Firenze - How Do We Love Thee?

Let us count the ways....!

Brian and I have been to Florence two times before.  And, to be extra clear, we have been to Italy two times before.  Once, in 1994 when my parents took all four of us on a trip to Italy as a grad-school graduation gift (we went to Rome, Florence, Parma and Milan) and once in 2000 when Brian took me to Europe for a month for my birthday (Amsterdam, Paris, Montreux, Florence and Positano).  After the second time, we both had developed a feeling of "meh" toward Florence.  Looking back now, I really can't explain why.  Perhaps it wasn't new to us like the other cities on the second tour.  Perhaps we were just idiots.

The boys sitting on the window of our apartment

In addition to this predisposition to Florence, I had a new view of Florence, the view of my Italian teacher, a Sarde who had lived in Rome nearly her whole life, she often joked about how Florence wasn't a "città", it was a "cittina" (Italians put "ina/ino" at the end of words to make them diminutive).  She admitted that she was a big snob (her own words) about Florence, and I definitely took it all with a grain of salt because I have seen how truly territorial Italians can be about their towns and regions, but I'm sure it influenced my anticipation of going back to Florence.

It all started on the right foot when we checked in to our apartment.  We had a pretty good experience with our Rome apartment but had just come from a relatively negative experience with our Sicily house.  The idea of dealing with another apartment that was not as it seemed from the photos had caused me angst.  After a long day of travel - by car from house to Palermo airport, fly to Rome, train to Florence - we were greeted in Piazza S. Lorenzo right outside the apartment by "Mr. Filippo".  The apartment was great: charming, nicely decorated, comfy beds, air conditioning in every room (including living room) and small kitchen and two bathrooms.  Whew!  I love you again Florence, I'm sorry I ever doubted you!!

The San Lorenzo market - yummmmmm

The food was really what turned us all around for good!  Partially it was an issue of what we were used to but truly it was also just empirically delicious food.  We had developed a way of eating "family style" which really worked well.  I will probably write a separate post on this.  Morning beverages were caffè macchiato for Brian and me, lattè macchiato for Ale and succo d'arancia or water for the boys.  Pastries of one sort or another for everyone but Brian who did well finding some savory breakfast options.  Lunch and dinner were usually similar to each other with prosciutto and melon, mozarella and tomatoes, salumi plates, risotto and pasta dishes and cutlets, meatballs and steaks.  And, one thread of consistency throughout our trip: gelato!

View from the top of the Duomo

Something else that really fit well with us in Florence is the smallness of it.  Yes, exactly what my Italian teacher complained about!  But, its smallness allowed us to explore, especially with kids, and see much of the city.  We walked everywhere and took transit never.  We saw Boboli Gardens, the Uffizi Gallery, climbed to the top of the Duomo, visited the Leonardo Da Vinci museum and the Galileo Museum.  We walked to restaurants and gelaterias all over town.  We walked across the Ponte Vecchio and to the grocery store. I walked to go shopping and to get my hair cut.

So, Brian and I have been to Florence 3 times now.  We no longer think "meh" - and I know we will be back.  Someday.

A Day in Bologna

Almost immediately after we arrived in Florence, we left Florence to take a day trip to Bologna.  We called it our "giorno di gusto" and the primary purpose of our trip was to enjoy food famous in the region of Emilia-Romagna, and, in fact, the world.

The day was scorchingly hot so we were lucky and happy that Bologna is a town of porticoes.  After purchasing a little map of the historic center, we made our way to Gelateria Stefino on via Galliera relatively close to the train station.  It is just a tiny storefront but we were glad we didn't miss it.  The boys had strawberry and chocolate granita, one on top of the other in their cups, Brian had salted caramel and I had grapefruit granita.  Amazing!  We continued to walk to the center of town and proceeded to look for Eataly Bologna. 

