The Uffizi

The Uffizi Museum building used to be the offices of the Medici family, it took 20+ years to build in the mid 1500's.Uffizi means "offices" in Italian. Over time, the top floor became a family gallery for artwork they'd collected. 

In the mid 1700's, the very last person in the Medici family (a wise woman named Anna Maria) bequeathed the family art collection and buildings to the Tuscan State. It was no small gift, one Stradivarius violin in the collection is worth 1.5 million euros. In her infinite wisdom she stipulated that the art never be moved out of the area and that it was to be "for the utility of the public and to attract the curiosity of foreigners."

She nailed it. 

This was the line for ppl who pre purchased tickets so they wouldn't have to wait in line.

This is the bitch is looking down at us peons standing on one foot and then the other in lines that seem to never end.

We'd done a little prep work prior to visiting the museum so we'd know at least a little about what we were going ot see. I was into it, checking out the difference between oils and temperas, looking at the lack of brush strokes, seeing who got perspective and who was still working on it. I looked over at Tata about two hours in and his eyes were glazed over. He admitted to being a bit bored, "it seems like we're just seeing the same things over and over again."

Dude! No we're not!

You got your peaceful bebe Jesus.

Bebe Jesus' first Halloween.

Distracted bebe Jesus.

Bebe Jesus sees his first bird and nearly faints.

I don't even know what to say about this bebe Jesus.

Bebe Jesus ate a strobere and wants more.

Innovative Mary props chubby bebe Jesus up on a wheat pillow.

Bebe Jesus destroys his first book.

We made our way down the steps soon after Ev confessed and chose a book about the museum in the gift shop. A used copy is on order from Abe's books and is on its way to our home. 

I've always been a big fan of Mary, I'm hoping the book explains why she's always depicted staring off into space completely dissociated from what is happening around her. I love the characters in the paintings that are looking right at me or are at least engaged with each other.

Bebe Jesus eats a pomegranate.

Bebe Jesus wondering what he did to make his mom pass out.

Before we headed back to the hotel, we ducked into a little teensy restaurant and had another unnaturally orange drink and this delicious snack. Then steak for him, goat cheese pasta for me.

Another great day.

Goodbye Siena and Hello Again, Florence

 Sunday, we packed up our  stuff and headed back to Florence to return the rent car and spend our last days in the city center. We discovered who has been drumming all this time! There was a little parade out front right before we took off.

Cute Italian men in tights.

Ev has been telling me he never met a Chianti wine that he liked, so today our goal was to change that by taking the scenic route back to Florence through Chianti. I had my eye on a vineyard that looked pretty and had an interesting history. They offered tastings with lunch and a tour. Whether or not we could find it, or if there would be room at the table for us or if we would even arrive at the correct time was all in question because we've discovered we're not that good at sticking to a schedule on vacation.

It was misty and rainy the entire drive but the hills and curves provided Ev with a little opportunity to get his Mario Andretti face on. 

He liked the drive, see the smirk?

I loved the region, I think it's my favorite, The villages aren't walled off like fortresses, you actually drive through them. It's a heavily wooded area, the vines and olive groves are just barely on the wrong side of perfectly groomed. The vistas were incredible from the road.

We found our way to the vineyard by way of a few "this can't be right" "is this right?" "are you sure?" moments.

I Immediately located and harassed the I am The Vineyard Cat And You May Not Touch Me.

I learned some things about Chianti Classico and it's roostered label and the consortium that controls them.

Couldn't hear what this clever green glass thing was or what it did, all I heard was that DaVinci invented it and there have been no improvements on the design.

See the rooster on the bottle's neck? That tells you it's a classic Chianti and will taste like cherries and roses. Maybe.

We had an incredible meal.

We shared the table with this darling couple from Quebec.

I watched the guy during the entire tour-he was so much like the men in my family: quietly wandering off to get a better look the air whatevers on top of the casks, chewing his cheek studying the way the casks were held toether, turned his back to the group guide looking at an ancient hinge, he surreptitiously ran his hands over a tap in a cask. When we found ourselves seated with them, I introduced myself and asked, "are you an engineer?"  His wife and I shared a chuckle about all his "tells". 

