The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Buon Natale Firenze

This morning we left Arezzo for the one-hour drive to Florence. I dropped Margene and the bags at the airport and followed the shuttle bus to the car rental center. It wasn't that far away, but the route to get there was typically maze-like and I wasn't taking any chances. There is certainly no need for a car in beautiful downtown Firenze, so free of the wheels (and the cost!), we piled everything into a cab and let the driver figure out how to find our hotel.

Perhaps "hotel" isn't quite the right word to use for Residenzia Castelli. I is more like a six-bedroom flat on the fourth floor of an ancient building at the foot of the Ponte Vecchio, the old bridge across the River Arno. There's no full time front desk and everything has to be done by appointment. We had made an appointment for someone to check us in at 11:30. After somehow fitting the two of us and all our luggage into the phone booth-sized lift and hauling it all off on the fourth floor, we learned that we would be staying in their four-room annex half a block away. (Lots of schlepping today!)

The window of our room looks out into the entry courtyard of the Gallery Art Hotel, the site of a rather unexpected installation. The intentions of the artist are laid out on several plaques by the various pieces. I won't question those, I just enjoy watching the reactions of the people who stumble on to it. LOTS of pictures being taken.

The Ponte vecchio is one of the main tourist destinations in Florence so it can get rather zoo-like. We managed to cross at a comparatively quiet time. The bridge is lined with goldsmith shops on both sides, but From the open spot in the center of the bridge, I was moved by the lone scull gliding across the still water. It just seemed somehow appropriately peaceful for a Christmas morning.

Among the recommended restaurants on the other side of the river was Trattoria 4 Leoni on a small piazza off the beaten tourist routes. It had a wonderfully warm feeling inside, but it was Christmas day and they were booked solid. They did, however, offer us a spot outside. Since the weather was conducive to it, we were hungry and the heat lamps under the umbrellas were functioning, we went for it. We ordered the ribollita and were surprised when it arrived with virtually no liquid in it. I thought it was supposed to be a soup! It certainly was more soup-like in Montepulciano but perhaps this is how they do it in Florence. It was tasty, though, and filling enough that we couldn't eat anything more. It will certainly hold us nicely until the dinner hour.

Here are a few odd shots around on the other side of the river. Most of the famous landmarks you think of when you think of Florence (the Duomo, the Uffizi Gallery, the Accademia and such) are in the city center. Across the river has quite a different feel. These first two incredible bronze statues are on loan from an artist in China. The tree-lined square is the Piazza de Santo Spirito. The tower is one of the few remaining defensive residences from the more predatory days. The first two shots on the bottom row show how the shops line the Ponte Vecchio. They are closed on Christmas day, of course, but should be ready for business tomorrow. And finally, this little electric car makes a SmartCar look huge!

Lots of lights and lots of people for the Christmas passigiata (evening stroll). As in Arezzo, the Italians were big on projected light with a lengthy slide show of sorts being projected on one of the buildings on the Piazza della Signoria. The sidewalk cafes were busy. The night was cool but not really cold. Still, a few of them had their heat lamps set to "stun." The red glow was rather surreal. Probably half the shops along the main drag were open and the ubiquitous Nigerian street vendors and miscellaneous street performers were everywhere. The big item this year seems to be extension rods that make it easier to take selfies with your cell phone. Who woulda thunk it?

The centerpiece of the action, as always, was the area around the famous Duomo and its huge tree but Piazza della Repubblica and neighboring buildings were all aglow as well, the carousel was getting heavy use and the night had a generally festive feel. Italians like to socialize in public, something Americans would do well to emulate. Back in a simpler time, all the action in American towns was on Main Street but now thing have fractured into little satellite camps and never the twain seem to meet. In some places, the mall is an equivalent public meeting ground for teens, so perhaps there's still some hope ... if we can somehow get them to stop texting each other and actually engage in face-to-face conversation!

We wanted a little something to eat, but not a lot, and a wood-fired pizza sounded like just the ticket. Among the ten best pizzerias in Florence was Pizzeria O'Vesuvio. It wasn't much to look at from the outside and less to look at inside, but they did put out some serious pizza. Just for something different, we ordered essentially a Margherita pizza with a ricotta-stuffed crust. Interesting, but probably not worth the effort to make.

That was enough for us today. Tomorrow we may actually do or see something ... or not. Buon Natale.

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