Florence, Italy - Sept. 11-12, 2004
Tue, Jun. 26th, 2007 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterNote: This is an entry I am typing up from notes I just found, with a few edits. Aka, I am sadly not in Italy now. Anything in brackets are comments from now.
Sept. 11
Was entirely too tired and possibly too jet-lagged to do anything but collapse into bed last night. However, I did see Boticelli's The Birth of Venus and Primavera at the Uffizi, along with buying expensive shoes and having possibly the best food ever for lunch.
It is quite nice having a dad who enjoys good food, particularly when he has more money than me, and there is no way I am complaining about being dragged along.
One can tell a restaurant is expensive when only the guy at the table gets a menu with prices! [We will just ignore the assumptions about money and gender and gender roles that go into that.]
[I don't think I food-blogged much back then, so I neglected to take pictures of the food and to write down what I ate. So now my memory is fuzzy, and I swear, this was one of the best meals of my life!
See, this is why I obsessively write things down and take pictures of them now. What if I get another best meal of my life? I must be prepared!
Things I do remember:
The restaurant was so fancy that they had small stools for our purses. It was so fancy that the dining room only had seating for maybe twenty people, tops, so as to not ruin the dining experience (and, presumably, to give the chef an easier time). It was so fancy that each table had a flock of waiters, all of whom soundless appeared and disappeared when needed, as though they were telepathic. They would swoop down gracefully to clear plates, each one only taking a single plate or glass or fork so that there was no ungainly stacking of dishes or clanking of silverware.
Plus, the plates were probably of such fine ceramic that they might have suffered if stacked.
I don't remember much of what we ate. There was a tiny little amuse bouche of caviar over a light, white mousse, air and foam and salty bursting bubbles of caviar all at once. There was a delicate, tiny piece of monkfish with light sauce. There were lemon and manga sorbets, tasting perfectly of fresh fruit, in tiny cones that nearly melted in your mouth.
But yes. It was very good.]
Sept. 12
We went to the "lesser-known" touristy places today. I've decided it is entirely impossible to look un-touristy next to my parents, so really, why even bother? So I took a lot of stupid pictures of myself ^_^.
First stop was the San Miniato al Monte. I don't know why, but Florence is all warm earth tones: walls are gold and roofs are red, and it feels very Under the Tuscan Sun, except for the churches.
All the ones I've seen so far have white and green and red marble facades, very different from all the churches I've seen before. This one had a service going on when we went in, and it was very nice being able to stand there and watch people worship. I always feel vaguely disrespectful going into churches as a tourist, but they really are beautiful. It's the effort to decorate them to make them as close to heaven as possible, along with the almost rareified atmosphere that makes them so peaceful.
Then, on to the Piazza del Michaelangelo (or something like that), which was largely unremarkable except for the view of Florence and the sheer amount of tourists there.
Then to the highlight of the day so far, the Palazzo Pitti. Despite the larger amount of famous stuff in the Uffizi, I actually like the Pitti better. For one, the paintings and sculptures were displayed inside the palace rooms, which were remarkably fun to boggle at in and of themselves. Also, the Uffizi explains nothing! If we hadn't rented the audio tour, I would have had no idea as to what to look at. As it was, we got pretty confused even with the audio tour because they had moved all the Caravaggio paintings to another floor. And there were no little placards. I like reading the little placards. Luckily, there were placards galore at the Pitti.
Anyhow, the Pitti was quite fun, especially looking at the sheer extravagance of all the rooms -- stucco and frescoes everywhere. I also need to get over the habit of seeing anyone in Elizabethan garb and immediately thinking "Philippa!" or "Francis!" So we sort of wandered around the gardens and wondered at how anyone could possibly find use for gardens so big. Or for a house that big, come to think of it.
I was sad when I found out that the little costume museum at the Pitti was closed though =(.
Then we set off to the Duomo, which is more impressive on the outside but simpler on in the inside than the al Monte. I think I've figured out part of what I like about cathedrals -- the size of them manages to turn all sound into a sort of monotone murmur that fades away in the background.
After that, we headed to the Ponte Vecchio and spent much time ogling at jewelry and buying presents for various people. My mom also found a really cute shoe store run by this guy who's been making shoes since 1943. He had these bushy eyebrows, a very large nose, and a slightly crooked mouth, with these funny red plastic flowered square glasses. He looked just like a shoemaker out of a fairy tale. Maybe he hides the elves in the back. Anyhow, my parents made him quite happy by buying many shoes. And now, my feet hurt again...
