Cooking class

Today's big event was the cooking class.  We thought that it would be just us, but a couple from New Jersey and their two daughters also joined in.  We made:  pasta with eggplant and zucchini blossoms, pan fried sea bream and fruit tart for dessert.  It was a tremendous amount of fun, and I learned a lot...  not only about how to improve my pasta-making skills, but also how to fillet a fish plus a great tip to help keep tart pastry from falling apart prior to baking.  Here are a few pics:
                                                        Beginning to roll out the pasta:

It's getting bigger

                                                             The completed sheet of pasta

                                                             Cutting the pasta

De-boning the sea bream

Plating the fish

Apparently half of the class was not ready to say "cheese"

"Cheese"

Sea Bream completo

We rode home from class on the double-decker tourist bus and so could rest assured that David is still watching over the city

The Duomo from Piazza Michelangelo

Tomorrow (Tues. 7/5) we leave Florence and start travelling through the small Medieval villages of Tuscany.  Good night until then.

A Pitti Party

We went to the Pitti Palace today and it was very good.  We saw some really excellent art from 15th and 16th centuries once again, but this time I found it much more interesting (probably because it was a bit more secular).We also quickly toured the Royal Apartments...  lavish and self-indulgent conspicuous wealth, but the art continued to be a joy to see.  We also saw the Modern Art Gallery, which doesn't mean Pollock or DeKooning, but Italian artists from the 17th century through to the Impressionists.  So, coming just recently from the Biennale, this "modern art" seemed very quaint indeed.  But it still was very interesting to see, and the ability to render light continued to be a wonder through the entire art collection.

This sculpture is at the front of the museum, and it's interesting because there is really nothing in the museum which approaches this level of "contemporary artness"

The Pitti Palace

View out to the Boboli Gardens from museum

As it turned out, our tickets did not allow us entry to the Boboli Garden or the Costume Gallery, but we found an Enoteca directly across from the museum which I thought had been recommended on Tripadvisor... so we went there for lunch.

                                 View toward the Pitti Palace from Pitti Gola E Cantina

Dawn's wine:  delicate, fruity, mostly dry;  selected by staff so don't know the type or brand, etc.

          Dawn's pick for food:  a lasagna with slow-cooked beef...  delicious and a bargain at 8e

The wine chosen for me:  a Brunello, lush and delicious from Montelcino; and check out the wine carafe:  its purpose is to let the wine breathe before pouring

Absolutely, flipping amazing hand-made raviolis:  filled with spinach and ricotta; served with shaved truffles and pecorino cheese; also 8e

We were a bit puzzled with the wine and food pairings, as they both seemed to violate the usual rule of delicate wine with delicate food, etc., but we agreed that both pairings worked, and we were generally in gastronomic heaven

If possible, I would like to return to this Pitti enoteca  before we leave Florence.  Yup, it was THAT good!

Saturday night in Florence

We walked around the historical district tonight and ran into a whole lot of revelers, plus some amazing music. 

We strolled past storefronts...

with sweets 

                                                                            past cafes

                                                        to the Ponte Vecchio area

                                                                      to the bridge itself

 

                                                                    on the Ponte Vecchio

                                                      A folk-rock duo on the Ponte Vecchio

                                                       Back from the Ponte Vecchio

                      To happen upon a full orchestrated, choral concert playing the 1812 Overture

                                     

 

                 After a little bit of pizza and  beer, we called it a good night and are ready for a long rest.

A Million and One Madonnas

Today we got up relatively early (at 8:30) in order to  be at the Uffizi Gallery for our 10am ticket time.  It's nearby, so the walk was short.  The museum itself, however, is a gargantuan maze of 15th and 16th century art.  And you don't really realize what a maze it is until you have lugged yourself up three flights of stairs, waited until pretty much the last minute before heading to a restroom, and then found out that the only one is four flights down in the basement.  (Well OK, there was one tiny one on the 2nd floor with a long line; I elected to go to the large one on the bottom floor).  My map indicated restrooms on each floor, so first I checked out every inch of the third floor before asking and being directed to the bottom floor.  And then I began following the toilet arrows.  These directed you back and forth, in and out, of every installation the gallery had, before reluctantly leading you to stairs.  Finally I got down to the ground floor, but still more arrows:  through  five segments of the gift shop, through the entrance, down another flight of stairs, over several meters of very uneven stone... to FINALLY the bathroom.  I admit to muttering some pretty ungenerous things the whole circuitous way down to the basement.

This will give you a good gauge of my refinement level I suppose, but seeing at least a million paintings of the Madonna and baby Jesus are not really my idea of riveting entertainment.  It doesn't seem as if artists were able to depict much emotion until the 16th century, making most of the 15th work look flat and homogeneous.   It is true that there is much more to the Uffizi than that, but it's set up to have you see the earlier work before your tenacity is rewarded with Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.

Here are a few samples:

 The comment made by someone viewing this:  "That's pretty hard to do".  Gasp.

                              Remember Sesame Street?  One of these is not like the others....

