More hot weather and walking in Firenze

Sunday 19 October 2008

Well, it's Sunday - I've been here a bit more than two weeks - still very hot, yesterday was coolish but the promised rain has not arrived -don't know whether I'm pleased or not.

Since I last emailed I've finally visited the Duomo, Baptistery and the Duomo Museo - all fantastic and, as usual, unphotographable (my new word!). The ceilings and walls are amazing. I also visited Santo Spirito cathedral which has only just been opened for the first time in 20 years - fantastic church. I keep getting to places at mass time, but this was nearly over. The masses I have hit upon tend to be sung and this one was stupendous - the cathedral is huge and I think the priest had a microphone - when he sang the sound just reverberated around the room and it was just fabulous. Apart from attending masses, I have also become totally decadent. I stopped at Rivoire one evening and had a glass of red and some fabulous nibbles - cost an arm and leg but was well worth it and was served by a lovely man in a yellow dress jacket. The next day I also visited the Santo Spirito Cenacola (the convent's mess hall, basically), which was charming.

I went to Arezzo yesterday, what a beautiful city. Large boulevards, totally well-signed, could not get lost if I tried. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it is not a tourist town. I arrived about 12.15 and went straight to see the famous Piero Della Francesca Frescoes. I got in straight away, but after that pretty much everything was closed until 3pm. So I had lunch at a place recommended by Lonely Planet, boy did they get it right. I had a glass of local red (so, so!) and a plate of pasta with a light sauce and black truffles. It was superb and I told them so in my extremely poor italian. 

Lunch at Bacco ed Arianna Arezzo

After lunch I had a bit of a wander around. I chatted to a Scottish couple who are visiting her sister, who has lived in Castiglion Fiorentina for 18 years but this is the first time they've managed to visit her. Next I took the very long walk to see Santa Maria delle Grazie - a little Etruscan church about 10 mins out of town. It certainly was out of town, I almost had to cross the superstrada to reach it. Arezzo had a market on when I was there - pity I wasn't staying as it was huge, went for miles and miles and there was great variety and unbelievable quality of food. There was cheese, meats, cakes and sweets, you name it, and not just from the Tuscany region but as far away as Piemonte.

Last night I had a glass of wine and got a bit plate of nibbles at Caffe Ricchi, so didn't really need dinner but I bought some clementines from the market. I love these, wish we had them at home. They are semi sweet - really tiny, like a mandarin but no pips and very little pith.

Today I headed up to Fiesole - another bumpy crowded bus ride but what a view on the way. I thought about the poor servants way back when who had to carry luggage from hot possibly infested Florence way up into the hills of Fiesole so the rich and famous could relax during the summer months. Had quite a good walk around - it is a super hilly place. I walked up to the hotel with the terrace and view, only about a 3min walk but the walk is pretty much perpendicular - you lean forward to get up and lean back to get down, but the views were spectacular. Earlier, I had lunch in Piazza Mina, which was quite good - it was called crostoni, but was more like bruschetta - it had tomato, capers, anchovies and olives, was quite salty but really, really tasty.