Cooking up a storm

The next morning we woke up to blue skies which was nice, as when we checked the forecast the day before they had predicted possible storms. After breakfast we chilled in the room for an hour or so until it was time to head to the next town for a Tuscan cooking class! So we headed downstairs, and I put my sunglasses on as we opened the front door, only to be greeted with grey skies and some light rain. Oh. Ryan said he's just pop upstairs to go and get the umbrella - 5 minutes later he still hadn't found it (we hadn't brought our whole bags to the hotel as it was a 10 minute walk uphill so we had just bought some changes of clothes for a few days). Within that 5 minutes as well the rain suddenly turned torrential, but we had no choice but to walk out into it so that we could get to the car and to the cooking class on time! Within 30 seconds we both looked like we'd jumped into a pool, so after giving up on running and slipping on the cobblestones, we just laughed and sauntered the rest of the way to the car. Lucky our bags were still in the car, so we both dried off a bit and changed clothes. So by the time we arrived at nearby Il Vicario we only looked like half drowned rats.

Ryan is so good he can make pasta with his eyes closed

We met the lovely Katia who was taking the class, and her husband Fluvio. We were doing the class with 5 Americans - one couple from Minnesota and 3 women from North Carolina, and although yes they were loud Americans, they were all very funny and friendly. We were just doing a basic cooking course, even though Ryan could have done the expert course but not only was it not offered that day, but it was 3 times the price. So due to imposed austerity measures to cope with our fine dining, basic Tuscan cooking it was. Katia gave us a bit of a background to Tuscan cooking, and how you don't really need to follow recipes, as each dish just has a few core ingredients, and measurements of them are not at all strict (compared with say baking). So we first started with making some pici, which is a hand-rolled pasta like a fat spaghetti - just 2 types of flour, a touch of salt and some water - no egg. It was really very easy.

Ryan cooking under Katia's watchful eye

Then we headed to the kitchen and all pitched in to make the accompanying aglione (garlic sauce - garlic, tinned whole tomatoes, oil, salt, pepper and tiny amount of chilli) and a second fagioli cannellini e timo sauce (cannellini beans with thume, onion, parmesan, oil, salt, pepper and  tiny amount of chilli). Both so simple and easy. Next we prepared the panzanella salad - the key ingredient in this was some very stale Tuscan bread. It was rock hard, but once you soak that in water for a few seconds, wring it out and then mix it with fresh tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and generous serves of olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt/pepper then the bread soaks up everything and is re-born. Quite remarkable how soft it becomes again - I love all the historical back-stories behind each dish, like how this was a "poor" person's dish as it uses old bread (as they never threw away food).

Our appetiser plate

So along with some young, middle and older age buffalo milk pecorino cheeses and some simple tomato and/or garlic bruschettas, we enjoyed the panzanella salad for our appetiser, all washed down with a glass of Vernaccia - a white wine from San Gimignano that I think was the first wine ever to be given the official DOC status, and which I really like. I will have to try and get my Italian mate up the road at Cittavino to order me in some in Aus :) This was soon followed by our pici with the aglione sauce or the cannelini bean sauce, washed down of course with a glass of Chianti and everyone sharing some tales of their travels in Italy.

Our homemade pici and aglione sauce

Saltimbocca in preparation

Then back into the kitchen to make the second course of saltimbocca- a thin slice of chicken breast, with a slice of prosicutto, garlic clove and sage leaf - season with salt and peppper, skewer them together, dip in flour and then fry in some vinsanto sweet wine. Too easy! And it was so tasty! Especially when washed down with a glass of Chianti Reserve. So that all wrapped up at about 4pm, by which time all the rain had passed and the sun was back out! So once back in San Gimignano, we headed to the top of the hill where there was a wine museum! Even though I'm not a huge fan of museums, this one was a good one - it had 3 small rooms which didn't require much reading, and then there is a tasting room :) Aw yeah, now this is my type of museum.

Terrace views with Chianti of course

jSo with another 2-3 hours before sunset left, we decided to spend our last night in San Gimignano, and indeed Tuscany, on the beautiful terrace, even though it was pretty damn windy by this stage! But this spot was a great discovery and such a stunning vista that we just enjoyed the wind blowing through our hair!