Sept. 11
Was entirely too tired and possibly too jet-lagged to do anything but collapse into bed last night. However, I did see Boticelli's The Birth of Venus and Primavera at the Uffizi, along with buying expensive shoes and having possibly the best food ever for lunch.
It is quite nice having a dad who enjoys good food, particularly when he has more money than me, and there is no way I am complaining about being dragged along.
One can tell a restaurant is expensive when only the guy at the table gets a menu with prices! [We will just ignore the assumptions about money and gender and gender roles that go into that.]
[I don't think I food-blogged much back then, so I neglected to take pictures of the food and to write down what I ate. So now my memory is fuzzy, and I swear, this was one of the best meals of my life!
See, this is why I obsessively write things down and take pictures of them now. What if I get another best meal of my life? I must be prepared!
Things I do remember:
The restaurant was so fancy that they had small stools for our purses. It was so fancy that the dining room only had seating for maybe twenty people, tops, so as to not ruin the dining experience (and, presumably, to give the chef an easier time). It was so fancy that each table had a flock of waiters, all of whom soundless appeared and disappeared when needed, as though they were telepathic. They would swoop down gracefully to clear plates, each one only taking a single plate or glass or fork so that there was no ungainly stacking of dishes or clanking of silverware.
Plus, the plates were probably of such fine ceramic that they might have suffered if stacked.
I don't remember much of what we ate. There was a tiny little amuse bouche of caviar over a light, white mousse, air and foam and salty bursting bubbles of caviar all at once. There was a delicate, tiny piece of monkfish with light sauce. There were lemon and manga sorbets, tasting perfectly of fresh fruit, in tiny cones that nearly melted in your mouth.
But yes. It was very good.]
Sept. 12
We went to the "lesser-known" touristy places today. I've decided it is entirely impossible to look un-touristy next to my parents, so really, why even bother? So I took a lot of stupid pictures of myself ^_^.
First stop was the San Miniato al Monte. I don't know why, but Florence is all warm earth tones: walls are gold and roofs are red, and it feels very Under the Tuscan Sun, except for the churches.
All the ones I've seen so far have white and green and red marble facades, very different from all the churches I've seen before. This one had a service going on when we went in, and it was very nice being able to stand there and watch people worship. I always feel vaguely disrespectful going into churches as a tourist, but they really are beautiful. It's the effort to decorate them to make them as close to heaven as possible, along with the almost rareified atmosphere that makes them so peaceful.
Then, on to the Piazza del Michaelangelo (or something like that), which was largely unremarkable except for the view of Florence and the sheer amount of tourists there.
Then to the highlight of the day so far, the Palazzo Pitti. Despite the larger amount of famous stuff in the Uffizi, I actually like the Pitti better. For one, the paintings and sculptures were displayed inside the palace rooms, which were remarkably fun to boggle at in and of themselves. Also, the Uffizi explains nothing! If we hadn't rented the audio tour, I would have had no idea as to what to look at. As it was, we got pretty confused even with the audio tour because they had moved all the Caravaggio paintings to another floor. And there were no little placards. I like reading the little placards. Luckily, there were placards galore at the Pitti.
Anyhow, the Pitti was quite fun, especially looking at the sheer extravagance of all the rooms -- stucco and frescoes everywhere. I also need to get over the habit of seeing anyone in Elizabethan garb and immediately thinking "Philippa!" or "Francis!" So we sort of wandered around the gardens and wondered at how anyone could possibly find use for gardens so big. Or for a house that big, come to think of it.
I was sad when I found out that the little costume museum at the Pitti was closed though =(.
Then we set off to the Duomo, which is more impressive on the outside but simpler on in the inside than the al Monte. I think I've figured out part of what I like about cathedrals -- the size of them manages to turn all sound into a sort of monotone murmur that fades away in the background.
After that, we headed to the Ponte Vecchio and spent much time ogling at jewelry and buying presents for various people. My mom also found a really cute shoe store run by this guy who's been making shoes since 1943. He had these bushy eyebrows, a very large nose, and a slightly crooked mouth, with these funny red plastic flowered square glasses. He looked just like a shoemaker out of a fairy tale. Maybe he hides the elves in the back. Anyhow, my parents made him quite happy by buying many shoes. And now, my feet hurt again...
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Wed, Jun. 27th, 2007 01:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Jun. 27th, 2007 05:52 pm (UTC)Though while we were there, the Pitti had this interesting glass exhibition, which was cool.