We had three “to-dos” on our master plan, as it related to Florence and set out this morning to do all three: (1) visit the Galleria dell’Accademia to see “David”, (2) to visit the Florence Cathedral and see the view of the city from the top of the Duomo and (3) have lunch at Cibreo. Two out of three isn’t bad, and now we have an excuse to come back!
We booked a last minute tour yesterday that included our first two items. We woke up and drove the 30 or so miles into Florence, parking at the train station and walking to the rendezvous point. Our group consisted of about 20 people with an English-speaking guide, who was born and raised in Florence (or Firenze, as they call it in Italian). As a group, we were able to cut the main line and get into the Galleria dell’Accademia without too much problem. Both of us prefer the Impressionist era paintings of Monet and Renoir, to the older, Renaissance work, most of which is focused on religious symbolism. The exception to this is the work of Michaelango. Hearing about how he would carve his statues without first doing a plaster version (unlike all of his contemporaries) cemented his place in our minds that he was really a one-of-a-kind artist. The tour of the museum ended at the statue of David, which was originally designed to sit on top of the Cathedral, but at close to six tons, it was impossible to actually be placed there. Because it was meant to be viewed from hundreds of feet away, the details of the statue, including the hands and face are slightly larger than to scale. Unbelievable attention to detail!
After the museum, we continued to tour the city with our guide, walking past the Duomo. Unfortunately the line was extremely long and there was no way to cut the line based on our group status, so we only got to see the outside. From there, we walked to Piazza della Signoria to see the famous statues and wrapped it all up at the Ponte Vecchio. On to lunch!
Cibreo is a Florence institution. Founded in 1979, it has now expanded to four restaurants: the original, the Trattoria, the Café and Cibleo Tuscan Oriental. We stopped into the original restaurant and put our names in for a table about an hour later. Fortunately, the Café is located just across the street and serves a delicious Aperol Spritz. Lunch was spectacular: several amuse bouches, spinach flan, thick tomato soup, beef stew and the highlight – chicken meatballs in creamy tomato sauce. We can’t properly describe how good these meatballs are…..just go if you get a chance and be sure to order them; you won’t regret it.
After lunch, we headed back to the parking lot, drove the hour back to the hotel and lounged by the pool for a couple of hours. The day ended with a light meal at the hotel restaurant and then to bed. Tomorrow is another day and it’s all about Brunello….