Determined not to let the high winds ruin my rooftop sunset viewing

More terrace sunsets

Our favourite restaurant was closed that night, being a Tuesday, which was OK as we were still pretty full after our cooking class. So once the sun set, we wandered around town once more, which really is adorable. Then Ryan had somehow worked up another appetite so stopped into a restaurant where we ordered a couple of pastas, of which I had 0.5 and Ryan had 1.5. So by 10pm it was time to head to the nearby bar which was showing the Brazil vs Germany match. So we sat out in streets expecting to watch a very exciting game - lucky there were quite a few Germans in the crowd. The bar owner had a horn to hoot every time a goal was scored, so in the flurry of German goals around the 20th minute there was an equal flurry of horn hooting which was pretty funny. In the end the bar owner just surrended the horn to some of the German supporters as it was getting ridiculous. What a game! We ended up meeting a couple of nice guys who live in Canada and after the 7-1 thrashing had a nightcap of grappa with them before finally hitting the hay.

Watching Germany thrash Brazil

San Jimmy Django

It was a slow morning, let's be honest. We were full of Dario's beef and his waiters' Chianti - both of which were served in quantities exceeding our expectations. It was phenomenal of course - and what a thrill to see the world's greatest butcher carving up meat in person - but both of us needed a bit of a lie-in the next morning. We were due to move on - not too far thank God, but far enough away where we wouldn't feel the need to buy more Chianti. We were headed for San Gimignano! I had never been here before, possibly because I find the name difficult to pronounce (it is San Jimmy-nyano). Because of my disability, we referred to it as San Jimmy Django which somehow rolled off the tongue a whole lot more easily.

Terrace view of the towers

Happy times

It was only an hour or so drive away from Panzano, but we would have preferred lying by the pool amongst the vineyards at this point. But we made it, parked the car and headed inside the walled city of San Gimignano hoping for an early check-in. Much to our disappointment, this place was actually a late check-in place - at 3pm. Gah! So with 2.5 hours to kill we hit the main drag and sat down for a refreshing Coke and pasta. We could already tell this was going to be a place we were going to love though. It was just like a smaller and cuter version of Siena - so beautiful! And when we checked into our B&B we were even more in love! We had a great view out of our room, and there was a small roof terrace with 360 degree views! Simply stunning!  So we went up and watched the sun slowly set - why had I not been here before?! I was very happy with the decision to spend 3 nights here. So we just sat up there and soaked up the amazing view, all on our own.

Terrace panorama view

That evening we happened upon the #1 restaurant on Trip Advisor, Cum Quibus, and were lucky enough to get the last table without a reservation. We were seated in the cute little courtyard and it was simply superb. We each had a pasta primi - I had the tagliatelle with smoked goose breast, pistachio and fresh truffle and followed this up with beef carpaccio and fresh truffle. I have never seen so much truffle in my life - and then halfway through they come and grate more fresh truffle onto it. There was literally truffle flying everywhere. It was a truffley dream come true! Such good value too. So we of course immediately booked a table for the following night.

Tagliatelle with smoked goose breast, pistachio and truffle

Beef carpaccio with fresh truffle

 The next morning after the hotel breakfast, we got back in the car and hit the windy roads for nearby Volterra, which is like a smaller version of San Gimignano - these Tuscan towns are like Russian dolls. Very picturesque though. We parked the car down the bottom, as you tend to do with these walled towns, and hiked up a long stone staircase to near the top, greeted by glorious vistas of the Tuscan countryside.

Vista from atop Volterra

 Volterra is believe to have been continuously inhabited since 8 BC, and so has some amazingly old buildings and a Roman theatre which was only found in the 1950s. Ryan was looking forward to seeing the Medicean Fortress, which we saw, but surprisingly it is currently a state prison which also houses a pretty good restaurant. I can't imagine what the prison is like - the fortress was built in the 15th century and I can't imagine they put it through massive renovations in order to house the prisoners (who require high-security as these crims are all in there for at least 7 years). The restaurant was opened in 2006 as some kind of rehabilitation program for the inmates, who are the waiters and cooks and chefs and actually take the job quite seriously, while under heavy scrutiny by the guards of course. Anyway, you have to book weeks in advance apparently, because not only is it now very popular, but you have to pass a background check before coming, not to mention being searched at several checkpoints once there, and yes, only plastic cutlery is allowed. If we had known earlier we would have done it, purely for blog update hilarity.

