More From Florence

Continuing Laura's account of our trip, now a month and a half ago. Refresh with days one and two, three, and four.

---

Wednesday morning in Florence was the first time Matt had free. We considered going to the Bargello (a museum devoted to statues) but found that it was closed until noon. We then headed over to Santa Croce, a large and beautiful church containing both Galileo's and Michelangelo's tombs as well as lots of neat artwork and a beautiful chapel designed by Brunelleschi.

We toured the inside of the church for a while, Samuel got antsy in his stroller and then got out and pushed the stroller around for awhile. One of us had to hold onto the stroller at all times to make sure he didn't run down people or crash into famous artwork. I was disappointed to see that Galileo's tomb was shrouded with scaffolding and plastic but most of the other highlights of Santa Croce were accessible. I especially enjoyed Brunelleschi's chapel.

After Santa Croce, we walked along the Arno for awhile, trying to stay in the sun to stay warm. We passed the Pitti Palace but didn't go in and then decided it was lunchtime. Consulting the guidebook we decided to try a place with very high recommendations for lunch. The place was billed as a small family run restaurant with really good food.

Samuel had been napping in his stroller for the last hour but as we headed toward the restaurant he woke up and was unhappy. We were all a bit cold and hungry. We pulled out some bread to feed Samuel as we walked. Counting out the addressees we came to where the restaurant should have been but there was nothing, We looked around in dismay. Definitely no restaurant. I began grumbling about the guidebook and threatening to throw it off a high building when Matt remembered that there was another recommended restaurant close by.

Samuel was close to meltdown when we reached the second restaurant and went in. I'm not sure they were quite officially open but they seemed to sense how desperate we were and seated us immediately. Samuel launched into full out crying and screaming. I felt awful but I was glad that the restaurant was empty except for us and a few employees.

The man who had seated us brought a basket of bread which greatly cheered Samuel while Matt and I hurriedly placed our orders. We took a deep breath and decided to enjoy wherever we had landed for lunch. Actually we were seated in a beautiful sunlit room with less than 20 tables. The one high window looked out onto a courtyard and some trees. Inside the walls were painted a warm brown color. I had noticed that we had passed the kitchen on the way into the restaurant. It in the front next to the street and there were a few small window you could peer into and catch a glimpse of someone cooking and baskets of tasty looking vegetables and fruits.

Our food arrived and it was wonderful, Matt had chosen a tasty risotto and I had a pasta and bean soup. Samuel ate heartily from both our plates and as we finished we decided that we could split another plate of food. Matt ordered a pasta with meat sauce, which was wonderful. Once we had fed Samuel until he said "all done," Matt and I finished off the rest. While we were dining, a few people came in to the restaurant. We seemed to be the only tourists, everyone else was speaking Italian.

Matt's meetings went extra long that night and he didn't return to the hotel until almost 7pm. Samuel had enjoyed the morning with Daddy and seemed very upset that he wasn't there in the afternoon. I was about to try to put Samuel to bed when Matt showed up and whisked us off to a nearby Panini Caldo shop for dinner. The sandwich shop had all different types of sandwiches on flatbreads that could be warmed in a grill once you ordered them. There were also several types of pizzas by the slice and portions of pasta for sale, all waiting to be heated. Everything was delicious.

We had fun chatting with the guy behind the counter who had just found out he would be a daddy in about 7 months. He was cheerful and we had a good conversation despite his limited English and our very limited Italian.

Thursday was Matt's last day of meetings. We celebrated by heading out for a nice dinner in a nearby restaurant. We got brave and ordered two courses despite the fact that we had Samuel along. It turned out to be a good choice, the food there was wonderful, Samuel enjoyed everything we were eating and with a walking around break at "half time" as Matt called it, Samuel made it through the meal quite pleasantly. We cleaned various sauces off of Samuel and then headed back to our hotel.

After Samuel was asleep, Matt went out and bought some gelato and brought it back to the hotel room. We had already been in Italy almost a week and hadn't yet tried gelato. What a shame! If I had it to do over, I would have been eating gelato every single day. As it was, we ate gelato each day afterwards, until we left Florence.

Continue on to days seven and eight. 

Posted by Matt on 4/14/2005 08:39:00 PM