Firenze, Part 1

When we first arrived in Italy I was confused because it looked nothing like I had imagined. I was expecting rolling hills covered in grape vines with perfectly manicured trees perched atop in neat little rows. Instead the Dolomiti mountains were to the north and and flat farmland to the south, east, and west. Our trips to Venice, Aquilea and Milan produced little to none of the former. It wasn't until we started getting close to Florence, in the region of Tuscany, that I finally began to "recognize" Italy.

Hills, small mountains even, started popping up. We had to drive through tunnels and on roads with steep banks to get there. It was mid April and the grape vines were just starting to sprout their leaves. I was so captivated by the scenery that I didn't take one single picture. I know, you're disappointed that I don't have any "action" shots of the landscape. Hold tight love! I will in future blogs of other much more beautiful places.

Florence, or as it is properly called, Firenze, like many historic cities in Italy, as restricted traffic access to the older areas. We had to park at a public garage and take a five minute cab ride to our apartment. The apartment was another "Homeaway" hit as it overlooked San Marco church and convent, built in 1443.

This is from our kitchen balcony. What a view! Just sitting on our balcony watching the people below the city's casual and relaxing vibe instantly wafted up from the pavement and spoke to me. Well, in all honesty and full disclosure, they kind of had me at the weather. While we are used to living with frequent rain and humidity, Florence was a refreshing 70 degrees with a light cool breeze. But besides the perfect climate there was a university near our apartment with many young, bohemian art types milling around. Because the only traffic is from public transport or motorcycles, the city is very pedestrian friendly. Most people here speak some English and there are lots of American, English and German tourists.

 

This is the view from our bedroom window. You are looking at the red brick dome of the Florence Duomo. It is the largest brick dome in the world.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how old everything is here. Our host said our apartment building was built in the 16th century, making it older than the oldest building in Charleston. BOOM! Take that Chucktown. Haha j/k I still love you. But seriously, I would give my right arm to live in Florence. That place is amazing!

This is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore or Il Duomo di Firenze. It's a beautiful marble covered structure. Technically the marble is green and red but the red looks pink to me. Neither of us were interested in going inside and the lines were super cray-cray long anyways.

 

The area around the duomo was the most crowded place in the city but even then it wasn't unbearable. Plenty of African and Indian people lined the major tourist spots selling toys, posters and scarves but they were not creepy, aggressive, off-putting as we had seen in Milan.

The main attraction on our first day was going to the Uffizi Gallery, home to Boticelli's Birth of Venus  The Uffizi is huge, three stories, and has a plethora of marble busts and statues. There is a lot of religious art but it wasn't as oppressive as the Brera.We did book our tickets in advance so there was only a very short 5 minute wait in line although the general admission lines for this were much shorter than for the duomo. If you're planning to come here, be on the lookout for the two sided Beronizo Cosimo's Portrait of the Dwarf Morgnate. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it.

The Uffizi is an amazing treasure trove of Renaissance art. This was what I came to Florencce for, specifically the Birth of Venus. Boticelli was what I had been for weeks dreaming about and anticipating like a nut. I have to be completely honest, it was a huge let down. The painting was smaller than I expected and the colors less vibrant than the enhanced versions you see in books. Don't get me wrong, it was still amazing, but I was more attracted to some of his other works, specifically, Primavera. 

Another one of my faves of the day was Supper Party by the Russian painter, Honthorst.  He paints the most amazing candlelit scenes. Not only are the subjects painted to near photo quality but the way he uses light and dark make it look artificially illuminated.

HB wasn't incorrigible and we were able to see quite a few things. There were many people, especially crowded around the famous works but it was not difficult to get a chance to see things. If you're lucky enough to be traveling without children, I would recommend an audio guide. While you are here study the marble statues and busts. Look at the facial expressions and how the arms, legs and hands are attached to the body. Scrutinize them. This will prepare you for seeing and truly appreciating the David.

Outside of the Uffizi is Palazzo Vecchio looking over Piazza della Signoria and Loggia dei Lanzi. Outside the palace, built in the 1300's, you will find a copy of Michaelangelo's David where the original once stood.

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It's wild to think the worlds most famous and greatest sculpture once stood here, outside and sharing the limelight with another sculpture.

To the left of the David is the Fountain of Neptune, commissioned in 1565. Apparently Florentines do not like it. I thought it was pretty neat, though.

To the right of the palace is Loggia dei Lanzi. This free, outdoor sculpture garden boasting works by Cellini and Giambologna.

After a long day of driving and sight seeing this was the best thing to unwind to: a beautiful view, a cool breeze and a bottle of Chianti Classico Riserva. 