Volterra

 We wandered around town admiring the little alleyways and vistas over the rest of the countryside until it was time to have a sit-down. We weren't overly hungry so just shared a pizza. They are always so cheap but so big - how people eat one to themselves I do not know. After lunch, we wandered round a bit more, past a few cathedrals and around the Etruscan walls and we had pretty much covered Volterra. So back down the hill we went and headed back to San Gimignano, just as some dark clouds were coming in. Before they did though, we had a quick sit up on the terrace again, soaking up those wonderful views.

Roman Theatre (1 BC), excavated in 1950s

After some photo uploading and blogging, it was soon time to go back to Cum Quibus for dinner again! This time we were seated inside, and it was completely booked out so lucky we had reserved a table. They welcomed us back, and the chef gave us a little welcome glass of prosecco and dish or wild boar to try. Then I had fried egg with fresh truffle for primi, and beef tartare with fresh truffle for secondi. Yes I love my truffle!! Ryan had an amazing pig liver dish for secondi - I had never tried it but it was pretty amazing. Ryan got a dessert too, and they must have felt sorry for me as they brought me out a little tirimasu! It was delish. And as we left they brought out a gift of biscotti for us to take home. They were so sweet, the service amazing and the food superb. One of my most favourite dining experiences!

Beef tartare with asparagus, pecorino and fresh truffle

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

On our last full day in Siena we decided to go to the museum near the Duomo and walk up some small windy stairs to a viewpoint called panorama dal facciatone. It was a pretty good view of the amazing tuscan countryside. After walking up and back down through the museum we were obviously thirsty so we went to the wine museum for a couple of refreshing glasses of Chianti wine. The wine museum is in an old Medici fortress, which is a pretty cool place to sit a drink some wine.

For dinner we had booked in at a place which had a sign up saying: no pizza, no cappuccino, si maiale, si vino. We didn't need to book though as there was pretty much no one left in Siena the day after Il Palio. We asked the waitress about why there was no one around and she said it is the calm after the storm. We ordered a bunch of things and they just brought them out on platters as well as a pitcher of vino to wash it all down. After dinner we grabbed a take away aperol spritz and wandered down to the campo where they were cleaning up the dirt and gates from the craziness of the previous day.

Panaramo

The little stairwell.

The local Senese papers with the Drago winners.

Tipicci Senese.

Heidi's "cape of modesty" the church made her wear to cover up her
shoulders she was baring like the hussy she is.

The next day we drove to our new accommodation, a BnB in Panzano di Chianti. Toscana is possibly my favourite part of the world in the limited amount of world I've seen so far and Chianti country is the heart of the area I love so much. Possibly because of the delicious sangiovese wine they produce and possibly because I am an easily swayed lush. Along the way we of course stopped at a few wineries to deguste and purchase some delicious Chianti Classico and or Reserva.

One the the wineries we stopped at called Vignavecchia had this awesome lady serving us quite a few wines. She had us pin in a world map where we were from and it was surprising there were so many people from Belgium and Holland. Anyway she gave us an awesome tip for lunch. To go to this beautiful small hill town called Volpaia. So we went and it was indeed beautiful but the menu for this place was even more beautiful. Heidi had a boar ragu tagliatelle and I had a bread soup, both of which are tipici of Toscana. For main a rabbit with truffle sauce which was out of this world. We both used the bread to wipe the plate clean.

I had some propaganda spread throughout the region
to herald our arrival.

Bam, rabbit and truffles.

The menu

Volpaia

The BnB had a pool which overlooked vineyards and the rolling Tuscan hills. It was a pretty good place to setup for a few days. After settling in we went back to the old town to have a look around which took all of >1 hour in the tiny town then swung past the CO-OP(like the habberfield IGA) and grabbed some meats, cheese, tomatoes, oil and bread for dinner.

The BnB

Hard life.

My next favourite thing to a magnum of champagne is a magnum of chianti.

In the morning after a light breakfast we drove to Greve markets. There was a whole pig done as a porchetta loaf, I am not sure how they had deboned and rolled that bad boy up but it was impressive to say the least. It took all of my willpower not to get a panini there as we were saving our appetites for dinner. There was a Castello at the top of a hill so we went up there for a tasting but because we hadn't booked anything there was no places left for a tour or tasting. We went back down to the bottom where their cellar door was and got a tasting there though. The guy at the cellar door couldn't believe his colleagues up the hill were too busy for us....Allora. Afterwards we went to this other winery which had a cellar door. We tried to find it on a previous day but apparently the Castello is owned privately which is closed to the public and the winery is just using its name.

