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Drogue
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Omnipresent conscience
Oct 2002
time: 05:30
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Ye ask, and I shall oblige - sorry for the length, got a bit carried away 
Where to start... The begining! 
The Place
Well, the apartment was great, a very nice thrid floor place, right on the corner of the Piazza Sante Croce, next to the Basilica Sante Croce, which IMHO is the nicest church in Florence. The apartment had paintings down the hall and in the living room, and a huge one of Sante Croce in the dining room. The pencil nude in the living room was especially impressive. The Basilica Sante Croce is the resting place of Michealangelo, Machiavelli and Gallileo, and contains Dante's monument.
The Arty Bits
We went to see some wonderful places there. The Uffizi Gallery was one of the highlights. To mention all the masterpieces in there would take up many posts, suffice to say they have a huge room for Botticelli (including Birth of Venus and Spring - which are both huge), and rooms for Michealangelo, Lippi, Raphael and Andrea del Sarto, Titian, Rubens, Caravaggio, etc. not mentioning all the rooms by genre and time period of many artists. It is widely regarded as the most valuble gallery in the world, with such a huge collection of Renaissance works.
Florence in famous for it's galleries, and apart fromthe Uffizi, there is the Palantine Gallery at the Palazzo Pitti, where you can see Raphael, Rubens and Lippi in the original 15th century palace setting. The Pitti also has a modern art gallery and a huge garden, with a grotto which houses (now copies of) the 4 of Michealangelos unfinished sculptures. The 4 originals reside in the Galleria dell'Accademia, the gallery of the local art school. However that is not why people visit the Accademia. They visit it for one reason - Michealangelo's David. This was one of the highlights of the week. It is an absolutely astounding statue. Apparently the block of marble, so perfect and huge as it was, was kept for decades before they found an artist they would let work it. The result is a huge, incredibly detailed, and absolutly beautiful statue. It is truly breathtaking to behold. The other main gallery is the Bargello, the national sculpture gallery, which houses many Giambologna's, Luca del Robbia's and has a large room built to celebrate Leonardo's centenary, which has his David, among others, in it. There is so much great Renaissance art there, most little churches will have paintings or fresco's by Lippi, Vasari or some other notable artist in them.
The Food
The other thing worth mentioning is the food. The first night we went to a small place called Angiolino's. It was very good. The best pasta I'd ever had, followed by a wonderful roast veal. A great restaurant. However this was topped on the last night. The cheapest place we ate was a little trattoria in the Oltrano called La Casalina. It is a very small (about 15-20 people capacity  ) family run place, and you have to cue for about 20-30 minutes for a table. By it is very much worth it. For about 75 Euros, we had a 3 course meal for 4, including wine, service and cover charge. More importantly than that was the quality. Of particular note was the Papperdelle Cinghale - thick pasta with wild boar source  The richest, fullest and best pasta imaginable, with such a source on it. It was unbelieveably good. Being the carnivore I am, I skipped the anti-pasta and went for a Bistecca a Fiorentina - Florentine Steak. Not only was it bigger than the plate, it was all beautifully cooked, with a wonderful, delicate flavour. My brother had just come back from 10 weeks in the states and declared it to be better than any stake he could get over there. My dad was particularly inpressed with his seafood salad as well. It may seem strange for food to be one of the defining points of Florence, but it really was that good 
Other great memories include walking back from the Ponte Vecchio (jeweller's bridge, very strange to see - google for a pic) past the Uffizi to our apartment, to see a couple performing outside the Uffizi, next to the Loggia della Signoria - where many famous statues still are kept in the open air. They sang and played Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and a few others, and it was a really vivid moment. My family went back (tired) but I stayed, and was very glad I did.
Overall a brilliant holiday
I got back early Wednesday morning, and got to spend the whole of Wednesday with my girlfriend  as Thursday 25th was her Birthday, and quite a day it was  being her 18th, I wanted to so something nice, so sent her a dozen red roses, with a card telling her I'd pick her up later to go "someplace nice" (if anyones seen the friends about it they'll understand). Took her to the nicest resaurant I know, that also happens to be Italian (her favourite) and with decent vegetarian stuff (it's amazing how hard that is to find), where the waiter just happened to bring her present - a diamond, amethyst and white gold pendant - to our table. All in all a great evening, and some fantastic food
Then Friday night I started work at my favourite bar, called Revolution, which serves almost 100 different vodkas, and many cocktails. Sadly being my first shift I was on glass collecting, but still quite an experience.
And now... I'm absolutely shattered!  And I haven't even mentioned the 'vocal' Italian football supporters on the way back from Italy, who were then arrested at Stansted. It was rather worrying, if hilarious when the police officer shouted at one of them "which part of sit there and shut up don't you understand" and the lady opposite tried to explain to him they speak Italian, not English.
Last edited by Drogue on 30-09-2003 at 02:37
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25-09-2003 17:53
Poor Jamski... 
Oom Pah Pah uber alles 
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