We made it to the Florence airport, through a series of back alleys, hanging laundry, low income apartment housing and general Sunday craziness. I still don't have the hang of Italian city layouts to know if Google maps was just messing with me or if that was a good route. Ev is certain I have selected the "take me through crazy town" setting on the app. 

We stopped at a weird 5 way intersection and I looked up to see Mary on the streetcorner (just like Mexico) and we were on the right track for the Amerigo Vespucci Airport.

Today in Florence was for the Lego store and Central Market-it was super crowded down here and I was getting twitchy so we came back to the hotel to put our feet up before finding a place to eat. I learned at dinner that Monday is cruise ship day in Florence and today was exceptionally crowded.

Central Market was a fabulous treat and I'd love to come back when it's a little less crazy.

Brand new Starship Enterprise.

Little Mermaid

Our homestay in Siena

https://tinyurl.com/ycy8a69u

 For those asking, this is the place I rented for us in Siena. The housekeeper was our greeter and gave me the orientation which consisted of 5 curt words spit out in Italian: key! wifi! bedroom! bathroom! kitchen! What she lacks in social grace, she makes up for by keeping this place spotless. 

There is ample space for us to spread out, the WIFI is great, the bed is hard like we like. Bathrooms and kitchen are relatively new IKEA and typical for Europe I think.

The antiques are stunning-I've never seen so much beautiful and finely detailed marquetry. Ever. I can't imagine if it was mine that I would let AirBnB people near it. Alessandra's attempt to protect the surfaces is to stack stuff on it so you can't use it. A LOT of stuff.

The lounging furniture is remarkable in its UNcomfortableness. 

Siena doesn't allow citizens to heat after April so we were a little chilly last night and today. 

Take a look at these inlays:

We're right on the edge of Old Town so it's easy to walk up there but when there are events, parking on the street in front of the apartment can be scarce. There are a ton of apartments right around us so you can see ladies hanging out the laundry and hear a dog bark every afternoon. We've heard neighbors hollering greetings to one another from terrace to terrace. 

The ability to have open windows was great for us, they aren't screened and for some reason (other than the occasional gnat) there aren't any bugs. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen or heard any insects, even bees, though the wildflowers are in full bloom right now.

We walked up to Old Town and had a sandwich, sitting on a milk crate outside a tiny little grocery. Alberto made our sandwich and had a lot of questions about it. I finally used google translate and asked him to pretend I was his mother and make a sandwich she would like (he might have been a little older than me). Evidently, she liked dry-assed bread and salami. No cheese, no mustard, no vegetables. Oh well.

I had my high hopes dashed after one bite.

On the long walk back to the house I was struck by the differences between Ev and I.

Me: Do you hear that? I think it might be a mockingbird!

Him: Did you notice the lug nut covers on the bus wheels? They had arrows on them so it will be easy to tell if one loosens.

Me: God! the terrified look on that man's face to be broken down right there on the hill!

Him: It was a Fiat, betcha it was the wiring.

Me: Those delicate little wildflowers blooming their hearts out right in the middle of the sidewalk.

Him: I'm pretty sure they don't use propane in these old buildings, I think that's the gas hookup right here.

and so the world turns...

The beach.

 Amma needed to stick her feet in the ocean. It was chilly and cloudy here in Siena when we left so we loaded the car with jackets, rain ponchos and umbrellas. I plotted a path to the ocean one way, and home a different route. I briefly scanned the guidebook about what we might see and thought about seafood possibilities for lunch and scanned the section on Super Tuscan vineyards we might pass along the way. We found the sea! Deserted, relatively warm and not one shell in the sand. Sea level air temps were just right.

We found our seafood, too, after striking out thrice trying to navigate to places in the guidebooks. We concluded we do better stumbling upon eateries by dumb luck than trying to plan anything.

Something I read said we would find huge yachts anchored in this area but thankfully, we didn't. The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean.

Not bad temps, where is everybody?

The view at our lunch spot was amazing, but these two friends captured my heart. They never stopped talking, looking at each other and laughing together.

