Florence

Somehow this Florence post got away on me (I had a nasty French flu bug and then our Rome visit popped up), but we had such an interesting week in the area that I couldn't let it slip by altogether.  Truly, our stay felt to me like a slice of history, art and food heaven...most within minutes walk from the apartment we rented.   

View from the Uffizi Gallery (Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Springtime highlights for all 4 of us)  looking down to the Ponte Vecchio and the River Arno.  The bridge used to house butcher shops but now mostly small jewellry stores.  When we were picked up from the train station and driven to our rental apartment along the river it was quickly evident why it is thought to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

You could smell the leather before you could see it!  The Florence leather market, where I could have spent much more time and money.

The apartment we rented was within the walls of what used to be a 13th century castle only half a block away from the Santa Croce Basilica.  Grace loved the ancient rings built into the side of many buildings for tieing up horses, including this one right outside the entrance to our building.  I wonder how many kids have done exactly the same over the centuries?

From Florence we took a bus and visited Siena for a day.  Here the girls are in the huge Piazza del Campo.  

We ate such delicious food on this trip.  One restaurant just down the street from us was rated very well on  "Trip Advisor" and, boy, were all the positive comments right.  We tasted the best lasagna any of us had ever eaten and shared some chocolate/pear pie that exceeded any dessert expectations:  we literally had to pry little Lily fingers from the plate to get her to stop licking it afterwards.  At a pizza place across the road they made their own special balsamic vinegar almost as thick as ketchup that was served with olive oil to dip  pizza bread in - we went back twice just for that starter.  Add onto this the best cappucino at only .90 cents and a 1 Euro pastry that I continue to try to find here in France (so far, without any luck).  Grace and I went back 4 times in one visit to buy yet another pastry to share.  Above, Grace is eating lunch in the town of Lucca.  Grace wanted a pasta with a cream sauce before we left Italy, and she hit pasta jackpot at the "Lucca In Tavola".  The only meal to have topped this, she claims, was a meal of Beijing noodles she remembers from our adoption trip for Lily.  

We spent our last day before flying out of Pisa in Lucca.  After the great eats, we took a walk on top of the wall surrounding the town (photo above) and then wandered through the pedestrian only streets of the city centre.  Lucca was charming, relaxing and quaint.  We were thankful to have made the effort to see it.

"A gelato a day keeps young travellers' grumpies away."  Lily's favourite flavours were anything with chocolate.  Grace was looking for the perfect match for "crema" (the mandarin/crema combo received top marks).

On New Year's Eve we found ourselves in a country hotel outside of Pisa where a few surprises awaited us.  First of all, it didn't take us long to discover we had ants in our room.  Thankfully they were of the small, innocuous variety, but still numerous enough that 3 steps in any direction guaranteed ant carcass on your socks.  As no other rooms were available, the fellow at the office was most anxious to solve our (and their!) problem. He was back in a flash with a large canister from which he freely started shaking some surely toxic white powder around that frightened me way more than our tiny roommates.  We quickly stopped him and I wore shoes for the rest of the night and the girls made a game out of moving around the room without touching the floor. 

 Secondly, our hopes that we could hit up the neighbouring restaurant for a bite to eat were quickly quashed: sold out New Year's meal.  Yikes.  Stuck car-less in a country hotel room and with no real food prospects, Barry decided to head over and talk to the restaurant and see if he could wrangle some food for us.  At first he told the girls to stay in the room, but I quickly suggested that if we were to have any chance at eating real food that night, he'd need the girls.  Bingo!  Barry explained the situation to the hostess and she quickly headed into the kitchen repeatedly talking about "bambinos".  Barry could see the cook doing a whole lot of head shaking (after all, he had 50 people on their way for a 4 course meal), but he was eventually worn down and the picture above shows what he had ready for us an hour later.  When Barry saw  food enough for 4 families and knowing that he had been inconvenienced on a very busy night, Barry tried to offer the cook some more money, but he was very gracious and wouldn't hear of it. 

Once again, three cheers for Italian hospitality!