Eataly was founded on the principals of the slow food movement and there are now store-restaurants in Italy, the United States and Japan.  Eataly Bologna would be our third Eataly (after New York and Rome) and we were excited to see another.  While the Eatalys in New York and Rome are gigantic, sprawling, jaw-dropping affairs, the Eataly in Bologna seems to be paired with a wonderful book store.  The first level was primarily books, the second level still contained many books, but among them books about food, recipe books, food items for sale and a couple of small eating areas.  The third level was even more food and more places to eat.  We sat down in and eating area which had only cold foods: salads, cheeses, meats and beverages.  We ate well!  

After lunch, we saw Piazza Maggiore and the statue of Neptune (yes, a statue of Neptune in a land-locked town).  The story of this statue goes like this: a french sculptor created the statue and in its original form Neptune was rather, ahem, well-endowed.  The pope at the time did not approve of such proportions (jealous, I guess) and demanded it be adjusted.  The sculptor did as commanded, but made sure that, when viewed from a certain angle the outstretched hand of Neptune (and, in particular, his index finger) told us that Neptune is "a grower not a shower".  The fountain was not completely operational on this day.  Unfortunately, the water that is supposed to spray out of the nipples of the maidens around the base of the sculpure were dry...

Nate with his NOT fidanzata

The day was so hot and I was miserable, but Brian encouraged us to try to stay until our originally planned 9pm train back to Florence.  So, we found a taxi which took us to Giardini Margherita which I had read had a hot-air balloon you could ride straight up for a view of the city.  When we arrived, we did not find it and a brief internet search explained that the hot air balloon was removed (for unknown reasons) in 2008.  But, we paid for our taxi and went into the garden, instead finding a playground for the kids, some water and a little patch of shade.  There was an italian girl of 10 years who took a liking to Nate.  She asked me in Italian if he had a "fidanzata" which means a very serious girlfriend (like fiancée) and I told her no, he didn't.  She told Ale and I that her "fidanzato" was Japanese and too bad that Nate didn't have a girlfriend...  In spite of a slightly boy-crazy girl dominating conversations and inventing new games for everyone to play, they boys had a great if extremely sweaty time.  

We had successfully managed to fight through the heat and remain in Bologna long enough to enjoy one more meal on our "giorno di gusto" so we made our way to our dinner reservations.  We had another delicious meal and the boys were treated like royalty, as usual.  Afterwards, we waddled our way back to the train station and back to Florence.  We had been to Bologna before, but had not relished it like we did this time.  And if living in Philly has taught us something, it has taught us how to "lean into" the heat.  Thanks, Brian, for encouraging us!

The road less traveled

Everyone has a different travel philosophy.  And, what might work for one person, at one particular time in their life, might not work for that same person at a different time.  Certainly, Brian and I notice the differences between this trip to Italy and the two previous times we came here.  So, the following is not to say that our way is right, I am merely taking a moment to appreciate a couple of cool experiences we have had because of our approach on this trip.  While in Sicily, we had two distinct experiences which rewarded us for our flexibility and spontaneity.

Altofonte
We were renting a house near the town of Castellammare del Golfo which is approximately 40 minutes west of Palermo, one of Sicily's largest cities.  Palermo is a big, crowded and, at times dirty city.  But, it also has some unique open-air markets and is known for it's marionettes (museum and shows).  So, one day, we got a fairly early start to our day and hopped into the car to brave Palermo.  We made it into the city and it became clear pretty quickly that parking was going to be extremely difficult in this city.  Further, the roads were twisting and complicated enough that several times we could not drive the direction we had set out to go.  So.... before long, we decided that Palermo wasn't in the cards for us and we set to redirect generally back to our little house.  Well, easier said than done!

