by Christina Waters | Oct 1, 2007 | Home, Travel |
There are still a few things that justify enduring the slings and arrows of outrageous airport security checks, sitting for 10 and a half hours in a tiny, cramped seat, being rudely herded through the Frankfurt airport – and then getting into a smaller plane and sitting for two more hours.
Italy is one of them.
I spent last week in the perfect Mediterranean climate of Florence, where the Renaissance and its passionate architecture are still alive and well. Dining is effortless here, even though the dollar went on its all-time plunge while we were in Euro-land. But the artwork was our real destination — and this visit was wrapped around an eccentric Mannerist painter named Pontormo, and a visit to his frescoes in cloister outside of town, up in the extreme Tuscan landscape dotted with vineyards.
Like many visitors who’ve already seen the obligatory sights, we let the days stretch out into more wandering, lingering and relaxing than in previous trips. Aiming toward a particular restaurant each day, we focused on a destination each morning and another in the afternoon, and tended to seek out cool corners of a cathedral, to draw in sketchbooks or take notes and let the 500-year-old ambience transport us to a time before the internet or expiration dates.
The first afternoon, for example, we let the cool opulence of San Lorenzo wash over us and our jet-lag, and then had a simple dinner of caprese and niçoise salads at the splendid Caffe Gilli on Piazza della Repubblica, where our hotel is located. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Oct 1, 2007 | Food, Home |
Severino’s Community Butcher is heading back east! The talented couple, Hilary Prescott and Justin “Blade Runner†Severino will be leaving the area at the end of the year. Headed for Pennsylvania. “We’ve got family there, we can afford to buy a home and raise kids there.†That’s what Hilary told me last week. It is not good to watch an exodus of talent away from our pricey but idyllic coast. . . . But the word is that Severino’s partner Chris LeVeque will be taking over the business – and that’s good news for those of us who are now spoiled by the presence of naturally-grown and hand-butchered charcuterie.
by Christina Waters | Oct 1, 2007 | Home |
The carpaccio topped with fresh raw porcinis at Cammillo, in the Borgo san Jacopo.
by Christina Waters | Oct 1, 2007 | Home |
Don’t even think about visiting a major world museum like the Uffizi without making advance reservations. The tickets I procured on-line (we have done this before, here and at the Louvre) saved us at least an hour, maybe more, in line. Even so there was a short wait — Italians adore mystery and often make no attempt to provide directions or signage – but once in, we were on task.
To the Mannerist room! which is down Vasari’s splendid loggia corridor and one sala down from the Bronzino chamber. There we had several rooms all to ourselves and feasted on Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Andrea del Sarto (who started up the entire eccentric colorwork and elongated bodies of Mannerism) past a few heart-stopping Michelangelos and on to the famous Parmagianino “Madonna of the long neck” that every art history student will recall. Revisiting favorite artworks is heady stuff — deeply rewarding and this time we noticed new details on Pontormo’s haunting “Supper at Emmaus.” Two cats peering out from under the tablecloth. More sketching in notebooks – too bad the Uffizi doesn’t believe in providing benches. Well, except for in the Botticelli room.
I highly recommend stopping for coffee or a bit of pastry in the midst of all this visual dazzle. The Uffizi has a splendid cafe that opens out onto a rooftop garden. From here you can swill a bracing caffé macciatto with a slice of fragola torta and look out over the dome of the Duomo and the famous clocktower of the Palazzo Vecchio. 
In the background are the purple hills (see my masthead image) that you’ll recognize from Leonardo’s paintings. Looks a whole lot like the Santa Cruz Mountains, only with better architecture. Thus refreshed, we headed down the other corridor of this utterly unique building, and paid our respects to the Portinari alterpiece, arguably among the most accomplished virtual worlds every created.
Then to Beccofino, across the river in the Oltrarno district, for lunch.
Beccofino was brand-new when we discovered it on a rainy afternoon five years ago. It was a sleek, contemporary wine bar with exciting food then – and it still is today. Our lunch began with fresh cured anchovies on crostini, with a vinegary caper tapenade, incredible tomatoes and milky buffalo mozzarella. Jack continued with an entree of baked rabbit and I 
had house pasta with rabbit and wild celery ragu. Yes! Dessert was our first of many visitations to the Florentine classic finish – cantuccini (little songs) and vin santo. Sweet, rough wine and small, crunchy biscotti — a fine ending to robust flavors.
by Christina Waters | Oct 1, 2007 | Food |
If you haven’t yet gotten the message that the Saturday morning Westside Farmers Market is THE happening place, then allow me to put you straight. Last weekend the market seemed to have doubled its size — harvest time has filled every one of the organic produce, fruit, flower, artisenal cheese, meat and wild seafood stands with an embarrassment of riches. Red, orange and yellow peppers, the very last of the sweet, intense dry-farmed tomatoes, grapes, beans, you know. Fabulous stuff.
Yes, I was told, this new market will continue every Saturday – 9-1 – throughout the year! Part of the fun of the whole age-old market concept is running into friends and neighbors. Also foodies. Kelly and Mark Sanchez were there with armloads of flowers, along with their lovely daughter Anya and her friend Brigette. Patrice Boyle from Soif and La Posta, wine wizard John Locke, Gabriella’s Paul Cocking, and mayor Emily Reilly who swore she was going to take a phone picture of the market and send it to her brother in LA — she’s trying to tempt him up here. The entire university seems to shop here as well, and a very buffed George Ow was spotted close to the River Cafe cheese display. The pleasures of living in a small community.