Mmmm wien probe, my favourite kind of probe.

We went home to laze by the pool and have some vino until it was time to go to dinner. Dinner was at a restaurant attached to this butchery run by Dario Cecchini, at the famous "antica macelleria". The guy comes from a long line of butchers and is a propagandist for butchery and food done the Tuscan and or Florentine way. He also has a penchant for quoting the famous Italian poet Dante hence this blogs title. You front up at dinner time for what can only be described as a heady combination of theatrics and meat sweats. When just outside the butchery the young apprentices come outside pouring everyone glasses of Chianti vino, everyone is having a great time talking and drinking, then you are invited inside the macellaeria for "Chianti Burro" or Chianti butter which is really lard and bread. It is so goddam delicious, but I had to just have one piece of bread with it as I knew there was a pile of carne to get through. Meanwhile more vino is brought around by the young butchers. Dario meanwhile is sharpening the knives in the background and setting up the cuts for dinner.

Mosaic of Dario.

The menu, you get all of this.

Fiorentina burro, basically lard.

The man in action

Porchetta, Greve market style.

Dinner is something else, more wine, then a beef tartare. Then more beef, more wine and we continue this process. It was broken up by speaking broken Italian and English to our neighbours at the massive long tables. We were next to another couple of NZers but to our right were Lombardians and the left were from I think Genoa. There was one girl who spoke both English and Italian between about 12 of us and she was kept busy whenever the conversation or hand signs broke down because of comprehension. Every meat course is preceeded by one of the young butchers emerging from the kitchens and holding the massive cut of up, then shouting its name like "BISTECCA FIORENTINA!!!". This of course is greated with more shouting and applause from the crowd and BRAVOS!...It was completely ridiculous. I cannot recommend this experience enough if you are in Toscano. Here is a clip hinting at what the experience is like.

What a Drago!

Sad to leave Florence (I loved it even more this time, since it was 10 degrees cooler than the previous visit), we caught a taxi back to the airport to collect another rental car - another little Fiat Panda. With no fuss we had the car in no time, and hit the autostrada towards Chianti country and Siena. For our long-time fans, last time we did this exact drive, I was trying to help navigate the windy roads while reading the map, which is a recipe for disaster for someone that gets car-sick. This time I pre-empted fate and popped a travel sick pill - victory! I much preferred the drive this time - up and down the hills with stunning vistas, and past all the vineyards and olive groves. Ryan had his heart set on doing some wine-tasting at a place in Greve in Chianti called Castelli di Uzzano, but the address according to Google, Trip Advisor and their own website were all different and we could not find it. Alas we pushed on past Greve in Chianti, and came across a place called Montegliari  which looked to have a bit of action going on so we popped in for some wine tasting. Oddly, the couple who poured the wines were 2 young American college kids who looked barely over 21, who had just arrived in Chianti for an "internship". They were studying political science, or something or rather totally unrelated to wine, but anyway it was nice to have a bit of a chat in English about some stuff, and good on them - they've got the right idea of how to spend a summer! So we bought a couple of bottles (if you don't, it's 5 Euros for the tasting, so you're silly not to buy buy buy).

Same-cationing at Vescine

We then continued on, and since it was only 2 years since we had done this exact drive it began to feel familiar. And then suddenly we rounded the bend and saw the vineyard, Vescine, where we had stopped for lunch last time. So in the spirit of same-cationing, we pulled in again, this time sans nausea. It's such a beautiful little spot, and again the staff were very friendly. so we tried one white and 2 reds (probably the same as last time but different vintages, so of course we had to try!). And we stayed for lunch - I had a ravioli with "sage pesto" but basically it was that naughty but delicious butter and sage sauce. And Ryan had tagliatelle with porcini mushroom. Both sooo good!

Ravioli with "sage pesto" - YUM

After our delicious lunch back at Viscine we pushed on to Siena. We had booked a different hotel in Siena this time (if it had not literally been 5 times the price as last time we would have been back there in a heart beat) but it was still in a great location. Being the afternoon before Il Palio we knew it would be very crowded and difficult to park - our hotel was full, so was the nearest pay parking station, and so it turned out was every possible parking place within a couple of kilometres! We had managed to check in and drop our bags off at the hotel thankfully, and then after circling around the area and up and down side streets, Ryan did some creative parking in somewhere probably not designed to park a car. Knowing that the Italians are pretty relaxed with most rules, we took our chances, and said Ciao to our little Fiat Panda in that spot for a couple of days.

