Breakfast at Sanctuary Firenze was a bit more modest than in Venice. The croissants were in plastic packaging. The coffee was good, but not fancy espresso drinks. There was yogurt, but not every day, and a few sweet breads. Some fresh fruit. Cereal. That dry Italian bread for toast. Just enough to get us on our way, knowing that good coffee and fresh pastries are just steps away in case we hadn't had enough.
Our first destination this morning was the Duomo square to buy tickets for a few of the sights. B.J. researched the different ticket packages and thought the Ghiberti pass (€30 each) would be a good bet for us. We’d have 3 days to use it, and could visit the Duomo Museum, Medici Chapel, and the Baptistery.
We heard from more than one knowledgeable person that the interior of the Cattedrale of Santa Maria del Fiore, upon which the great dome was built, isn’t worth waiting in the long lines to see. The outside is rather spectacular, and we saw that several times. Oh, and I forgot that this was Sunday, so it was closed except for those attending Mass anyway.
Brunelleschi's dome was the first successful Renaissance dome,
and the model for all those that came after
The cathedral is covered with pink, white and green Tuscan marble
Spectacular, right?
I think it was when we went through security at the Medici Chapel that my Swiss army knife was noticed. The guard kept it at the security desk and gave me a ticket to retrieve it when we left. He was very considerate about the whole thing. I told him it was for a picnic, plus I'm a grandmother, for heaven's sake. I can't move fast enough to cause any trouble. The Duomo Museum required us to leave our backpacks at the luggage office, which was better than having my Swiss army knife confiscated again, I guess, but it's a separate office in a separate building on the square.
In the Medici Chapel were over-the-top tombs for the great ruling family. Michelangelo designed and sculpted some of them himself.
Even the ceiling was gorgeous.
We took a break from art and religion, and headed into the Mercato Centrale, not far away. The ground floor is a huge indoor fresh food market, but today was Sunday, so that part wasn't open. Upstairs is a giant food court with every kind of prepared food available. We just wandered through it to see what was on the menus, and there was one thing in particular we weren't sure about.
It must be a Florentine specialty!
We weren't really hungry anyway.
We decided to visit the Duomo Museum next. It's filled with amazing sculptures, and most notably the original bronze doors from the Baptistery. The current doors are copies.
Every panel tells a story for the illiterate populace.
This altar was pretty amazing too and rivaled the workmanship of the doors.
We stopped for a quick pizza lunch on our way back to the convent. We needed to be rested up and at a meeting point for our Sunset Food and Wine tour at 6:00.
On the way across town, we had this great view of the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), which was built in 1345 to replace the even older wooden bridge washed away by a flood.
We were meeting our guide Nadia, from Eating Europe, at a square on the Oltrarno (the other side of the Arno River). We were a group of 12. Nadia took us to 4 or 5 different bars/eateries on that side of town to sample food and wine. We had Prosecco, maybe 5 other wines, a Negroni, and lots of food along the way. We loved almost all of it!
Everyone looks concerned that the minced stuff on the lettuce leaf was just straight garlic, but it was a nice mild cheese.
Another plate of snacks to go with our wine.
The bartender mixing up Negronis for the group.
Our Negronis were served through a working wine window. They're unique to Florence, and a few surrounding towns, having come into use in the 1500s as a way for noble families to sell their excess wine, produced at their wineries outside of the city, and avoid paying taxes on it somehow (probably an import tax). The wine windows worked well during the plague in the 1500s when physical contact was thought to be dangerous. Most of the 175 or so wine windows are gone, or not in use, but a few remain, and worked well during our modern plague, Covid.
The line waiting for their Negroni
Here's the one dish we didn't especially like. It's made with stale bread, olive oil and tomatoes.
A tomato/bread concoction
Each time we had a beverage someone different in the group was required to make a toast. This being Mothers' Day in the U.S., and in Italy, B.J. offered a toast to all the mothers in the group, and especially his own mother, me! It was a Mothers' Day to remember, for sure!
Our last tasting was at a gelato shop. Nadia explained that authentic gelato will be advertised as artigianale, which is made fresh right there. There are lots of imposters!
We had a great time with Nadia and ate and drank well on our walk through the neighborhood.
On our way back to the convent we passed the pot shop doing a good business on a Sunday night.
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