lunched at osteria santo spirito (RG). E said it felt like noho, with the punkish wait staff dressed in replay t-shirts. the food was pretty good with even bigger portions than usual. salad of lukewarm octopus and potatoes and aglio olio pasta, which actually had kick and had scrumptious bits of garlic. shared bottle of gewürztraminer.
reason for the trip into firenze was to go to santa carmine’s cappella brancacci for the frescoes of st peter. €4 each, with groups of 30 allowed in for 15 minutes at a time. the rest of the church was off-limits. the expulsion of adam and eve from paradise ranks alongside edvard munch’s the scream as the most powerful depictions of man’s primal and absolute despair.
followed this with a 20 minute power nap in the car!
final home-cooked meal of nongshim noodles with sausages and baked chicken. final passeggiata along the gravel path.
this was our entry in the guest book:
We loved having this home to return to after our travels and travails. The weather was not as sunny as expected but it did not put too much of a dampener on our plans to wine, dine and sight-see. Some of our favourite places were the quieter towns and villages including Lucca, Volterra and Perugia.
Our favourite road sign was 'Tutte le direzione.' (All directions.)
Our favourite meals were at L'Osteria di Giovanni (Firenze), Carolo Nero 'Black Cabbage' (Firenze), La Bottegaia (Pistoia) and the BBQ in our very own garden.
Regrets we've had a few, including the fact that we never managed to dine at L'Acquacheta (even though it was near us; we must have tried at least 3 times).
In summary, we've distilled our collective knowledge into the following useful phrases:
1) Travelling is about losing your way and finding yourself. (from the fortune-cookie school of wise sayings)
2) Visual verification of physical landmark is necessary before disembarking from vehicle.
3) Some towns can be more interesting at 60km/h than at 6 km/h.
4) The Co-op (our favourite friendly neighbourhood supermercato mega chain) in the next town is always bigger.
5) Apparently, not all roads lead to Firenze.
Finally, thanks for everything Annalisa!