With Brian at the wheel and me navigating (and boys and Ale in back), we tried to get back to the main road to our house.  I saw what looked like an interesting smaller road where, perhaps we would see a few pretty sights on our way back and maybe stop somewhere for breakfast.  The map clearly showed that the roads were narrow and twisting, but we weren't prepared for the steep climb and that these narrow roads would have lots of CARS parked on both sides!  Yikes!  These conditions meant that turning around wasn't an option, either!  So, there we were in little Altofonte (means tall spring) Italy.  We hadn't planned it, but there we were.  There was even a point where Brian had turned  toward "Centro" and found himself not sure he could physically navigate the car (a 4-door sedan, but not a huge car) around some buidlings and between other cars.  There were one or two cars behind us in close quarters, so turning around wasn't an option either.  So, I got out and carefully guided him through the maze that is Altofonte.  (We wish we could have stopped to take a photo!) We all remained calm and had a good laugh when I was able to get back into the car.  We decided to not follow any more signs toward "Centro"!  We were finally able to get our car pointed back down and away from the town but still hadn't had breakfast.  As we were driving, Ale hollered from the back seat, "Caffetteria!  Stop the car!"  This time, it was her eagle eye that saved us.  Luckily, there was a place to park and we all hauled out for something to eat.

The caffetteria or pasticceria we found was truly amazing.  It is called Love Story and we tried a little bit of everything.  You can find and "like" them on Facebook.  :-)  We had two types of arancini (the filled and fried rice balls) that were the best we had in Sicily, amazingly beautiful ice cream on-a-stick creations, pastries and coffee.  The staff was extremely friendly and patient - we could not have been more ecstatic to find this place!

Baida
The other discovery came a few days later when we decided to investigate the little coastal town of Scopello.  It is smaller than the small Castellammare del Golfo, but closer to our rental house and so we planned to head over and give it a try for dinner.  We arrived at what we thought was Scopello and didn't find much appealing for dinner but saw an orange sign for Ristorante Baida which we decided to follow.  We drove the direction the sign had pointed us until we were sure we had gone too far, but then we saw another orange sign, saying "Ristorante Baida".  Then, it happened again, and again, and again.  There were probably 10-12 orange signs and between each a period of time that made us think, "what the heck"?  We had wound and climbed into the hills above Scopello and could see the town far below us.  Brian even started making Deliverance jokes and wondered when someone was going to step into the road and say, "Where you going, city boy?"  Eventually, he used the mapping app on his Italian phone, saw where we were and where Ristorante Baida might be.  At this point, we were very worried about what this dinner would be like and how long it might take us to redirect to something else.  But, we soldiered on and eventually arrived at what was clearly a large family piece of land with some farm spaces, a little restaurant and a few other buildings.  We were welcomed in warmly and seated with a lovely view of the coast below us.

The waitress (and owner, for all we know) was extremely helpful.  The menu was large, but we figured with a place like this that there were certainly specialties of the house that we should try.  She kindly offered suggestions for all courses which turned out to be wonderful, fresh and tasty.  The weather high up was mild with a nice breeze.  All-in-all, we were rewarded with a wonderful dinner and an experience we won't forget.  And, in the end, Brian was able to find a different route back to our house that didn't involve retracing our steps.

So, in the moments when I am frustrated by aspects of this "slow travel", I remind myself of what opportunities this approach offers.  

The Repeat Customer

Before we even left for Italy, Brian and I wondered, in each location, will we find some places (restaurants, bars, shops) that we like a lot and frequent and re-frequent them or will we try different places all the time?  Certainly the latter is a tempting approach since it's human nature to think that there might be something better if we just keep trying to find it.  But, we didn't really know how it would turn out.  This "slow travel" concept is new to us and we just couldn't predict what we'd do.

It has turned out that we have had some places we repeat, either because of the convenience of the location or the greatness of the place itself.  There was a pizzeria, for example, in Rome that was very near a stop along our tram, "l'otto".  The service was sometimes brusque but the pizza was awesome and inexpensive.  The boys liked it AND, there was a good gelateria nearby.  Similarly, there was a pasticceria and a supermarket along the same tram line which we frequented a number of times.

special caffe marocchino - for "regulars" only?