Il Campo on Il Palio Eve

We then immediately set forth into the heart of Siena - the vibe was already electric. Siena is definitely one of my favourite places in the world, and walking back into Il Campo (the town "square", around which the race is run) was a pure joy. The dirt track was laid down, as were the surrounding gates set up, all ready for the most important race (at least 1 of 2) that Siena hosts each year. It was all very exciting, and we knew a big parade and fanfare was about to kick off soon. We picked a spot high up on an entrance to Il Campo which had a decent view, but alas we couldn't stay there (I guess because if crowds start pushing on that kind of slope then it is only bad news). But we stood there for an hour watching everyone flow into Il Campo. The beauty of this event is, although it is very crowded, most of the crowd are locals and this is when each district within the area get to claim superiority by winning the race.

Crowds flowing into Il Campo the night before Il Palio

We didn't want to brave the Il Campo crowds this particular night, so we went and sought out a nice spot for dinner instead. We wandered around the now quiet streets, and passed a place which had a sign with promises of an outdoor terrace, so we walked in and were greeted with beautiful sunset views over Siena while sitting in a quiet garden. Simply stunning. I had a beautiful herb-crusted tuna steak which was something different and a lovely change! Once the sun had set we walked around the town a bit - not only because we were lost, but also because the parade in Il Campo had finished and all the locals were sitting down to their contrada dinners. Some roads/alleyways were closed and very long tables set up to fit about 50 people for a big dinner - we could see one of them and it looked like a lot of fun with much eating, drinking, cheering and frivolity. We headed back home though, with an early start planned the next morning.

Dinner venue the night before Il Palio

The next morning we set the alarm so that we could get down to Il Campo bright and early to catch the Final Trial, where they do a couple of laps with the horses that will actually race, so that they get used to the whole setup! It was a beautiful morning, and it was fairly quiet down at Il Campo - in front of the clock tower/catherdral there was a small crowd gathered to witness a religious ceremony being performed, blessing the horses and what-not. At 9am they started bringing the horses in, and we had a spot right on the railing so could see everything. It turns out that of the 17 contrade, only 10 race (as that is all that can fit in at the starting line). This was a slight shame as in Florence we had each already picked our teams - I picked the Little Owl (as I am small but wise) and Ryan picked the Goose (as he is as silly as one). It turned out that both of them weren't rostered on for this race, dang. It didn't matter, we each bought the team colours anyway!

Panorama of Il Campo the morning of Il Palio

We understood why the lineup was limited to 10 - once they get the first 9 lined up, it gets quite squishy and the 10th horse just does not want to have to squeeze in, so there's a lot of time spent with the 10th horse hanging back refusing to budge, and then all the horses start to crack the shits so then they let all the horses step back and do a few circles around and then try it all again. We had friends that went last year and apparently that happened 17 times, and another local said sometimes the race can take 1-2 hours just to start, as that 10th horse will not go in (although we think there are some jockey tactics at play here too). Since it was just the final trial, it only took a couple of rounds, and then it was on! Although hilarilously, it was the slowest horse race I have ever seen. Evidently being the day of the big race, the final trial is just spent leisurely trotting them around the course. That meant we could at least get some good shots of them!

Front seats at the final trial

After the trial, we went back to the hotel and it was still quite early so made the hotel breakfast! We then chilled in our room working out our plan of attack. Would we try and squeeze into Il Campo to watch try and watch the race? Should we go to a bar nearby and watch it live on TV but still hear the crowd? Or should we just soak up the atmosphere before and after and actually sneakily watch the World Cup back at the hotel? We had heard that you need to get into the centre of Il Campo several hours ahead of the start, and once you are in, you cannot get out and there are not toilets or food/drink stands or anything. Also I'm not a fan of crowds, and being a little owl, I normally cannot see much when I stand in them. However there was a part of me that really wanted to be there. You can buy seats around the outside in the temporary stands they set up - these are literally 250 Euros each. If you want a balcony seat (50cm of a crappy bench in a gelati shop that is) then that is 500 Euros each. And then all the rich people pay unfathomable amounts for the balconies in the hotels. This is why most people go in to the centre "Dogs Stand" for free.

