Apologies that Part II of the Day 5 has taken so long to post... unfortunately the reality of work came crashing down, making me only wish I was back in Florence and having a day like this!
Anyhow, when I last left you, we were enjoying a peaceful late afternoon in front of San Miniato church high above Florence waiting for the sun to set. I mentioned that I have tried to have these quiet moments during our trips, which go against my genetic make-up, but after a couple of hours and still no sunset, I was getting a bit restless so decided we should walk back down to Piazzale Michelangelo...
... and as mentioned in the previous post, it was a lot more people down there... but there was definitely a buzz as folks gathered on the steps to take in the Florence sunset.
And these folks came prepared! People were munching on sandwiches and crackers and cheese... and there was plenty of wine flowing too! So a good, fun atmosphere... until I started to get a little crabby as it many, many hours from our 10 Euro lunch and our long-ish hike to the piazzale... and it got even more annoying when this group right in back of us were cooing of how good all their food was! I almost felt like turning around and asking if they'd like to share!
By the time the sunset, I was ready to get out of there... and while I think there is no such thing as a bad sunset, this one didn't quite have "the moment" due to some low clouds that didn't get those good sun streaks.
As we walked back into town, we passed many hopping bars and restaurants that looked to be mostly locals, but they were so jammed and a bit intimidating to think of making our way in. I was pretty hungry, but really didn't want to do the "tourist menu" thing again... and fortunately, just in the nick of time, we found this small outdoor cafe (maybe 8 tables, with 1 open table) that looked like the vibe I was going for... as we checked out the menu, still a bit unsure... an American guy yelled out to us that this was his first night in Florence and that we should absolutely come in that the food and wine were great. Later I kind of figured out he was there on business and some other Americans who work in Italy had brought him there. Any kind of positive reinforcement was all I needed at that point... so we scooped up the last table... and had our best meal of our entire Italy trip and the start of what was the best 24 hour of food.
I had some kind of ravioli with a side spinach salad... we also had some fried pasta dough to start (forget what it's real name was)... and Todd has some incredible steak and a caprese salad... and we could not turn down 9 Euros for a litre of house wine (we figured that's about 1.25 of a bottle), which was as good as any wine we had during the entire trip... and an amount of vino, we would learn was enough to make us very happy.
Fortunately, we got a business card with our check, otherwise I would have never even known the name of the restaurant! So while I don't know if it was just the right time/right place, lightning strike but, if you find yourself in Florence, I would certainly recommend Francescovini (now that's Italian) on a nice pedestrian only street, Borgo de Greci, between Piazza Santa Croce and Piazza della Signoria/Palazzo Vecchi (closer to Santa Croce).
On our way back, we had yet another surprise as there was this light projection show going on in the Piazza della Signoria. It made me very happy (well, okay the half litre of wine was making me very happy), and I exclaimed it was "Just like Vegas!"
I don't if this is a regularly scheduled thing or what, but we went on the next night (this was on a Thursday night) at around the same time and nothing was going on like this, so who knows... but it was a happy accident and I am glad we stumbled onto it.
But an end to a really terrific day and one had started to slip/be threatened by some punchiness (hunger / tiredness) on my part, but it saved in spectacular fashion... wine is good!
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