#2027 in which I fall in love with Firenze

I visited the city of Florence, Italy in 2022 with MT when we were on a cruise. It was raining, and we only had a few hours there. I was looking forward to going back with Lizzie and spending more time there, and I think I fell a little bit in love with the place. 

We left Milan in the morning and took the train through the countryside down to Florence. It was a beautiful day with a bright blue sky and warm sunshine. The train station, Santa Maria Novella, is a short walk -maybe five minutes - from the church Santa Maria Novella which is right in front of the hotel where we stayed, the Hotel Santa Maria Novella. Here's the church:

Basilica of Santa Maria Novella 

We checked into the hotel, but the room wasn't ready yet, so we left our luggage and set out to explore.

Of course, if you are in Florence, you must see the Duomo and Brunelleschi's Dome, so that's where we went first.

The Duomo of Florence and Giotto's Bell Tower

Brunelleschi's Dome

The cathedral is just massive, and of course, the dome dominates, well, everything. From there, we wandered around until Lizzie took charge and got us to Piazza della Signoria. This splendid piazza is my favorite because of the statues, Palazzo Vecchio, and the Uffizi Galleries all right there. It is wonderous.

The Fountain of Neptune

David replica

Palazzo Vecchio

It was between noon and 1:00, so we wanted to get some lunch. All around the piazza there are bars and osterias, trattorias and enotecas. We saw a cool little patio surrounded by greenery that gave it a feeling of privacy. We were quickly seated, and it was really nice! The waiters were wearing beautiful suits and the tables were set with pretty plates and linens (although the linen was removed when we only ordered wine!) The prices reflected the posh-ness of the place: it was Gucci. It was the patio for Gucci Osteria. We just had a glass of wine each. It was quite good, and also the most expensive glass of wine we had on our whole trip! We felt bougie and fancy.

Livin' it up at Gucci

We felt happy after the glass of wine, but still hungry, so Lizzie found a pizza place called MammaMia where we proceeded to drink more wine and eat pizza. (Photos of the food coming soon in the food post!)

Mamma mia, ragazzi!

We started chatting with a lovely couple from Mexico that was seated next to us. Honestly, I could have probably sat there for quite awhile drinking wine and chatting with people. (Wine makes me less introverted.) But we were in Florence, and we had to move along. We stopped by to see Ponte Vecchio:

Ponte Vecchio

Then Lizzie found a wine window near our hotel!

the wine window at Osteria Belle Donne

Finding a wine window was on both of our "must do" lists for Florence. I guess there are several in the city, and this one was super close to the hotel. You knock on that little window, order a glass of wine, then you drink it there on the street! You can't wander around with the wine. You can't sit down. You can't stand in front of other businesses. You just kind of stand there and drink, so it's kind of weird, but it's pretty cool too. You get an actual wine glass, no plastic. It was fun!

So now we have had four glasses of wine in maybe three hours. We were slightly tipsy and feeling pretty good about Florence. We went back to the hotel to get our stuff into our room and figure out what we wanted to do in the evening. Our room was A-mazing! It was huge, by European standards, certainly, and so, so pretty! 

the beds in Europe are kinda weird - separate, but together

bathroom with the deep tub

the room is big!

a bottle of Prosecco!

I loved this hotel. I would absolutely stay there again. We kinda wanted to stay in the room and drink the prosecco or take it to the roof, but after we unpacked a bit, we decided to take a taxi up to San Miniato al Monte to see the sunset over the city. Best decision we made! I've always heard about the view of the Centro Storico at sunset, and it was just as dreamy as I imagined it would be. The light is so soft and Florence is so beautiful and when you put it all together, it's just magic.

Florence at sunset from San Miniato al Monte

panoramic view

view from Piazzale Michelangelo

The taxi ride was maybe 10 minutes, but it was worth the ride because it was way up on a hill. San Miniato is much calmer and has way fewer people than Piazzale Michelangelo. I was very happy to be up at the top. There's a church up there, and a cemetery, as you can see in the middle photo. The church bells rang at dusk and it was one of the highlights of my trip. 

We decided we could walk back down to the Centro Storico. There were hundreds of people at the Piazzale, so we just followed the crowd. There's a good sidewalk, and it's not too steep. You end up walking along the Arno River, looking at the lights of the city reflected in the water. We crossed over Ponte Vecchio, and it's pretty cool. Most of the shops were closed or were closing, but just walking over the bridge felt like walking through time. It is the oldest stone bridge in Europe, dating back to the mid-1300s. 

When we returned to the hotel, we thought it would be fun to get some dessert from the hotel restaurant and take it up to the roof. We got dessert, but we couldn't figure out how to get to the roof, so we at dessert in our room (gelato for me and something with meringue for Lizzie?) and then we went to bed since we had an early ticket for the Uffizi the next day. 