Reprezenting Little Owl and Goose districts!

We headed back to Il Campo at midday to see what was happening - the people who wanted front row were already camped out in the sun in the Dogs Stand. I commend them for their commitment. There was  bar advertising that seats were still available - ooh could they be selling cheaply at the last minute? We enquired - no, 250 Euros per person. Are you kidding me?!? Those particular seats were right in the sun, and the last in Il Campo to get the shade too.

Contrada flag (the Forest)

So we stopped for some lunch and shared some pizza. We noticed more people coming out, and the atmosphere had a real buzz and was building. I think it was then we realised we just had to be there for it. So we went back to the hotel for a bit, and got changed into appropriate gear ie. no thongs. I even donned my Italy soccer jersey - I'm not sure if that was a faux pas since they were out of the World Cup, but hey I believe you support your team in the good times and bad. We headed down, used the nearest facilities at the last possible moment, and then entered the Dogs Stand at about 5pm. There were a lot of people, but it wasn't too bad, and luckily for me Il Campo is set on a massive slope, and so we headed up one of the high corners and found a great spot, where even little me could see a lot of the track, and it got the shade pretty quickly. The next 2.5 hours passed pretty quickly, as there was yet another parade with each contrada parading their flags - they do this routine where they throw them very high to each other, and everyone cheers. So there was about 2 hours of pomp and ceremony. It's amazing to think that this race happens twice a year - it will all happen again next month!

A few hours later this gelati bar view was worth 500 Euros per person

The crowd built, but where we were standing was great - not too squishy! Finally it came to 7:30 and it was time for the horses to come out - it was so exciting, but also we were surrounded by locals wearing different colours, and you could sense how important it was to them all. Each horse was announced, and when they started to line up, it was amazing that a crowd of that size managed to hush. The 10th horse (drawn out of a hat) was not keen to line up again, but after 3 failed rounds, they were suddenly off! And boy were they quick! They do 3 laps, and one lap must only be about 400m, but it's the corners and slope that come into play in Il Palio. Oh, and did I mention the jockeys are riding bare-back?! It's common, unfortunately, for riders to fall off, or the horses to fall themselves. It doesn't matter though - whatever horse crosses first - with jockey or not - is declared the winner.

In the Dogs' Stand at Il Palio

And so 3 quick laps later, with thankfully no falls, it was all over - and the Drago (dragon) contrada were the victors! The people from that contrada then suddenly run onto the track and hug the jockey and dance around in joy! Then quickly there's another parade of each contrada and their flags, but led by the winning jockey and Drago flags. It was spectacular - I'm so glad we braved the Dogs' Stand (or didn't pay 500 Euros each!).

Flag parade post Drago win

Everyone soon piled out of Il Campo, and we headed straight to the restaurant, Zest, which we went to last time we were here. Just to complete such an awesome experience with some more same-cationing. You can check out all my Siena photos here!

Vorrei la porchetta

Even though it was an early flight and I was loving the time in Sardinia, I was pretty excited to be going to the biggest city in Tuscany, Florence, Fiorenza, Florentina, Firenze or whatever name it is going by these days is a great place to eat the magical animal. The people of Toscano have butchered, cured, salted and cooked pig in all kinds of different ways. These guys have been producing the different meats, la porchetta, lardo, salame, salsicce, soppressata, proscuitto and many more from the same delicious animal. As much as I enjoyed the frutti di mare of Sardinia it was definately time for some carne.

We grabbed a cab from the airport to our hotel which at 22 of the euros flat rate was definately easier with the luggage that a train. We went for a walk past the Duomo which was near where we were staying, around past the Ponte Vecchio and back into the city. Heidi did some shopping at her favourite dress shop Desigual and I had some Chianti wine at a convenient wine bar nearby. When it was lunch time we went to this little hole in the wall place called La Proscuitteria, luckily we got there in time as 10 minutes after ordering there was a line out the door. There was no menu the lady at the counter informed us "I am the menu". She said she could do a tasting platter for 5 euro each. I said that sounds awesome but I need the porchetta to be on there too. She nodded. The platter was awesome all kinds of cured pork products and the porchetta and a couple of glasses of  Chianti Classico to wash it down.

I want my house to look like this one day.

