To avoid repeating yesterday’s planning failures, we’ve set an alarm. A sacrilegious act on vacation, but a necessary one. So 10:00 came around, and the alarm sounded. We popped in the shower, got dressed and went on our merry way under a warm Tuscan sun.
As we’re getting underway in what can only be described as the early morning, we have to improvise breakfast. If you haven’t been to Italy, you might be surprised to learn that Italians don’t really have breakfast. A quick coffee (single shot espresso) and, maybe, the unconscionable travesty of the French croissant: a jelly-filled croissant. We are more than amiable to the former, won’t go near the latter. To remediate this, we took a page from yesterday’s plan and made our first stop of the day at the Sant'Ambrogio Market. It’s located a little outside the packed tourist zone of Florence, and even if it sees its fair share of tourist traffic, it feels like it serves the local community first. The fruit stand is what we aim for, and we grab a couple of giant peaches and eat them while browsing the market.
Market tour done; next stop: the all-important coffee. We head for Coffee Mantra. A tiny coffee shop that micro-roasts specialty and single-origin coffee. The coffee was excellent and, if you ever feel in danger of getting too hyper from the caffeine, they’ll also sell you a gram of cannabis to calm you down before your next caffé.
Next steps, a “real” breakfast or what working people would call lunch. The pandemic has upended business hours. Even if Google Maps told us that Nu Ovo, a restaurant dedicated to the glory of eggs, would be open, we were met with a definitely closed restaurant. We ended up going to the local Da Michele.
Originally a temple to pizza lovers in Naples only, L'Antica Pizzeria Da Michele has since opened franchises. While not as ubiquitous as the clown franchise, you’ll find Da Michele in some high-traffic cities. We stumbled on one in Tokyo and met our second franchise in Florence. Contrary to the original, with its menu of five pizzas and five drinks tacked to the wall, the franchise now offers wine lists and fried appetizers. The pizza is good (better in Italy than in Japan), but from our fuzzy, almost 10-year-old memory of the original, we could not equate it. We’ll put our memory to the test in about a week, when we head to Naples for one night.
Breakfast truly behind us, with about an hour to kill before our appointment to visit the Uffizi Gallery. We stopped by our apartment to do some mobility work (good habits die hard) and generally chill a little. It’s really not a question that Florence lacks things to do or see, but we’ve been in the city often enough that we’ve seen or done most of what was available to us in the time available.
The Uffizi Gallery itself hasn’t changed. While in perpetual renovation, some rooms were closed, and the way to the exhibit was a little more serpentine than we remember, but nothing profound. Our memories of the galleries were, however, edited by time. If asked ahead of entering, I would have posited that about 60% of the art inside would have been religious, all Christian and heavily skewed toward the Madonna and Bambino (Marie and Jesus) painting, with about 40% being either Roman sculptures or masterworks like the Birth of Venus. Surprise, we’re closer to a 90-10 split with the 10 evenly split between classical and modern art. 90% of the nearly 100 exhibit rooms were filled with Madonnas and Bambinos by one artist or another, with a couple of crucifixions and martyrs for good measure. This is our sixth time in Italy, and we’ve visited several museums each time we've come. We can now say we’ve reached our lifetime supply of religious art. After the visit, both Karine and I exclaimed we were done with the repetitive art of a woman with a baby looking either saintly or tired, depending on your religious tendencies.
By the time we got out of the Uffizi Gallery, it was almost 17:00. For us, 17:00 is Gelato O’Clock since it’s been nearly five hours since we’ve had breakfast, but still more than 3 hours before any dinner reservations. We stopped at Gelateria Edoardo, a favourite of the Routard and a new addition to our list of the best Gelato in the city. Everything, including the cones, is made in-house. The gelato was rich and smooth; even the lemon sorbet had that rich, creamy texture, broken only by the occasional lemon chunk. It eclipsed our other gelato spots in the city. I must admit, it wasn’t what I would have expected from a gelateria right next to one of the city's big attractions, the Duomo.
Sugar done, we stopped for our day of drinking in a Piazetta (small inner courtyard) at Serre Torrigiani in Piazetta, another recommendation from the Routard. The location feels isolated from the hubbub of the city without actually being far from it (or outside of it at all). Decor was carefully arranged, and the drinks were strong. Well worth the stop. A 17:00 Storm caught us as we were drinking from under the small awning and parasols tucked next to the bar, and we weathered the storm with a couple of other patrons.
The rain having lasted longer than expected, we’ve sprinted home for a quick stop to dry and reset. We were out for a dinner of meat and truffles at Mangiafoco Osteria Tartuferia. If you haven’t been to Italy, you might not have been confronted with the tradition of antipasto, primi, secondi, with contorni and dolce to close it all, let me save your digestive system. Unless you haven’t eaten all day, please don’t do it. Find a couple of antipasti (starters) to share, then choose either pasta (primi), meat (when inland), or fish (when on the coast), and a couple of contorni. Being on our sixth trip, we’ve decided to make this meal like experts. First, we went all out on the truffles: a large piece of bread topped with burrata, then with truffles, and a truffle sample board featuring truffle cheeses and cold cuts. They probably felt bad that it didn’t include any starter, and included two lettuce leaves on each plate. They might say publicly it was for presentation, but I know better.
In Florence, the bread is made without salt. It gives the bread a more neutral flavour. Some people don’t like it, but I love it. Today, its purpose really shone. When dealing with a strong flavour like truffle, it cleanses the palate, allowing us to enjoy the taste of our 1.2kg Bisteca Fiorentina (a big T-Bone steak, salted to perfection). Mangiafoco Osteria Tartuferia really earns its magnificent title with its Bisteca too. Done rare but warm and quite juicy. The only minor criticism I can offer is the carving. A good 50g of meat was left on the bone. You might say it’s not a big deal, less than 5% is nothing to cry about, but when the steak is that good, you don’t want to leave any meat behind.
Overall, our dinner, with wine and limoncello, cost us a healthy 90€ per person. A little steep but well worth it. The restaurant ranked #1 on our list of places to go for dinner in Florence.
Tomorrow we’ll leave Florence and catch a train to Monterosso for our 2 days and 3 nights in Cinque Terre. After 3 nights of bistecca fiorentina, we are ready for some hiking.