Similarly, near Scuola Leonardo DaVinci, my Italian language school, there was a bar, Bar Gio which I frequented nearly every one of the 15 days I had school.  Some days it was just for a bottle of cold sparkling water but many times it was also for a cup of espresso or caffe marocchino standing at the bar between classes.  A caffe marocchino is an espresso with cocoa syrup on the bottom of the glass, a tiny bit of steamed milk inside and a sprinkle of cocoa powder on top.  Usually this was presented unceremoniously as Bar Gio, while a perfectly nice place, is not one of those famous places which makes designs in your milk foam or some such frivolity.  But, on my last day of classes, when I arrived outside of the normal school break schedule to sit and study for my final-day test, I ordered a bottle of water, a marocchino and a small pastry.  I cannot help but feel that what I got was not just due to the boredom of the barista but because he recognized me and hopefully even saw my Italian and my accent improve over the 3 weeks that I had been ordering from him.

Anyway, I'm curious, does this experience extend to the rest of Italy?  And, can it be seen in America? Relationships are important - more important than we credit, I imagine...

The town of Erice and a culinary journey

We are staying near the town of Castellammare del Golfo, which is west of Palermo on the island of Sicily.  But, west of here and atop a hill there is a small town of Erice (pronounced EH-ree-cheh) which, while it can be reached by car, is commonly reached by cable car, it is so high above nearby towns.  

Sam with his granita and the sugo arancino

So, one morning we drove to the base of the cable car in Trapani/Erice, bought our round-trip tickets and hopped on to the nearest cable car. For those who have ever taken a ski lift in the summer it was not anything special. Ale, Nate and Sam, however, had never taken a cable car in the Summer, so for them, it was exciting and new. At the top, we had the privilege to walk up even more hills!

One of the first places we arrived at was a small cafe/bar, at which we promptly stopped and ordered water and coffee to start. We had yet to eat Sicilian granita which we felt earned the hype, so we tried again. The boys each ordered 'arancia' (orange) and I ordered caffè con panna (coffee with cream). The boys granite arrived in lovely glass dishes with a pretty flower-shaped swirl on top. The granita itself was delicious, a natural orange flavor with a smooth texture while still being dense. Mine was served in the same type of dish but my granita had whipped cream on top. The consistency of my granita was more course but had a true coffee flavor which was delicious with the cream.

The miniscule 'sidewalk' Nate found

We also ordered arancini, which I knew to be a Sicilian specialty from our former (Sicilian) au pair, Donia, having had told us about them. Arancini are fried rice balls. There seem to be 2 types: prosciutto and sugo. The prosciutto has an inner core of ham and mozzarella surrounded by a layer of rice which is then breaded and fried. The sugo has rather same breaded and fried outer portion with a tomato-meat-peas sauce center. They were both delicious! Donia's mom told us they were too difficult to make, but I can guarantee that Brian and/or I will be trying it at home some time this year...

After our hunger and thirst was satisfied, we took off to discover Erice. It is an interesting town which has been relatively untouched by the ravages of time and plundering.  Because of Sicily's position between Europe and Africa, there have been numerous countries/civilizations in control over the years, which creates a fascinating mix of architectural styles and influences.  It was a hot day and the town is quite hilly, but we persevered in exploring the town.  Nate did discover a very narrow "sidewalk" which we took as part of our tour of town.  We visited a few different shops, finding quite a different assortment of geegaws and postcards and eventually settled in another bar/cafe for a lunchtime snack of sliced cured meats, a mixed salad, a little pizza and LOTS of water, frizzante and naturale.  As a brief side note, Sam has somehow dug in his heels about sparkling (frizzante) water here, in Italy.  While he used to drink sparkling water at home, he now says that he doesn't like it and only will drink "NORMAL" water.  The rest of us drink sparkling water and so, most times we order him his own special small bottle of "normal" water.  We have tried to resist this tyranny, but he has held steadfast!

Bar della Loggia in Erice, our best gelato in Italy!