Ponte vecchio at sunset

The Uffizzi museum was completely sold out, goddam, we missed out on doing last time too, but due to time constraints. Florence in June is riddled with Americans. I think it is their holidays or something so it is harder to get anything done compared to when we came to Italy last time in August. August is pretty quiet because even the Italians go to the coastal spots instead of the cities inland, but August has the problem of being hot as balls. If you are coming in June/July book tickets to stuff in the Italian cities to avoid disappointment. Anyway we  walked around outside and looked at all the statues they had there. I had read about 1/3 of the way through Dante's Divine Comedy earlier this year and am contemplating picking up this ridiculously hard to read book again with renewed vigor after seeing the statue of Dante in the Uffizzi pallazzo.

I hope you are in purgatory Dante you hard to read mofo

The Dutch were playing the Mexicans in the footbal world cup. The Italians have given up on everything since L'Azzuri lost and there's not many places playing the world cup anymore. So we just looked up Irish and English pubs on google and sure enough we found one that was playing it. For dinner we went to the Pitti Cafe again south of the river near the Pitti Pallace. This place is known for its truffle meals. So we got some truffles with eggs, taggliatelli with truffle and truffle risotto. It was possibly the first vegitarian meal since leaving Sydney, but when you are putting shitloads of truffle on every dish it is quite easy to not miss le carne. It had started to rain lightly so we headed home and arrived back at the hotel just before a massive storm broke. I have to say the guys selling the bags, wrist bands, spinny copters and other stuff on the streets react quickly to the weather as we were offered about 20 umbrellas on the way home for purchase.

The next day after breakfast we climbed up Giotto's bell tower, the massive structure right next to the Duomo. Even though it was peak season, the line was nonexistant at I think around 10:30am which is unusual for Florentine attractions in the middle of the city. Anyway we went up the narrow stair ways on steps so narrow you sometimes had to put your foot parallel to the step to get any purchase on it, size 12 thongs were not an ideal choice here. Neither is having a mild case of claustrophobia as Heidi will no doubt attest to. A couple of minor freakouts, 3 floors of rest stops and 400 stairs later we were at the top. The view was well worth it and it is also good for working off one quarter of a panini.

The view up

The view down



The view out

We went to a couple of leather shops so Heidi could get a new handbag. It is a pity we weren't going to any 2 Michellin starred restaurants so that the nice new handbag could be put up on a pedastool like the last ratty old one Heidi had in Milano. I wanted a leather sachel for work to fit the laptop in, but they all looked like the man purses Jerry Seinfield gets one episode. Goddam is there any hilarious material about Italy Seinfield hasn't covered?

Lunch was at the markets, we got a plate of truffle spreads, some salumis and other cuts for 10 of the euros with a plastic cup of wine. I got a panino of porchetta too as when you are in Florence you want to eat pig products like a pig. We went for a walk across the river and around the streets and to a couple of Enotecas/Vino Bars along the way, as well as stopping at La Procuitteria again for a drink. There was another world cup game on France v Nigeria so we found a restaurant that was showing the game. We looked at the menu and it was 10 of the euros for a pint or spritz so we made the drinks last. To their credit we could have probably dined there on the snacks they provided with the drinks but we were holding back for dinner.

Quince paste on cheese is so 2000 and late.
Also notice the lack of crackers for the cheese?
They just get in the way of the flavour people!

Dinner was at this place our friend Ev had recommened called Osteria Vini e Vicchi Sapori. We had walked past too book before and it said on the menu, "no pizza, no bistecca, no ice, no cappucino, no takeaway". Obviously this was going to be awesome and tipicci della regione. It was really great, a cute little place and I think the old owner getting around still serving people. I decided I wanted a spaggetti al ragu(bolognase if you were going to try it this was a good place to do it outside of Bologna which was a fail last trip). We also got a pidgeon ragu pasta. Then for mains I got trippa alla fiorentina and Heidi had the carparccio. Fuck yeah, pork, pigeon, raw beef and stomach all in the in the one dinner. I was happier than a pig in errr piggie canibal land who also eats birds and cows.

The dinner was awesome. I just wish I had earbuds for the americans. Their voices seem to penetrate your own table conversation. It is not just their accent and volume. Americano quotes from nearby:
"That's pigeon? Oh no, we're not getting the pigeon".
"What's trippa?". The waiter just said if you don't know what it is you shouldn't order it.
Why don't they just go get some pizza or a freaking burger? There were other dumb things said also but luckily I had forgotten them or I would be too inscensed with rage to continue the holiday.