September 27-29, 2021 - A Wonderful Trip to Florence
Because the temple is closed for cleaning this week we bought train tickets to Florence. We had so many wonderful experiences in these three short days:
On Monday on the train to Rome we met Christopher, a young American who is a Catholic Chaplin. He and a few friends came to Italy to see two of their friends be ordained as priests in Saint Peter's Basilica. We talked a lot about the our similar religious beliefs and told him of our mission to France and our Temple assignment here. We also told them that if they were looking for leather while in Florence to go see our dear friend, Massimo. Later in the day we ran into them again in Massimo's shop. They ended up buying several things including four jackets!
In the afternoon we walked to the Oltrarno side of the river to visit Jason Arkles in his studio. I met him earlier online and wanted to see his studio: Amazing. Some of the tools he has date back centuries, and I have never actually seen some of them. Also went to the Romanelli Studio, still an active studio and sculpture shop.
Tuesday was a perfect day. Breakfast in the hotel was not the typical Italian "espresso and cornetto". Rather, they had bacon, eggs, pancakes, yoghurt, fresh juices, pastries.... We didn't really need it but did some serious damage anyway. After finding exactly what Chris was wanting in the Mercado we went to the Bargello sculpture museum, one of my favorites. Michelangelo, Giambologna, Bernini, Verrocchio, Donatello...the list goes on. For lunch we just grabbed a very good pizza & insalata at a little open air bistro next to the museum. Then it was off to the Academia to pay homage to seven incredible Michelangelo sculptures including his David. Dinner that evening was with Massimo & Colette at "Za Za", a wonderful Italian place. There was a huge line, but Massimo is friends with the owner so we had a table waiting for us. A French couple near us offered their leftover partially full wine bottle which Massimo said was really excellent. The couple said they where were from Senlis and were very surprised that we could not only speak French but also that we had eaten in "Les Barbares", a restaurant in their small town. We just spent a lovely evening with our very dear friends.
On Wednesday we just relaxed with a visit to the Monastery of San Marco that has so many wonderful Fra Angelico frescos. On the way to San Marco we passed by Mario's Trattoria, a great little hole in the wall that is only open for lunch and made a "prenottazione" for noon. Learning a little Italian has been both very helpful and great fun. The lunch of agnello arrosto, ravioli, zucchini and insalata was fresh, simple homemade goodness. Finally we made our way back to the Santa Maria Novella train station for our journey back "home" to Roma.
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