Oh Florence. I just love it, and I got to spend a whole other day there! That story is coming up next time.

Ciao!

#2926 Milano

I spent Sunday, 20 October in Milan, Italy with my sister. We got on a train in Rapallo that morning, and a couple of hours later, we were in Milan. Easy peasy! We took a taxi to our hotel. It was early, probably around noon, when we got to the hotel, so we checked in, left our bags, and hit the streets to explore this bustling, modern city in northern Italy.  

Most of the things we planned to see were just that: places to see. My sister, Lizzie, is an excellent navigator, so she lead me around and I didn't once worry that we'd go off track. Also, we wanted to see the same things, so that made it all easy.

It was probably about a mile from the hotel to the Duomo. Along the way, we passed by the famous opera house, Teatro alla Scalla. It was pretty underwhelming because the entire front was covered for cleaning and renovation.

La Scala opera house

However, in the little piazza where I took the photo, just behind me was a cool statue of Leonardo da Vinci.

statue of Leonardo da Vinci

I found the statue much more interesting than the opera house. The opera house is probably really beautiful inside with great acoustics, but I likely won't ever know. I don't see myself going there in the future. 

Do you see an arch over to the right behind the statue? That is the entrance to one of the most iconic, over-the-top shopping malls in the world: the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It is gigantic - four stories - and every major and minor designer has a store in this mall. There were eleventy-thousand people in there, some going into and out of the shops, some just standing there gawking, like me, and about half of the eleventy-thousand were taking selfies and 360 degree videos of the place. Lizzie didn't care much for it:

Lizzie was not thrilled to be inside the Galleria

When you walk through to the other end, you are in the Piazza del Duomo. The Cathedral is magnificent, and the vast amounts of humanity there was a bit overwhelming. This pic doesn't really do justice to the amount of people that were in the piazza.

the Duomo of Milano

Lizzie and I walked up closer to the church and took some photos, then we decided to find a place to have lunch. Our Last Supper tour began at 3:00, so we began to walk toward that destination and find  a place to eat along the way. Using her superior navigation and Googling skills, Lizzie found a listing for a restaurant not far off the path to the Last Supper church, so we decided to give it a try.

When we got there, the restaurant, La Fettunta, was fairly empty. My grandmother always said if a place is empty, it's probably not that great, or else why would it be empty? We decided to try it anyway. I was surprised and slightly taken aback when the man who greeted us asked if we had a reservation. Seriously, there were only like, four other people in there! We got a table and settled in. It was a Tuscan restaurant (even though Milan is not in Tuscany), and I was torn between the ragu del cinghiale (pasta with wild boar sauce) or a milanese (breaded veal). I decided on the pasta for a couple of reasons: 1) I'd had veal the day before, and 2) pasta. Also, all signs pointed to me having the cinghiale:

I'm going to eat cinghiale

 If you are wondering, cinghiale is pronounced ching-GA-leh.

We had a nice white wine from the Lombardy region (Milan is in Lombardy), and an antipasto. I will feature the papardelle al cinghiale  in my food post, but spoiler - it was the BEST meal I had in Italy. It was incredibly delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I dropped a big splotch on my shirt, causing me to say, "Oy cinghiale!" while I attempted to cover it with my sweater without actually wearing my sweater because it was a warm day and I walked a lot.

Anyway...the restaurant was not empty for long. Shortly after we arrived, the place started filling up with families that were clearly locals enjoying a Sunday meal out. There were children who were well-behaved, grown-ups laughing and having a good time. The people were dressed nicely; nothing really formal, but much more well-dressed than I typically see at a restaurant in Salt Lake City. More put together, I'd say.

The restaurant is on Via Santa Marta, and isn't it cute?

Via Santa Marta

It is about a mile walk from the restaurant to the church where the painting of The Last Supper is. It felt pretty good to walk off the pasta and wine a little bit. We arrived a bit early and sat in the sun, watching for our guide. We booked a small group tour, and there were just seven people in our group, and I think six of us were American. Getting in to see the painting is quite secure. You have to show your ID to get in and your ticket has your name on it. Only 30 or so people are allowed in at a time, and you get to be in the room for about 15 minutes.

The painting is not in the church. It is actually in the refectory which is the building the Dominican friars who lived there used as their dining room. da Vinci's vision was that the friars would sit there eating their meals and feeling like they were having a meal with Jesus and the apostles. It is quite interesting because the painting was done right on the wall, like a fresco, but with a different style that da Vinci was trying out. Because of the paints he used, and because the room behind the wall was the convent's kitchen, the painting, done between 1495 - 1498, has deteriorated over those 500 plus years. Much restoration has been done, and it also explains why the number of people allowed in at one time is so tightly controlled, along with the temperature in the room. 

my photo of The Last Supper

The symbolism and expressions of each apostle, as well a of Jesus, is amazing. This painting is, in every meaning of the word, awesome. Seeing it was one of the highlights of my trip. I could have stared at it for another 15 minutes, easily, but we had to leave when our alloted time was over. If you are ever in Milan, please plan to see this painting. Even if you are not really into art, this one is worth the time. The story of the refectory during the wars and everything this painting has been through in over 500 years is nothing short of amazing, maybe even miraculous.

