This one got very verbose... Sorry.
Slept in, so I barely made it in time for my cappuccino (apparently they have a rule here that if you order cappuccino after noon you'll turn into a frog or something). I got to the Cafe at 11:56, so Krista for the win! I was given the biggest croissant in the case, so I think my efforts were appreciated.
Was window shopping as we walked over to the Ufizzi and a man in a leather store pulled me in to try and sell me a leather jacket he said would make me look 10 years younger. It was gorgeous (not sure about the making me look younger part), but a family friend is taking us shopping on Friday, so I am waiting to make any purchases. The women here have been wearing swing-length coats, so that's what I was looking at when he pulled me in. I mentioned this to him, and he flat out told me I'm too short for that length. He wouldn't even let me try one on. So now I've got to get rid of all my coats that length when I get home or they may not let me come back.
During the interaction he also made it clear that he hated the scarf I brought from home, so I threw that away immediately so I wouldn't get deported for that. Guess I'd b better add a scarf to my list for Friday's outing.
Walked through the Uffizi and saw so many gorgeous works of art. Just amazing how all of these can be in one place. If you're anything like me, you've seen many of these on shows or in books, but trust me when I say, you've never seen them until you see them live.
Saw a German kid walking with his family, his mom clearly very frustrated with him looking at his phone the whole time. Frankie looked over his shoulder and he was playing video games. Surrounded by priceless works of art and he's playing candy crush... If I were his mother, I'd have lost my shit too.
Later, we saw a Danish guy walking around in his underwear - literally had on pants and a faded, stained undershirt with a hoodie wrapped around his waist. Who does that? I was very happy to hear it wasn't English he was speaking. Lol
Had lunch on the terrace at the Uffizi, looking at the Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo. None of the pigeons there appointed themselves as bouncer, so we had to fend for ourselves, but it was still a lovely time.
After lunch we decided since the passes we bought can be used again any time while we're here, we'd wait to see the rest another day (we'd only seen about 1/3 of it in 3 hours), so we headed for the exit. Took us another 2 hours to find it, so we saw most of the rest anyhow. Lol. That place is a maze. I guess since covid, they've purposely organized it in a way that helps to maintain crowd control.
Headed to the Ponte Vecchio after that to peruse the gorgeous jewelry on display, with a pit stop for Gelato along the way.
Once we'd done that, things were pretty much closing down for the day (except food-there's always food), so we didn't see any more sights.
We've been looking for Distilled water since we arrived so Frankie can use it in his cpap, so we popped into a pharmacy to check there. It's pretty convenient they way they do pharmacies here. They're all identified with a green neon cross on the outside above the door. If there's a pharmacist on duty, it's lit up. If there's not, it's dark.
Very interesting the things you have to have a pharmacist give you - we asked for Distilled water and had to tell him what we needed it for before he'd sell it to us. Peroxide was another thing you couldn't just grab from the shelf, he had to get that from the back. I'm not sure how these things are decided, or what sort of dangers Distilled water and peroxide pose that require pharmaceutical supervision, but it gave us a story to tell anyhow, so I'll call it a win.
Tried to find a place nearby that had a good aperitivo and failed miserably. Gave up and since we had the water to lug around now, decided to take a cab back to our neighborhood.
Cab driver's name, I kid you not, was Mario Piccioli! We told him we'd heard there were a lot of Piccioli in Firenze - he said no. Not much. There's only 3 where he works. Lol
Dropped off the water and since it was still kind of early for dinner (7:30pm), tried again to find aperitivo and again failed. Gave up and popped in for an early dinner at this place just off Piazza Santa Croce called-- well, that's the thing... It seemed to be 4 different places all in a row. The first 2 of which were called Baldovino (Baldovino bottega & Baldovino bistrot), the middle one called Il Francescano, and the final one was Baldovino again(trattoria this time).
We were looking to go into the Francescano one (Santa Croce is the largest Franciscan church in the world, so we thought it fitting to eat at a place across from it called the Franciscan) and the guy at Baldovino #3 called us over there. We told him we were looking to go to the other place and he said it was all the same place. As he was saying this, I noticed the awning above B3 said il Francescano.
