by Christina Waters | Oct 1, 2007 | Home, Travel |
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…)
by Christina Waters | Oct 1, 2007 | Home, Travel |
Since there has to be a last day of any visit to Florence, we spent ours enjoying the warm weather, sampling one more straciatella gelato and visiting the Casa Buonaroti. The house was purchased by Michelangelo, but he never lived in it – instead leaving it to his family who filled it with the maestro’s memorabilia and give the public a glimpse inside a private home of the 16th century.
There we saw the most beautiful drawing in the world — so astonishing that it stopped us in our tracks. Yes, we all know that the man who painted the Sistine Chapel walls and ceiling could draw. But here was paper and conté crayon that came to life before our eyes. And since there’s nothing like the Renaissance for working up an appetite, we were completely ready for lunch at the Osteria Caffé Italiano, one of the cafe off-shoots of the temple of cucina, Alle Murate, where we’d eaten four years earlier.
Yes, this was yet another dining experience inside a wood-lined room with vaulted ceiling and clerestory windows, 16th century – the heyday of the palazzo.
We chose glasses of a fine Rosso di Montalcino “Avignonesi” 2005 and a burnished Ciliagiolo Principio filled with black cherry aromas. I jumped at the chance to try an authentic buffalo mozzarella di Monfialco — the milky delicacy that never makes it across the Atlantic, and what I got was just that. A single sphere of
snowy white cheese, that spurted milk when I cut into it. Tightly wound from layers and layers of curds, it was like eating delicate sausage, and went nicely with the crusty house bread and the red wine. Jack’s spiedini of grilled meats offered an outstanding wood-grilled selection of chicken, beef and sausages, along with grilled vegetables. My angel hair pasta was topped with calamari and basil. Simple. Wonderful.
Cantuccini and vin santo finished off the lunch, which required a lengthy meditation inside the Baptistry and a lengthier passagiata outside the Duomo before we paid a visit to Orsanmichele, and then back to our room to pack.
by Christina Waters | Oct 1, 2007 | Home, Travel |
In the heart of old Florence, home to the power brokers (the signoria), the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi and the outdoor sculpture garden organized by Georgio Vasari and Medicis — the Piazza della Signoria offers some of the finest people-watching, cafe-sitting and sunsets on the planet.
So we decided to spend our last evening at the fabled Rivoire, a ring-side seat on Saturday night action at the spot where Savonarola was burned at the stake.
Negronis so big you need two hands to lift them come with pretty trays of appetizers, bowls of nuts and olives — and a pricetag to match. So you nurse your drink for hours and enjoy the sparkling scene.
To make matters perfect, just as the sun was setting on the old crenellated bell tower, a rogue band of Hare Krishnas
entered the piazza — singing, drumming and dancing their way through the 16th century.
Wonderful fun – the Medicis would have loved it.
by Christina Waters | Oct 1, 2007 | Travel |
The outdoor terrace overlooking the Palazzo Vecchio on the second floor of the Uffizi Gallery.
by Christina Waters | Jul 11, 2007 | Travel |
Goodbye to the man whose playful vision, and entrepreneurial savvy once defined — the Cooper House — the atmosphere of downtown Santa Cruz. Many will miss him, just as they miss those wild days when Cher used to hold down a bar stool at the original Catalyst.
by Christina Waters | Jul 10, 2007 | Food, Home, Travel |
A few weeks ago I joined two vivacious residents of Rome (one from the US, the other originally from Canada) for a meal of stellar regional cuisine and old-fashioned, unapologetically attentive service at Zeffirino, a celebrated Genoa dining room since 1939. Utterly non-designer in decor, busily adorned with candelabra and quaint genre paintings, and complete with waiters in dark suits who expertly arrange each serving at the table, Zeffirino lived up to its advance hype as providing definitive Mediterranean seafood. This appetizer of paper-thin lasagne, sauced with saffron-tinged pesto, with scallops in their shells, asparagus and a few prawns, was a knock-out.
It was all beautiful to look at and prepared with restraint. Giant prawns, gamberoni, lightly inflected with saffron, and topped alla Cinqueterre, with thin ribbons of candied lemon peel, were sweet and tender. Another deeply satisfying entree involved fresh lobster, removed 
from its shell, brilliantly spiced in salsa diavola, and then returned to to the shell, to form a gorgeous terracotta creation. Two regional house wines easily paced the clear flavors of the meal, which began with a stupendous primo of Genoa’s gift to the culinary world — triofie al pesto. (see post below). Here the pesto is made from infant leaves of Genovese basil, which preserves a minty sparkle rather than the rather strident, licoricey tendencies of “mature” basil. “This is what pesto should be!,” pronounced one of my companions, a Rome correspondent for Newsweek. She and my other dining partner spent a good part of the next hour strategizing about where they could find such amazing basil in Rome. (more…)