Here is a nice exception:  this is Madonna With Child and Two Angels by Filippo Lippi painted c.1465

View of the Uffizi corridor, third floor

I'll leave you with pictures of another sort of art:

Panna Cota

                                                                           Tiramisu                        

Florence Pt. 1

On Thursday morning June 30 we left Venice via a Eurostar train for Florence.  The train was crowded, but fast.  We chose Class 2 thinking that there might be fewer Americans  and more Italians, but I'm not sure that turned out to be the case.  "Where 'ya from?"   "Newark.  You?"   At any rate, we had assigned seats and slept pretty much the whole way. 

Once in Florence we decided to take a taxi because we were tired, hot and I didn't really know the way to walk to the hotel: two minutes ride = 14 euros.  Not the best bargain imaginable.

Because the internet had been closed to us for so long, I didn't have access to the hotel address and so had to walk around the Duomo  rather aimlessly looking for a sign.  Eventually, after enlisting some help, we found our B&B.

It's called "A Florence View" and I would say it's aptly named.  What do you think?

                                This is what we see from our window: the Baptistry and the Duomo

                                                                            Our room

                     Huge wardrobe, handpainted                          

                                                                Painting on the ceiling

                                              Modern bathroom, looks as if just renovated

Breakfast, delivered to the room 

This is just about my ideal place to stay:  plenty of history, pretty, comfortable, the people who run it are great, and it's a bargain at less than 100 euros a night.  The only downside I see at this point is some noisy revelry going on past midnight outside (the windows block a lot of noise but not all of it; earplugs took care of the problem entirely), and there are three flights of stairs to climb... but the owners are so nice about the luggage, insisting on carrying it up for you. 

After demolishing the marvelous breakfast, we walked down towards the Arno, passing boutiques with famous names spashed all over them... a playground for the rich, I guess.  There was a Rolex store with people actually in it, buying things.  We got to the Ponte Vecchio just as a fairly large thunder storm started unloading, so we hung out in the museum until the worst of it had passed and then bought some

thin plastic ponchos just for insurance.

                                                                          The Ponte Vecchio

 Just like mushrooms, the guys with umbrellas and ponchos spring up at the first drops of rain: "How much?"  "Five euros"  "Forget it"  "WAIT... seven euros for TWO"  "Two?  OK"  (while I'm fumbling for the money, he makes a deal with the next customer for three euros)  "Wait a minute!  Here's six."  And he says "OK".  Probably he gets them for pennies, but it's also a rough way to make a living...  waiting for the rain. 

We found our way back to the Duomo and because the rain temporarily drove the tourist masses "underground", we got in quite rapidly.  It's very eyecatching on the outside but much more subdued inside.  The space itself is huge, however;  it can accomodate 20,000 people at one time!!  I am happy to report that there were considerably fewer than that when I was there.  The voluminous interior dates from the 15th century, and some beautiful stained glass from that time as well.  The flashy exterior, however, was done in the 19th century;  it replaced the original which was destroyed in the late 1500's.  Three centuries is a long time to wait for "clothes".

                                                                 The Duomo Interior

After a bit of blogging, we wandered around the area where the B&B is located (Centro Storico) looking for specific places to eat that had been recommended by TripAdvisor.  After several wrong turns and the #1 rated place rather snottily telling us that they were booked solid up until the day we leave, we found a pretty good place:  La Bussola.  We sampled the soup de Mare (unbelievably excellent... mussels and clams in a garlic and tomato  broth, then shared a really thick kind of pasta cut into triangles in pesto, followed by prawns in a rich sauce... all with Proseco and red wine.  The only problem really was not being able to fit in dessert .

       Goodnight from the Duomo

Goodbye Venice!

A few last bits:

Here are a couple of photos taken one night after dinner.  The location is very close to our apartment.

And now for the rest of what we saw of the Biennale.  Again, it will just be a taste of it...  plus I can't possibly post all of the related information such as artist's name and country of origin.  (Though, if it is important for you to know about specific pieces, email me and I'll get the info. to you).

This is the James Turrell room... brilliant!  He modifies your perception of space with only lighting.  Walking into it, you are convinced that you are about to walk into a wall, (that orange space is the portal).  Once through to the other side, the beautiful blue room emerges, but slowly because it seems as if you are surrounded by mist and nothing is defined... including the floor.  Loved this!!

And more:

                         A wonderful dragon made from inner tubes and hand-stitched together

                      

 Intricate wax sculptures...  candles!  Lit at the beginning of the exhibit and will continuously burn until November.  And yes, that one on the left is a candle too!!

From a room full of these huge and wonderful clay sculptures;  I believe the title of the entire assemblage was, "Now I Can Be With My Son".

This is a panel (and some closeups) of The Faces of One Thousand Warriors

Sculpture outside the Arsenale

 Wonderful, detailed sculptures

 Photography

We went to three outlying islands on our last day in the Venice area:

   Burano, famous for colorful buildings and lace

Tintoretto:  the first settlers in Venice were here 

 Murano, where the glassblowers produce magic plus copious amounts of souvenirs

The last evening

Mary (on the left) and Lillian wave goodbye as they waved hello one week ago

The week went by much too fast.