Since I was starving to the point of having about 15 minutes before I became a different person, confused as we were, we went in. We were seated in the building that was identified outside as Baldovino Trattoria, at a table with a view of the kitchen (this turned out to be highly entertaining), and handed menus for Baldovino. All the wait staff were wearing aprons that said Baldovino, even the ones coming in and out of the building which on the street was labeled as il Francescano. So obviously the place was called Baldovino, right? OK. Cool. Got it. We're eating dinner at Baldovino.
For some reason, we had 3 waiters whose roles appeared to be as follows: 1 to take and deliver our order, 1 to serve only liquids, and 1 to come by and joke with us while delivering or bussing as needed. I don't know why this happened, but it was announced to us that we'd have two shortly after we were seated, so it was a thing. No clue how the third who served only the drinks got in the mix, but it was already a weird night, so we went with it and started referring to them as lead-off (waiter 1), water girl (waiter 2), and cleanup (waiter 3), just to keep them straight.
We ordered, and were sitting eating our first course (tuna tartar that was so so delicious, and fried artichokes - equally delicious) when I noticed a mosaic on the wall across from us of a fat Franciscan monk. Then I looked down and noticed our placemats said il Francescano. What the?
Where the hell were we eating!?
So we pulled the cleanup waiter over to get the low down, and learned that the owner of both places is the same, and because of covid he rotates which of the two he opens and the staff works at both. Baldovino is the bigger of the two, and I've since learned there's more than one location for that name (including the three that flank il Francescano), so there you go. Obviously we were eating dinner at il FrancescaBaldovino. Duh...
Anyhow, it was a chilly night, and they had two soups on the menu - a tomato one and one that sounded like a vegetable, so we ordered one of each for our first course. What we were served was delicious, but not what would be considered soup by pretty much anyone I know. Neither had broth, and I'm pretty sure mine was pan fried before it was served because it had a delightful crunch to it. I've had and made Italian soup before, and these were very different. So I'm thinking maybe something got lost in translation, or when they combined the places for covid, the whole lot got sucked into some alternate dimension where 4 restaurants become one, and soup is a solid. Whatever it was, they were both delightful, so I'll call it a win...
For our main course, we figured we'd just go with the weird and had pizza (from what I've seen, pizza is typically a lunch /aperitivo thing, and not for dinner). I'm told it was delicious, but I was already full from my not soup and Frankie said it was spicy (and y'all know I'm a wuss), so I gave my half to the Canadian guys at the table next to us. They loved it, so I'm calling that a win too.
Frankie ordered Vin Santo and cantucci for dessert, and, true to form the cantucci was delivered by cleanup waiter, and the water girl brought the drinks. However, what we were brought was not Vin Santo. It looked and tasted more like a brandy. When we inquired with lead-off waiter, he confirmed it was Vin Santo, but then looked closer, smelled it, stated he knew what the problem was, then proceeded to bring us something entirely different, which was, in fact Vin Santo. We never did find out what we were given first, and no one really wanted to talk about it or even acknowledge it thereafter. It sat on the side of the table the rest of the time we were there, and for all I know is still sitting there now.
They were clearly very embarrassed by the whole affair, because our glasses were refilled multiple times with the real stuff, and might have never stopped being refilled if we hadn't politely refused after 3 (we still had to walk home, and that's easier to do on cobblestone if you're at least reasonably sober). Since I'm writing this on day 11,it's very feasible that had we not put a stop to it, we might still be sitting there drinking glass after glass of Vin Santo while we all ignore the not Vin Santo. Also, we never did see the water girl again, so I'm guessing she got deported for serving the wrong liqueur.
So anyhow, when you're here, definitely have dinner at Baldovino. Or il Francescano. Or il FrancescaBaldovino. Or whatever they're deciding to call it at that time. You will not be disappointed...
Got back to our flat and discovered that we were in fact not given Distilled water by the pharmacist. What he gave us was purified water. So the search continues tomorrow...
In related news, my phone thinks Distilled should be capitalized, but danish shouldn't... Weird.
Oh, also no priests, no nuns, 1 church, lots of dogs.
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