Firenze, Toscana, e Roma

recently consumed

cities: firenze, sam gimignano, siena, orvieto, roma

tasting notes

We have returned from our trip, returned to work, but certainly not returned to our old way of life. Things will never be the same. Cooking will never be the same, breakfast, coffee, drinking wine. The urge to say “grazie” often and to everbody has been hard to overcome. While I’m working on cataloging our photos and transferring my journal entries to blog articles, I figured I’d finish up my mini-blogs with the final days of our trip, which represent a polarity of the best and worst of Italian life. From nirvana-inducing meals of Florentine steak and SuperTuscans to an onslaught of tourist traps, crappy pizza joints, and loud Americans.

FIRENZE

Arrive in Firenze by train at night, just enough time to see the statues at night over some thick cups of cocoa. This is a city of art. Such beauty and effort put into every muscle and expression. Visited the Uffizi in the morning to see ornate ceilings and paintings from various eras, it’s overwhemling.

Grab some picnic supplies (we’ve become addicted to fresh prosciutto parma) and head across river to high grounds. Get a great view from the Boboli Gardens, a great divide with the city of Firenze on one side with its duomo and honking horns and the gorgeous green landscape of the Tuscan hills on the other side.

Sunset, wine, nap. Awake to nightime Firenze filled with people and the smell of food.

SIENA / TOSCANA

Firenze killed our digital camera. 500 pictures in one day and our camera gives up its life, we hear the death throttle in the middle of the night. Have to visit “Media World” to get a new one, then off to Tuscany. First stop is Sam Gimignano, famous for its white wines and ancient towers. Then to Siena, where we check into our “apartment” which is gloriously huge with a full kitchen. We go into town to get a night time view of the famous Piazza del Campo.

Siena makes a good home base for exploring Tuscany. Much (a lot actually) is closed for the season. Chuiso fino a marzo. Our Garmin waivers between not working at all and dumping us into a vineyard, like actually into the vines. However, we finally find all that we are looking for at Castello Brolio… incredible Chianti Classico and SuperTuscans (the best wines of our trip), an ancient castle with a view of the bright yellow autumn hillside, and a steak twice the size of my head and twice the price of fairly great bottle of wine.

The steak was our only meal for the entire day that day, but we were able to use the kitchenette at least once. Using some goodies we picked up from around Tuscany, I made a meal of pappardelle with sundried tomatoes and porcini. We taste our first Brunello di Montalcino at Enoteca Italia, and my mouth will never forget the thick dark liquid and its explosive flavor.

MONTALCINO

On our journey to Roma, we stop in the town where Brunello comes from. We taste several more through out the day, both at Enoteca Fortezza and Castello Banfi, but none compare to the first Brunello we had, one that we snagged for a mere 23 euro (about 33 USD), which is a ridiculous bargain even at the terrible exchange rate. Tom attempts to eat fresh olives from the trees, which are everywhere, and isn’t too pleased with the results.

ORVIETO

After an amazing six course lunch (only place we could find that was open), we visit Orvieto, another city known for its white wines and ancient structures. Orvieto is a hillside town known for the “city” underneath the city, which consists of ancient rooms that were used for various purposes including making olive oil and storing pigeons.

ROMA

Roma is busy from the moment we arrive. No traffic laws, vespas everywhere. The city is thick with tourists, and over the next 24 hours, they grate on my state of Tuscan bliss. We find solace by spending much of our time in the back alleys of Navona, hopping from wine bar to wine bar, sampling all that the Roman nightlife has to offer. One of our favorite (although highly popular) daily stops was Della Roma, whose claim to fame is the 100 flavors of gelato of which we were only able to conquer 12 before our time in the city ended.

Roma was probably our least favorite place on our trip, but we still made the most of what it had to offer. Beyond the enjoyable nightlife, Roma is quite interesting for being an ancient city within a modern city. Wherever you turn, you see fountains, sculptures, and ruins against the shops and billboards. Some of it is strikingly beautiful, some of it is downright ugly. This all exhibited best in the “old city” where the Colosseum is located.

Boring day at the Vatican, rained out of the park… our best Rome experiences really happened in the evening. Still, it was fun to rent a motorized bike cart to roam around Villa Borghese. We had our final picnic under the roof of our bike cart, in the pouring rain, bundled up in hoodies. Still the Raboso never tasted so good.

Arrivaderci Italia. We will miss you. We are not terribly happy about the wine that the Italian KLM agent confiscated from our belongings (luckily she only got 3 of our 8), but we won’t hold it against you as a country.

Italy was very different from France. So much of the everyday is about “la vita bella” or the good life. It becomes part of their entire culture in both good and bad ways. Non che problema, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow, the motto does not work so well when it comes to preserving the ancient, organizing road systems, making sense of airport regulations or public transportation. However, when it comes to sitting back and indulging in the gifts of the land, the freshest tasting olive oil, the pungent porcini mushrooms… the meat, the wine, the cheese… they have it figured out, they own it better than anywhere else on the planet.