We had time to go into the church. So unassuming on the outside:

Santa Maria delle Grazie

So stunning on the inside:

this is the back part of the church, where the dome-like structure is

this is what you see when you first walk in the front door

After the tour, we stopped for to get something to drink before continuing on the "the castle." We'd been hearing about this castle and we didn't know anything about it except that we wanted to see it. It didn't take us long to find it. As with everything, it was enormous.

one of the towers of Sforza Castle 

pano of Sforza Castle (pay no attention to the headless person there on the left)

The castle was a medieval fortification built by the Duke of Milan in the 1500s on top of the existing fort built in the 1300s (because Europe, amIright?). Now it houses a few museums and one of the pieces in one of the museums is the last Pieta that Michangelo would sculpt. You'll hear more about it when we get to Rome. Lizzie and I didn't go into the castle itself, we just walked on the grounds .

The sun was starting to set, so we headed back in the direction of the Duomo through the busy streets of Milan. Apparently there is an Arc de Triomphe, although they call it the Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace) in the city, too, but we didn't see it. 

Walking from the castle back to the Piazze del Duomo reminded me a bit of Athens, walking from Syntagma Square into the older part of the city, and also a bit of Barcelona, on Portal de l'Angel. There were lots of shops and restaurants and people going every which way, and beautiful buildings everywhere you look.

When we reached the piazza, the Duomo glowed in the setting sun. 

the Duomo of Milan

We walked up close to it to get an idea of the size of the massive doors.

those are some BIG doors

Piazza del Duomo at sunset

entrance to the Galleria

The whole area was full of people. Lizzie and I were about done. We'd been out and about for over eight hours, our feet were sore, and we were ready for the refuge of our hotel room. Since we didn't want to cut through the Galleria again, Lizzie found a more quiet back street to stroll along. We were both grateful to get back to the hotel, kick off our shoes, and relax. According to my Apple watch, I walked 7.38 miles that day.

Just for funsies, here is a pic of the outside of the hotel that I found on the web:

Hotel Manin Milano

It was a nice hotel. I think the bed was comfortable. Honestly, I was so tired, I don't really remember. I do remember that breakfast the next day there at the hotel wasn't that great. 

If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking through to the end of the tour of Milan. Our next stop is Florence, and you don't want to miss it!

xo

#2925 three things: micro-memories of Milan, Italy

three little gnomes
(art by me)

1. Milan is modern. Compared to the other cities I've been to in Italy, Milan seems very modern to me. Lizzie and I took a taxi from the train station to our hotel, and the buildings were tall and sleek, and the roads were very busy. Our hotel was the most modern and the least charismatic of the four hotels we stayed in. Walking from the hotel to the Duomo, there are many swanky stores. Maybe there are different neighborhoods that are more historic or older...I don't know how to articulate what I felt, but I can tell you that I wasn't all that charmed by Milan. 

That's not to say that Milan doesn't have history; for goodness sakes, The Last Supper was painted there by Leonardo da Vinci in 1495 - 1498! Maybe it's because Milan doesn't really have a centro storico - a historic district where the older parts of the city were. Or maybe we were in the centro storico but didn't recognize it as such because the newer buildings overpowered the historic buildings.

As we were walking around, Lizzie and I did come across some ruins that were walled off and well below street level so you were peering down at the foundations of what might have been a lovely palazzo. 

One last thing about this "thing": we were only in Milan for one day. I'd done a bit of research prior to the trip and had a list of the stuff I wanted to see, and we saw all of those things. I just think it is hard to get a good measure of a place in just one day, so my perception of Milan is that it is a modern, bustling city.

2. Everything is big. The size of the Important Things in Italy surprises me. Everything is BIG. Like from the outside, the buildings are enormous and ornate. The interior of the train station, Milan Centrale, is quite lovely. Here is a photo I took:

inside Milano Centrale train station

When I saw it from the outside, though, holy crap! It was huge! Here's a pic I found on the interwebs:

exterior of Milano Centrale train station

The Duomo is massive.

the Cathedral of Milan

Those doors are enormous! Many things are just larger than life, like the Galleria and Castel Sforza. You'll see pics of them this weekend when I retrace our path through the city. Just keep in mind, the buildings are big.

By the way, big buildings are not just a thing in Milan. Florence and Rome also have plenty of giant structures. 

