonetheless.

The rest of our day was spent walking along the city streets. We stopped into the Duomo and discovered it was not as spectacular on the inside. The final highlight of the day was me ordering dinner in Italian. Food, drink, numbers, cash exchange, the whole bit. The guy working didn’t even need me to repeat anything.  Truly a high-water mark for my Italian immersion.

During our last day in Florence we attempted to get a better understanding of city. One of the best ways to get to know a place is to taste it. Acting on a friend’s recommendation we booked a Walks of Italy food tour. We love food tours. Not only is it a good way to experience a city, but it also can challenge you to eat something that wouldn’t normally be on your own personal menu.

Our food tour started, as all good tours should, with wine. We were given free reign to just fill up our glasses as we wanted to sample the local wine and to accompany the crostini provided. Talk about a breakfast of champions…

A glass a day…

Next up we tasted one of the more exotic delicacies – Lampredotto. This is typical dish of the city and is made from the fourth stomach of a cow. We were some of the few that ventured to try the dish. We were able to try the meat in two different sauces. It is usually served in sandwich form but we were happy to eat it with fork.

Yum!

Although it doesn’t look like much, it was actually quite tasty.

After we had our fill, we made our way to the local market. It was here that we saw Food Network star Giada. She was filming for her show in the market. Our guide did not take notice. Instead she snaked us around the stalls and took us to a stand in the back corner. At this stand we learned about (and tasted) the more traditional cuts of meat like prosciutto. At the stand we also sampled a variety of cheeses and olives. We ate until we were stuffed.

After the antipasti, we headed to another part of the market to have lunch. I wasn’t sure how much more we could eat, but somehow we managed to devour our pasta, salad and a couple of glasses of chianti. The tour ended with a stop for gelato. We were thankful that we met our gelato quota, but most thankful that we didn’t have to eat another thing.

We spent the rest of the day walking off lunch. We visited the Basilica of St. Croce where  Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo and others are buried. We ended our time in Florence by meandering up to Piazzale Michangelo for a last view of Florence and enjoying another beer at Archea and pizza at GustaPizza (P.S. We highly recommend this pizza place). The next day we left Florence and headed to Rome.