While having our snack, we noticed a gelateria across the piazza and told the boys they could have a gelato after we ate.  They had been, after all, great troupers through the day and earned themselves a treat.  We went over and I got a lemon granita and they each got gelato on cones.  In a little isolated tourist town in Sicily, we found what I consider the BEST gelato we have had here in Italy so far!  There have been contenders to be sure, but this was so unexpected and wonderful!

The view coming down from Erice to Trapani

Having had our fill of wonderful sights, a lot of walking and climbing and many Sicilian culinary discoveries, we made our way to the cable car and back down.  If you ever find your way to western Sicily, it is true, Erice is not to be missed!

Happy Birthday Sam!

Our captain, Stefano, driving us away from Castellammare del Golfo

Sam turned 4!  Or, as it is conceptualized in Italian, Sam now has 4 years.  Our age is not our identity ("I am 4") but something that we have, something that has happened to us, but has not defined us.  Sam ha 4 anni - he has 4 years.

I knew when we scheduled this trip for June and July that our boys would celebrate their birthdays here, in Italy, away from their friends and family and away from a place where it would be practical to give them many gifts or take them to Dave and Busters or Chuck E. Cheese.  Nate understood this and accepted it, but I wasn't sure how much Sam understood.  So, on the morning of his birthday, there were a half a dozen balloons (filled with air, not helium) saying "Tanti Auguri" and a few cards that friends and family members had sent to me before our trip.

The middle of the day was relatively ordinary for vacation standards, but part of the time was spent organizing a birthday dinner for him (and us!).  At around 7pm, we dressed into slightly fancier clothes and made our way to Castellammare del Golfo, a town near here for a dinner boat cruise.  We boarded a pontoon boat to find a table for 5 and a nice young guy named Stefano (who spoke no English!) who would take us around the little gulf and serve us a dinner we had preselected.

Our boat putted around as we dined on prosciutto e grana (cured ham with parmesan cheese), risotto with seafood, veal cutlets and fried calamari.  After a stop to view the (almost) full moon and take some inspiring photos of the little town, water and moon, Stefano served watermelon and cannoli (instead of birthday cake).  We lit a "4" candle, placed it in the watermelon and sang "Tanti Auguri a te" to Sam.

No, not your typical 4-year-old birthday, but one we will always remember, even if he doesn't.  Happy Birthday, Sam!  We love you so much and are so thankful we could share this birthday with you on this trip of a lifetime!

La via alla scorrevolezza

Imparare un altra lingua e un viaggio.  Non c'è un altro modo di pensargli.  Ho ascoltato altre personne dice che loro stanno volendo diventare perfetti con una nuovo lingua.  Secondo me, questo è un sbaglio.  Ho cominciato parlare inglese 42 anni fa e io non sono perfetta con l'inglese!  La mia migliore amica parla tre lingue: e mentre lei parla bravissima l'inglese, ci sono volte quando lei trova una parola che non capire or ricordare.  Questo è normale.  Allora, se non voglio ottenere perfezione con l'italiano, cosa obbietivi dovrei avere?

Certamente, le tre settimane in cui ho studiato a Roma, mi stavano aiutando decidere (o firmare) cosa io voglio da l'italiano.  Presto, dovrò decidere dove va il mio imparando.  Ma, qui sono alcuni delle mie obbietivi in Italiano:

• Vorrei migliorare il mio leggendo, ascoltando, scrivendo e sopratutto parlando dell'italiano.  Questo obbietivo aver bisogno di molte cose.
• Vorrei parlare l'italiano abbastanza corretemente che possa parlare a casa con i bambini senza dover cambiare all'inglese per communicare.  Trovo che quando cambio ad inglese, di solito rimango là.
• Vorrei guadagnare una certificazione che, un giorno, mi aiuterà trovare un lovoro in cui parlerò Italiano (e l'inglese).

Non so dove questo viaggo mi fa, ma sta essendo un buonissimo viaggio.  Adoro l'italiano!