The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Christmas Eve in Arezzo
The Morning Report:
I suspect this will be a truly lazy day. The day is overcast, my knee is aching and Margene's hip is bothering her. If we do
much of anything today, I will likely just be to navigate the half block to Borgo San Pietro for lunch ... and perhaps
another block to Pasticceria Stefano to pick up a couple of pastries for tomorrow morning.
The trick today (and tomorrow in Florence) will be to find eating places that are actually open on Christmas eve or Christmas
day! Given the tourist-oriented nature of Florence and the fact that visitors will have to eat out somewhere, I trust there
will be at least a few restaurants open to service them. At the worst, there's always a hotel dining room ... isn't there?
Yes, we head to Florence tomorrow (Christmas Day) to drop the car and settle in for three nights at the foot of the Ponte
Vecchio in the heart of the historic center. We spent a day in Florence on our first trip to Italy in July 2000. That was
when we learned never to come to Europe in the summer! Two thousand tour busses head into Florence every day so the
crowds were crushing ... and it was so hot that I couldn't make it through the Uffizi Gallery even with its air conditioning.
We should be able to see a little more this time. It will certainly be cooler and less crowded!
The Mid-Day Report:
Well, I was right about lunch at Borgo, but we never made it to Stefano for that pastry. After wandering the streets for a
bit and finding nothing that particularly intrigued us food-wise (lots of places closed, of course), we thought we'd see what
was being offered at Borgo today. Margene went for the canneloni, I had a seafood pasta and we split side orders of roasted
potatoes and peas. It was all good and, as usual, at a very good price. I could easily see a format like this working in an
area with a high apartment density, particularly in a city and especially if the residents were young (i.e. single) or elderly.
No bets on dinner yet. We've got enough food in the apartment to hold us for several days, so we'll probably graze our way
through that tonight. We won't have a kitchen in Florence and may not even have access to a refrigerator, so it seems futile
to bring any of the stash with us. Stay tuned. In the meantime, we should probably start packing ... or at least getting
things organized so we can pack.
The Evening Report:
Nothing to see here, folks. Just move along. We're in for the duration. There's really no place we want to go, nothing else
we want to see and no energy to do either even if we were so inclined. It has been interesting to see Arezzo and soak it up
for a couple of days, but it won't replace Montepulciano or Cortona in our affections and I doubt we'll return, especially
since we didn't connect with an individual, discover an OMG menu item or have an experience that would draw us back as we
are regularly drawn back to Osteria Acquacheta in Montepulciano, Trattoria La Grotta in Cortona and Osteria La Porta in
Monticchiello. Funny how that seems to work.
A point to ponder for my restaurant folks: how are you working to assure signature items and the sort of memorable personal
experience -- every time -- that could cause someone to consider you as their favorite restaurant? Fair Warning: the more
people come to know and trust you, the greater the consequences for ever disappointing them.
With that said, I'm taking the rest of the day off. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
I didn't want to leave you without any photos today, so here are a few odds and ends that didn't really fit into any of the previous days' narratives. 1: This is a Volkswagen Up!, our sturdy little steed on this trip. It is reasonably comfortable for two, can hold three roller bags behind the back seat and gets great gas mileage. Ten days into the trip and we still have half a tank of gas left! 2: The courtyard of sorts in front of our apartment. The green gate opens up onto another internal courtyard with a long driveway down to yet another double gate that leads onto a little side street that leads on to Via Cavour, one of the main streets in the historic center. Are you confused yet? Don't worry, it's kinda like that around here. 3: This is a section of Via Cavour. As you can see, it is a pedestrian only area (nice!) and there's much more shopping down Corso Italia which intersects about a block from here.
4: I mentioned that the parking lot I had to use was outside the city walls. Well, here is a section of the city wall next to the gate I pass through as I leave the parking lot. 5: Rising above the wall is the Duomo (main cathedral) of Arezzo. We didn't visit it. Maybe it would be different if I were Catholic or even religiously inclined, but I find I OD on religious art very quickly. 6: The twisted route to get from the apartment to the parking lot takes me along some interesting side streets where the age of the town really shows. The tunnel on the left is actually a passageway that goes through a three-story medieval building!
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