Tuscany is famous for being the Chianti region so I'm going to give you a little lesson. If you're in Toscana or back in the states and looking to have a taste of perfection, follow these simple steps:

1. First, you want to look for a wine that's called Chianti. Why Chianti? Because the name si reserved for wines made in a specific region. To be called a Chianti 
2. You have to look at the extra labeling. You want a label on the neck that says DOCG to ensure you're getting the real thing.  Wine Searcher defines DOCG as:  "The highest classification for Italian wines. It denotes controlled (controllata) production methods and guaranteed (garantita) wine quality. There are strict rules governing the production of DOCG wines, most obviously the permitted grape varieties, yield limits, grape ripeness, winemaking procedures and barrel/bottle maturation. Every DOCG wine is subject to official tasting procedures. To prevent counterfeiting, the bottles have a numbered government seal across the neck." These wines can be a mixture of many different grapes from around the region. Now, you can stop here and get yourself an economically priced bottle of wine for about 3-6 Euro. If you're going to be drinking copious amounts of alcohol I would recommend doing so unless you are IN Italy, then you can probably move on to the next step and still not break the bank.
   
3.  The next thing you want to look for is the black rooster or "Gallo negro" on the label and the name "Chianti Classico." The label on the neck is often pink with a black rooster on it and the rooster is often pictured on the front of the bottle as well. The Classico qualifier means that it is from a very small region between Florence and Vienna and is comprised of 80% Sangiovese grapes. The other 20% can be made from any combination of Cabernet, Merlot, Canailo and Colorino. This wine is aged a minimum of 4-7 months in oak barrels.
   
   
4. If you're ready for some serious wine drinking, you can move up to Chianti Classico Riserva which uses the best Sangiovese grapes. Riserva has a minimum aging time of 24 months in oak barrels. Our Riserva lable is actually pictured above.
5. If you're super-big-time-cash-rules-everything-around-me-dolla-dolla-bills-y'all you can get yourself a bottle of Chianti Classico Gran Selezione. To be called Selezione the wine must be aged for 30 months in oak barrels and all of the grapes must originate from a single vineyard. I have no idea what that label looks like because I'm not a baller nor am I a shot caller. Maybe some day.

So now you know about Chianti. Something else you should also know, you should proceed into Classico drinking with caution. Drinking Chianti Classico is akin to my sister's experience with men: once you go black you never go back.

Milano

Hello all. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I have some real catching up to do! 

Milan is only about three hours from our house so we decided to drive there on the autostrada.The drive was easy but the city was wild! I don't know what exactly we were expecting, but it wasn't a huge metropolis with oodles of tall buildings (Can I call them sky scrapers? I don't even know what qualifies as an official sky scraper these days).

Upon our arrival we headed right out to the Leonardo DaVinci Science Museum. To our surprise, even though it seemed like our apartment was close to the city center, it still would have been at least a half our walk to the museum. We had already purchased the Milano Card which gives you unlimited access to the subway, buses, and discounts to certain museums so we got to bypass the ticket counter and be right on our was.

Look at my little world traveler riding the subway LIKE A BOSS. He took right to it, who knew?

One great thing about the subway is you can get anywhere in the city quickly and efficiently. It's relatively clean and safe. The downside for us was having to carry HB in the stroller up and down 2-3 flights of stairs each time we used it.

The science museum had lots of good trip adviser reviews for little kids which is one of the reasons we chose to go there. While it did thoroughly entertain the big kid, HB was bored to tears, literally. The museum boasts many large scale wooden models of many of DaVinci's inventions and while fascinating, all HB did was want to play with/destroy the models. The museum was laid out very weird and was hard to navigate; I wouldn't recommend it unless you have some very science-y pre-teens or husbands ;)

Our second bust was trying to see the Last Supper. Apparently you have to book tickets 2-3 MONTHS in advance because all of the tour companies buy them up. And since we only planned our trip five days out we were SOL. We went to the church, Santa Maria delle Grazie just to see if we could get in to no avail. Here is a pic of the church anyways. You'd never guess looking at it that it was home to the most famous Renaissance painting in the world.

Oh yes, and in some pics you will see Flat Kiara, a version of Flat Stanley we took around for my niece.

Just in case you don't remember what the work looks like, here is a replica from the science museum:

Our second day we headed down to the main square where the Milan Duomo is located in the exact city center. All of the streets radiate out from it. The duomo might be one of the most impressive and ostentatious buildings I've ever seen. The photo quality is poor but if you look closely you can count more than 40 statues on the front alone! The carvings are absolutely amazing and continue around the entire building. It is the fifth largest cathedral in the world and took almost 600 years to complete.

