Santa Croce Church

Note:  This is the second post of the day; earlier I wrote about the Uffizi Gallery. There is so much to see here that I need to write it up soon after or I can't remember!

When we came out of the Uffizi, we decided to go on to the Santa Croce Church, which was on our list of things to see. We stopped briefly for a cup of tea/coffee before heading on. We were fortunate that there weren't many people there and again, we had plenty of space to move around and see everything. This church is famous partly for its tombs of famous people. And again, it is full of amazing art. Read more on Wikipedia -- Santa Croce.

This is a typical small coffee shops. We had a drink and a pastry. I'm not sure if the barista's employers know or like the message on her shirt -- "I don't CARE" -- or if the customers mind.

The facade of the church is beautiful marble. 

This is the tomb of Michelangelo, one of the draws of this church. It is elaborately carved.

The tomb of Dante.

Elaborately carved pulpit.

Rossini's tomb. Galileo is also buried here, but I couldn't get a photo of it.

Frescoes on the walls.

Elaborately frescoed side chapel.

The altar and apse area. Not a very good shot, but it was gorgeous. Light through the stained glass windows made the rest seem dark.

Raftered ceiling.

The Uffizi Gallery

Thursday morning we headed off to the Uffizi Gallery, where we had reserved an entrance time of 8:30-8:45. We had seen long lines at the unreserved entrance the day before and it turned out to be a good idea. We entered right in, as it had just opened. During our entire time there, we didn't see very many people, but as we were leaving there were lots of group tours and others flowing in. There is so much fantastic art in this museum, it is difficult to stop raving about it. I took many dozens of photos, but of course I can only put a few of them up here, so I have tried to pick either the most famous or my favorites (of which there is quite a lot of overlap!).

By the way, Uffizi means offices. The building is where the Medici had their banking and business offices.

Walking down the narrow street in the early morning. Not shown here, but there are delivery vans everywhere else. They try to get all of that kind of business out of the way before the day gets going.

Ceiling in the Uffizi Gallery

Giotto's Madonna and Child, one of the earliest pictures using true perspective.

Altarpiece Adoration of the Magi by da Fabriano, incredible detail

I've always liked these della Francesca portraits

Roman Venus copy of a Praxiteles Greek statue. Compare with Botticelli's Venus below.

Michelangelo's only completed painting -- Holy Family. He designed the ornate frame, but someone else carved it.

I liked the movement in this sculpture

I forget who painted this, but I thought the light shining was amazing.

Zeus!

These are not very good reproductions of two of my all-time favorite paintings, both by Botticelli. The first is Primavera, the second The Birth of Venus. Notice the woman at the center of each is quite similar, and the wind figures at upper right on top and upper left on bottom are very similar. I actually bought these postcards to use as bookmarks.

This shield painted with Medusa's head would certainly scare off the enemies!

Florence, Day 1

After the Renaissance walk as I wrote about yesterday, we headed back to the hotel. Dan went out to explore some more while I rested. He came back before noon and we headed over to the Mercato Centrale, the central market, only a couple of block from our hotel. This is an enormous hall of two floors, full of food stalls of all kinds -- butchers, cheese sellers, produce, prepared foods of all kinds. I walked all around gawking at everything and taking only a few pictures. I promise I'll go back and do a full post on the place.

For lunch we first got a rice ball like the suppli we had in Rome. It had a different name here, which I can't remember. It was stuffed with cheese and spinach inside the rice. We carried it over to a mozzarella stall that had a small seating area. There we got bruschetta -- fresh chopped tomatoes and basil on fresh buffalo mozzarella on rustic toast. These were much larger pieces than you usually think of. Together it made a delicious lunch.

I did take one picture while walking of these incredibly huge fresh mushrooms.

I didn't do much the rest of the day, although Dan took a long walk to a place we saw an opera advertised. We ate dinner again at the same restaurant as the previous evening, sharing a caesar salad and spaghetti with tomatoes.

Today we are touring the Uffizi Gallery and probably Santa Croce, since it is nearby.

Rome to Florence

Note:  this is the second post for today, so continue on down if you want to read more about the food tour.

On Monday after the tour we all went back to the hotel and piled into our room, as the others had checked out. We did various things. After an early dinner, our four kids got a taxi for the airport. They had morning flights and decided to spend the last night in the airport hotel, a wise choice. It was sad to see them go, as we've had such a fantastic time all together. The next morning we went to a laundromat just down the street and got everything clean for the next part of the trip.

We checked out and headed for the station, about a 7-minute walk, where we got a caprese sandwich on a dark roll to share on the train. Unfortunately, the platform for our train wasn’t listed until just 15 minutes before departure, so we stood and looked at the display for quite a while. We had reserved seats on a Frecciarossa, the fastest train, which went about 170 mph. The scenery was beautiful. We went through lots of tunnels which caused ear pressure due to the high speed. We sat across from each other with an older (not older than us, though) couple in the other two seats, with a table between. They were very friendly and she commented on my knitting. But then they both (especially her) kept talking at us constantly, even though it was clear we didn’t have any idea what she was saying. So then she started talking to the family of four across the aisle, slightly spitting on me as she went. They were from Napoli and friendly, but I was very glad to depart after 1-1/2 hours!! The walk to our hotel was even a good bit shorter than Metropole was from Termini, so that was easy. We headed out in the early evening to explore the area and find some dinner. The Hotel Sempione is in a good location, comfortable although much smaller rooms than the Metropole, and faster wi-fi. We ate at the Trattoria Nerone, recommended by Rick Steves. It was good, inexpensive, but very kitschy, as he warned.