3. Italian bathtubs are deep. In the Rapallo hotel, I think we just had a shower, no tub (right, Lizzie?) In Milan, Florence, and Rome, though, the bathrooms all had tubs with the shower, and each of them were big. Maybe not big in length, but definitely deep. I'm talking you almost have to sit on the edge and swing your feet around to get in and out of those things. I didn't actually do that, but I did consider it as an option. Even with the deep tub, water manages to get all over the floor. Marble is slippery when it's wet, by the way. 

This weekend, I'll write and share photos of Milan. I am excited to tell you about the lunch I had there, the grace and reverence of The Last Supper, and the joy of learning stuff you didn't know.

xo

 

#2924 Chiavari, Italy

 How about a little day trip to Chiavari, Italy? Let's go!

On the last full day of our art trip, we all took the train about 10 minutes south to Chiavari (pronounced key-AH-vah-ree). It was a rainy, grey, drizzly day, but the drizzle let up when we got to town, so that was nice. 

Again, I didn't do any research about the town before going there, so I didn't know what to expect or what to look for. Lizzie did a bit of research, but since we didn't know where our starting point would be or what the plan was when we got there, we just went with the flow. 

Suzy and Jeannette took us to what seemed to be a main square in the centro storico. There was a market happening there. Jill gave a quick demonstration of some sketching and painting techniques, a plan was made to meet up for lunch, and then we were on our own.

Here are some photos of the square and the market. 

statue of Giuseppe Mazzini in front of Palazzo di Giustizia di Chiavari

market in Piazza Mazzini

plants for sale at the market

boxes of lettuces

I liked the pretty lettuces, so I painted them:

my take on the boxes of lettuces

Lizzie and I walked around, admiring the town. There were many, many arches. This is just one pic of arches, but there were several streets that looked a lot like this one.

a street in Chiavari

The street in the photo looks pretty empty, but there were lots of people walking around the town that day. Lizzie and I wanted to sit at a bar (that's what a cafe is called in Italy), preferably outside under an umbrella without many people around, and we wandered until we found the cutest little place that ticked all the boxes. We spread out our art stuff, ordered cappuccinos and entertained ourselves for an hour or so until we decided to go ahead and get some wine. It was probably around 11:30 or 12:00 by then. Art is fun with wine and snacks.

Lizzie!

Don't I look like an artiste?

And yes, that lovely snack tray was included with our wine. And the wine was very nice.

After awhile, it was time to bid arrivederci to the cute bar and meet the group for lunch. Here are some photos of the streets.

This street (no cars allowed!) was we painted and drank wine.

All that greenery is a barrier for a restaurant. Cute!

Our group's farewell lunch was in a gorgeous restaurant, Enoteca Ristoro.

panoramic shot of the restaurant before the meal arrived

What is an enoteca, you ask? Well, it is basically a wine shop or wine repository. Often, regional foods will be offered to pair with the wines. You can see there is a lot of wine here.

We sat inside - it was raining steadily at that point. We had some appetizers that I don't remember. The menu was limited and probably changed daily. I had roasted veal with potatoes and it was wonderful. I also enjoyed the wine. Ligurian wine is quite good. For dessert I had an apple tart that was cake-like. I'll be doing a post of all the foods I had at some point in the future, and I'll post photos then. 

After a leisurely lunch, we walked back to the train station. We passed by this statue of  Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of Italy.

monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (seagull on top is not permanent!)

The statue is across the piazza from this:

Cathedral of Nostra Signora dell'Orto (Our Lady of the Garden)

We flashed past this church on our way in and on our way out of the town. Suzy and Jeanette aren't tour guides, they put these art tours together and find places for us to draw and paint and eat. If I were to go back to the area, there are places I'd like to explore a bit more when my time is my own.

As it was, I had a lovely time in Chiavari. I got to make some art, drink some wine, see a different town, and eat some good food. I chatted with the some of the other folks during the meal, and it was fun.

When we got back to Rapallo, we met as a group for the final time to do one last bit of writing based on one of Lizzie's poems, and we wrote in each other's sketch books - kinda like when you sign yearbooks at the end of the school term. I like this tradition. We did a similar thing in Greece, but the notes were on a big piece of paper. I still have that one, and I treasure it. I really like that we have the notes in our sketchbook for this trip. I love to look back at it. 

This trip's sketchbook is sort of a travel journal/scrapbook. I've got postcards and receipts and cards from restaurants. I'm also sketching as I go. I wanted to complete it while I was on vacation, but I didn't have the time, especially the second week when Lizzie and I traveled to different cities. It has been fun to play around with it post-vacation, though. It's bringing back happy memories.

I didn't really write much about  the time we spent in Rapallo itself, did I? I might squeeze a post out of that material. I've got lots of photos, so that might be next. 

Happy December!