To the left of the duomo is Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the world’s very first shopping malls, built in 1865.

If you look closely in the photo you'll notice a few African men. They were spread out amongst the square and were giving out embroidered bracelets and bird seed. For free. What nice people, right? Not so much. One of the men with the bracelets approached us and grabbed Zack's left wrist in what I thought was a pretty obvious attempt to check out his watch. I totally freaked out and started yelling at him and pulled Zack away. Zack was embarrassed but we made it away with all of our valuables. After that we stood back and watched the ones with the bird seed. They usually approached people with children or groups of women. They would take the hand of a person, but bird seed in it, then as 10-15 hungry birds would descend on the person, they would make their move or at least we think they did. We never actually saw them take anything but I'm pretty sure they did.

The moral of the story, don't ever let any of those people near you! Why would a grown man be giving away free bird seed? Think about it.

One benefit of the crazy dudes was that HB had a blast chasing pigeons that were attracted to all the bird seed.

After we made our way over to the museum to the right of the duomo where the Klimt exhibit, one of the same men approached me in line. While he passed by me quickly, he lingered at the people directly behind me and I could see him eying my engagement ring. Normally I don't wear it when we go out in touristy spots but this time I forgot. I stared him down pretty fierce and he eventually walked away.

All stress forgotten we were the third people in line to see Klimt!!! And true to form, HB went into full HB mode as soon as we walked inside. And OF COURSE, they wouldn't even let him drink his milk inside so Zack took him outside while I looked around. The exhibit was not his most famous gold paintings but earlier and later works. If I loved him before, I am head over heels now. Some of his portraits look like photographs. Truly amazing. I didn't even try to sneak a photo, those people were on us like white on rice!

After Klimt we strolled through the mall where we bought Zack and HB matching bow ties and me a scarf. Now we're all fancy and shit. What! What!

On the second floor of the mall I spotted this. Milano Jews. Horray!

Headed out the far end of the mall we heard a flute playing. "A flute? That's out of place for Italy" we said, but when we finally discovered the source, we really had no idea. It was THIS GUY. I don't even have anything witty to say. But seriously, WTF?!

The arch to the right in this photo is the mall and not pictured behind me is the big effing deal opera house. It wasn't much to look at so we didn't take a photo. And opera sucks so that's all I have to say about that.

For lunch we ate at a cafe close to the opera house where HB had another full meltdown. I love when we are able to class up a joint.

Later, after HB's nap we went to the Castello Sforzesco. It was built in the 15th century by Milanese royalty. The grounds were free to walk through and they were absolutely gorgeous.

Here is my sad attempt at photography with a crappy camera in the court yard. Someone really needs to get me a new one (hint hint)!

I'm hesitant to post the picture of this, but there were tons of couples all over the grass. They were making out, spooning, and one couple was laying with the man on top! I guess Italians really are all about the amore and PDA.

The castle has nine museums, I think. We went back and forth on whether or not to go in one, when we finally made the decision to go in the ancient history one it was 4pm and FREE 99! We saw a nice collection of Celtic and Roman stonework, some Renaissance religious art, of course, and then the entire history of Italian weaponry and body armor from the Medieval period to the early 1900s. The last thing you see before leaving is an unfinished Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding the adult Jesus. Of course, no pictures allowed, but it was pretty neat to see a piece in progress.

Did I mention the kid went full HB the entire afternoon at the castle? It was awesome. Thank goodness for big courtyards.

For dinner we had an awesome meal at Noblesse Oblige. While it looks like a small meal in the photo it was absolutely AMAZING. I highly recommend :)

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Our final morning in Milan we went to the famous Brera Picture Gallery. We paid extra for reserved tickets but on a Sunday morning didn't need them as we were the first in the door and no one else was around. The gallery was ginormous and filled strictly with religious art. I'm going to be honest, after the first 10 rooms it was all a blur. One thing I do remember is what Zack called the "vampire room." All of the paintings looked like dead people and one person even had blood dripping from her neck. Creepy!

We walked a bit through the Brera shopping district on the way to and from the gallery. I'm glad it was Sunday and all the shops were closed because I couldn't have afforded even a scarf from one of those places. And in all honesty, Milan's shopping scene was entirely overwhelming for me. Even in the neighborhood where the apartment was, Corso Buenos Aires, where there were many mainstream retail shops I still felt overwhelmed. I hear there are some god outlet malls outside the city. Maybe we will try those sometime instead.