See Me Now

          On Monday we were treated (ok, we paid for it) to a wine tasting and to motoring around the beautiful Chianti hills. It was a bit overcast in anticipation of coming rain, but this only served to highlight the variety of colors displayed by olive groves, leaf-changing vineyards, dark clouds, and green hills.           These tastings were far more elaborate than those I've experienced in the U.S. when you just sidle into a tasting room and stand at a bar. Here, you sit at a table graced with several impeccable wine glasses. The sever brings each person a plate of small bites -- cheese, cured ham, chocolate -- that are chosen to pair with the various wines to be tasted. Everyone in Italy has emphasized that wine should always be consumed with food.  They wag a scolding finger at the American habit of swilling wine outside of a meal or apertivo context (guilty 😞).  Each tasting experience lasts at least 45 minu...

Within a day or two of arriving here, I abandoned my idea of renting a bike and cycling around on my own. Although I had come prepared with some routes loaded on my cycling device, I quickly realized that the only way out of the busy part of Florence is up (and up and up) some long hills, sometimes steep. I could probably manage those hills, but the idea of huffing up those very narrow streets with cars trying to pass both ways …. do-able maybe, but not fun.   However, I really wanted to get out on two wheels somehow, so I ended up booking a day-tour with a nearby company.   It turned out to be really great, though not the exercise experience I was seeking. There were 10 of us signed up for this Saturday excursion under the supervision of Giovanni, our cycle/guide. The tour company convinced us all to use e-bikes and that was definitely the right thing to do. The hills are far less scary and the traffic far less intimidating when you’re not laboring to get up them. I’ve ...

    Here's a temporary statue in Piazza Della Signoria.  We were told there is a rotating series of modern sculptures placed here and sure enough, this one has disappeared already.  But it accurately comments on the posture of many visitors to Florence who are so into their phones that they miss their surroundings.        This looks like some sort of photo shoot and maybe it was, but it was taking place on an unassuming street in "my" neighborhood and I didn't see any cameras in evidence. Instead, it looked like there were real wedding guests standing around sipping wine. The bride holds a plate of spaghetti and was going to feed it to her impossibly handsome groom, much as we Americans would do the cake feeding thing       Our groovy pasta-making teacher.   This Italian fellow was graciously accommodated at our lunch restaurant.   There is an old school photo booth on a corner near my apartment and it's very popular! The...

     It does pay to do some trip planning, because some months ago I happened upon on-line travel tips that led me to buy advance tickets to:           1) Michelangelo’s secret room.    This is a small room below the Medici Chapel that, in the 1970s, was discovered to have sketches made by Michelangelo that had been covered over with plaster. The plaster was removed and the sketches revealed but not made viewable by the public until 2023.   They only allow 4 people in at a time and only for 15 minutes. Of course, photos of the room and sketches are all over the place online, but it was cool to see it in person.      Just upstairs from this spare chamber is the incredibly hubristic Chapel of the Princes, which was supposed to house the remains of the Medici family members but guess what – those enormous sarcophagi are empty and the family members' remains are in a crypt elsewhere in the building.    ...