Florentine Highs
The carpaccio topped with fresh raw porcinis at Cammillo, in the Borgo san Jacopo.
Florentine Days
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.
Farmers Markets Rule!
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.
Best Pasta
The maccioroncini with wild rabbit and celery ragu at Beccofino.
Details of a Wednesday Afternoon
One of the best parts of travel is the walking — not only does it help to digest even the most generous meals, but on foot the details of a city seem to emerge from the shadows. The street furniture, ledges to sit on that the princes of Florence thought to include in their palazzi five centuries ago, or the countless sidewalk shrines and frescoes. Alleys that lead up into zigzag archways — Dante might have passed through them. Michelangelo and Leonardo almost certainly did.
One place we wanted to visit was the city’s Museum of History and Science — our destination was Galileo’s telescope. We arrived only 40 minutes before closing time, but went in anyway and found ourselves dazzled by telescopes, microscopes and measuring devices of the Renaissance, and even earlier. Up on the second floor, looking for all the world like a long cardboard tube with pretty gold embossing, was Galileo’s telescope. This simple device, containing a few strategically-placed lenses, allowed the courageous astronomer to discover the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, solar flares and evidence that the earth was not (gulp!) the center of the universe. You’ll recall he got into trouble over that last bit.
Here was the best part. In the glass case right next to his telescope, was Galileo’s finger! Well, the finger bone of his middle finger, right hand, in a very ornate glass and gold reliquery. This was more than worth the $10 price of admission (which had probably grown to $12 by the time we left the building).
This portable toilet with Botticelli’s Primavera on it cracked me up. Proof that marketing knows no bounds. (more…)
Inside the Flame
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.