Kitschy decorations

Pizza oven

Wednesday morning we set out early to do the Renaissance walk from the Duomo to the Arno as narrated by Rick Steves. Unfortunately, we both had trouble with the narration stopping and not being able to restart it. We enjoyed it anyway.

Duomo Facade

Statue in Loggia

We stopped at the Uffizi Gallery to purchase tickets with a reserved entry time for 8:45 tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to seeing the famous works of art there.

Ponte Vecchio, famous bridge of jewelry shops

We crossed the Ponte Vecchio and walked by the Pitti Palace, then headed back a different way. We ended up on the street of very expensive shops including Armani, Dior, Ferragamo, etc.

Typical doors along street

Looking into a courtyard

I think this must be the Ferragamo flagship store!

We came out at the Santa Maria Novella Church, which is just opposite the station, and therefore very close to our hotel.

Food Tour Part II

The food tour on Monday was more than just the eating, although that was the main thing! Below I've put some more photos that I took while we were walking around. We did have a couple of "digestive" stops so we'd be ready for the next food.

Pizza can be had by the slice, as in this bakery.

Some pastas on display.

Various tortes in the window -- would have loved to try these.

We stopped at this cemetery for a break. It was quite fascinating and a number of famous people are buried here.

This is the Pyramid of Cestius, a small-scale Egyptian-style pyramid built in 30 BC as a tomb and later incorporated into the section of the Aurelian Walls that borders the cemetery. Unfortunately Cestius died poor without finishing his tomb and was dumped into the Tiber.

The grave of John Keats on the left. He didn't want his name on his tombstone, as he didn't think he had accomplished anything. It says "Here lies one whose name is writ in water."

A view of the cemetery, a lovely quiet place

In the large market, we stopped at this meat stall. On the left is tripe (stomach) and next to it are oxtails. Since this area was near the slaughterhouse, the workers were allowed to take home the less-desirable parts and much Italian cuisine developed from the wives cooking them. (Or so she said.)

Many varieties of tomatoes

The slaughterhouse buildings. It covered an enormous area; much of it is now an arts area, with a music school, art galleries, etc.

At the port where all the food was unloaded there is a giant hill. It was the first dump. The pots that the olive oil was shipped in could not be reused, so they were broken into shards and stacked higher and higher. You can see them here through the fence. There are many restaurants surrounding the hill. They use the cool interior of the hill as a wine cellar.

The restaurant we had lunch at was Flavio al Velavevodetto. The story is that the man who started it told his family from a very young age that he wanted to have a restaurant. They laughed at him, as he had no money and didn't know how to cook. But he was determined, and eventually hired a cook (Flavio) and named his restaurant Velavevodetto (I told you so!).

Food Tour

On Monday, our last day together in Rome, we took a walking food tour. It was held in the Testaccio area, where the old shipping dock and slaughterhouse were. It is still an area with many small family-run food businesses, and not an area where there are many tourists. Our guide was Sebastiana, an American-Italian who was raised in the US but lived here most of her adult life. It was a wonderful tour -- we all loved it. The 13 participants included some from Australia, Scotland, US, and Brazil. Every single thing we ate was absolutely amazing!

I have many more pictures of food, but here I will just post the ones of the actual items we ate.

We began by meeting up at a coffee shop where we had coffee or tea.

The first stop was breakfast where we had cornetti (like croissants, only with less butter) and tiramisu in tiny little chocolate cups.

Next was a pizzeria, where we sampled margarita with fresh basil and mushroom. We also had a suppli, a ball of rice with tomato sauce and cheese, breaded and fried. That was a big hit with our group.

The baker at the pizzeria posed with all of the tourists.

This sampling is two types of cheese -- black-truffle infused pecorino and parmesan-reggiano -- and two meats -- incredibly thin melt-in-your-mouth prosciutto and wild boar salami.

In a gourmet foods shop we sampled two types of balsamic vinegar.

Next we went to an open-air market with over a hundred stalls (many closed for August holidays). We first got chopped tomatoes mixed with basil at a produce stall, then came to this bakery where we had rustic toasted bread. We each had a piece of garlic to rub on the bread, then served the tomatoes on it. Fresh bruschetta!

Next up a stall which sells fresh buffalo mozzarella and used the rest of the tomatoes for caprese.

Our biggest stop was a restaurant where we sampled three types of pasta plus wine and water. The three pastas are carbonara, cream and black pepper, and a tomato-based one. 

At last, gelato! You must have two or three flavors, never one. I had mint, cherry, and chocolate. And of course they put cream on top.

I will post more about the restaurant and some of the shops next time. I hope you aren't too hungry now!