We got the fried pupu platter for our 2nd course. Beady eyed shrimp looking at me is not my thing, not now, not ever. Fried everything else was delicious as was our first course: risotto with prawns for me, thick and lightly cheesed noodles with steamed clams for him.

Now, about the vineyards we saw today in the southwest part of Tuscany. 

I have to say they were head and shoulders above what we've seen in other drives around the area. The rows were straighter, the vines were tidier-everything looked manicured and...nicer. 

I learned these vintners went renegade in the 1970s by using non-standard grapes (think French) and the oldsters of the Italian wine industry went wild. They punished the winemakers by only letting them call their wine "table wine" but the wine makers added "of <insert location>" so consumers could find them again. The wines were so delicious and popular that the oldsters had to recognize the vinters and their product and let them into the club. Now they are known as Super Tuscans and fetch hundreds of euros per bottle.

The other thing we saw today were gorgeous olive groves attached to many of the vinyards. There is lots of "agroturismo" in the area which is exactly what it sounds like: farm stays on the working property. This might be the most gorgeous vista we saw today, and we saw plenty.

There is renegade wheat growing along the edges of the highway with the poppies, if they don't take it away at the Denver airport I'm bringing some home.

Finally, we had to get gas today. Ev usually can't see the prices because color blindness so for all of our married life I have called out the price of regular unleaded to him when we travel because that is just the kind of mental exercise he likes: figuring what euro/liter and kpl comes out to in dollar/gallon and mpg. He was adamant about going to a pump your own self and when I called out "1.71 and the station says Self" he whipped a U-turn. I took pictures of him biting his cuticle, rubbing his forehead and putting his hands on his hips while he tried to figure out the pump. Funny guy. 

Do credit cards have pins in Italy? he asked.

Italian Design

 A little break from travel photographs to talk about design. Italian design, I would argue, is primo. I've been peepin in plenty of GORGEOUS retail windows at stylish clothing for men and women and children. Italians came up with the Vespa, the moka pot that the whole world now uses to brew espresso, my favorite corkscrew thingie that you push the arms down to pull out the cork, Ferragamo shoes and those giant arc lamps. Enter, the square holed toilet:

WTF, Italy? We've been complaining about you since we arrived.

This is the view from our living room.  Church bells and drum practice could actually BE in our living room because we've kept the windows open since we've been here. It's lovely to listen to.  There is a small ravine between us and the steep hill into Old Town. Our walk is not that, we go by way of the street, up and around.

Today we decided to walk up and have a closer look at Old Town. We found a ledge to perch on and entertained ourselves admiring the work done 800 years ago and watching the people mill around. It's astounding to think they are still allowing people (a LOT of people) clamber around inside the church. 

I mentioned to Ev how I particularly liked the black and white detail on this building and came home to read that the two colors were added as a nod to the city founders and their legendary black and white horses. 

Check out this kid's hair sprayed bangs! His jacket front had something to do with Atlanta Braves and it said "be the bravest one" on the back. He was the first to snap open his umbrella when it looked like rain. Must preserve the bangs.

Each side of this building was a different design. Those big triangular pieces are actually teensy mosaics. If you click, you can see the astonishing work.

You can biggie this up, too. Nothing invites a rich spiritual life like old men, gargoyles, greyhounds and lions.

Lots of steps and hills today.

This was from our perch across the patio. Though there were lots of people, tour groups and school field trips, the space didn't feel that crowded. 

About the time we'd decided to mosey along and find a place to eat, the skies clouded over and it began to sprinkle, then rain in earnest. We found the little restaurant that we'd seen coming in and it was packed. A nice waiter pulled a table in from outside and set us up in front of the gelatto freezer and served us lunch right there. It was kind of festive with everyone ducking in to get out of the rain.

Waiting for 12 layer lasagna with the thinnest little noodles.

Double scoop of gelato for dessert, please.

I wasn't fast enough to snap a picture, but Ev's feet were cold. He went right to the square holed toilet, sat down sideways, and soaked his feet in hot water in the bidet. 

Another successful day.