Florence...

Sandi……this blogs for you.
Tonight I think we had the most fun we have ever had in a restaurant. But let me back up…since we have not had internet access for awhile. Our last day in Rome we spent exploring the forum and surrounding ruins. It is not enough to say they were amazing. We wandered for hours and then returned to our room for a nap as it was unbelievably hot and we had walked for MILES. At dusk we did Rick Steve’s night walk across Rome…threw coins in the Trevia Fountain and had a wonderful dinner followed by this ice cream called TO DIE FOR CHOCOLATE…in Italian of course. I must say I have not yet had pizza as good as it was in NY…but the gnocchi I had last night was the BEST.
We had to get up early for our train to Florence…what a kick that high speed train was. The Italian countryside just flew by…only one and half hours to get to Firenze. Our tour director is so much fun…we are all wired with ear sets so she can talk to us while we walk…she has something called a “brown alert”…which tells us to watch for a suspicious person she thinks may be a pick pocket. We are fortunate that we have not had to deal with anything like that so far. We arrived in Florence and immediately began our tour….saw the David…truly wonderful…walked around the Duoma…so beautiful….had gelato in the square…went into some leather shop and watched them guild some leather…and it was pouring rain the whole time. By the time we checked into our hotel…we were beat, hot and wet…no umbrella for us. This room is like an individual court yard apartment…in a really nice hotel. There is a huge beautiful tree with what looks like magnolias blooming on it…but the blossoms are HUGE. Because we were tired and didn’t want to walk around Florence on our own, in the rain…we decided to join the side excursion being offered to the Chianti hills. Turns out…the whole group signed up to do it and since we all have come to know each other pretty well we thought it might be fun. Our “coach” drove us up into the hills where we stopped to take pictures of the beautiful view of all of Florence. With any luck these pictures are included. Then the bus drove deep into the countryside, thru small little villages and hugely expensive real estate. We ended up at this quaint little restaurant with a covered outside terrace. The meal started with an ANTIPASTA buffet…at least 30 items to fill up on. This was followed by two courses of melt in your mouth pasta. Then came Florentine steak and potatoes brought out in a flaming bowl…like the pig in a luau…..then brought to each of our plates. Did I mention that 3 kinds of wine flowed like water…followed by two courses of champagne and a shot of espresso. There were more glasses on our table then I could count. All the while, we were serenade by these OLE SOLE AMEIO men, playing the accordion. It started to rain so they pulled up the sides of this tent and we sat under the pouring rain and THUNDER…it was incredible. Big baskets of Geraniums hung all the way around…think UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN. Then came the tiramisu,,,could I be anymore in Heaven? There are two boys who are probably in their late teens included in our group. They sat thru the whole thing with that look on their face…the I am bored vacationing with my parents LOOK. At the end…the singers came to our table and were serenading the women next to us. Jim…being his shy self…stood up right at the end and joined them as they hit the HIGH NOTE….these two kids busted up with the best laugh…they came up to Jim afterwards and said that was the funniest thing they ever saw…guess they don’t get out much. HA!!!!On the way home…the driver played Italian opera and drove us down all the small streets that are normally so crowded during the day…he drove us past all the sights and now I am sure I am in LOVE with Florence. I have the name of this restaurant…and Sandi…we are definitely coming back here.