We flew from London to Florence (Firenze). The Florence airport is not large and not many flights go there. We had to take a plane from London to Frankfort and then another flight to Florence.
We had booked an AirBnB apartment in Florence and our host had to meet us to let us in. Our flight was delayed an hour and communication was tough but he had tracked our flight and was waiting for us when we arrived. The apartment was a renovated studio 1 flight up in an old building that had a small elevator. The apartment was modern and had a small kitchen which was not very usable but we did not cook there. The apartment was 1/2 block from the Ponte Vecchio, a very old bridge and very centrally located. We paid about $200 per night.
Florence is very walkable and is a fantasy city of very old buildings filled with art treasures. The city is extremely crowded with tourists. The main sites are the Uffizi Gallery https://www.uffizi.it/en/the-uffizi and Galleria Dell'Accademia http://www.galleriaaccademiafirenze.beniculturali.it/servizi/. Getting into these museums is tough. You basically need reservations. Apparently many people pay alot to take private group tours of major sites these days. You can almost always book directly with the official site. Florence has a card that gets you in top most sites, FirenzeCard http://firenzecard.it/index.php?lang=en . You can call a number to make reservations for the Uffizi and Accademia before you leave on your trip. You can then buy the Firenze Card when you get to Florence. The card is not cheap, 85 Euros per person, but it gets you in everywhere and is easy to use. Give yourself at least an hour to go through all of the lines to get into these 2 museums, especially the Uffizi.
The Ponte Vecchio.
Definitely one of the best meals that I have had in long time.
Note -- Many European restaurants have very good wines by the glass at very reasonable prices. I have found that it is much more fun to order wines by the glass in Europe so I can sample as many wines as possible.
Yogurt and tuna. It was interesting but I would not have it again.
The Duomo. Really cool from the outside.
Our snack turned out to be our dinner. Cheese, bread, some meats and wine.
Beefsteak Florentine is served all over Florence. They have rules for it. It must be a porterhouse steak, minimum 2.5 pounds and cooked very rare. It was about $50 but easily serve 2. I love the dish and have been eating it all summer at home. Rub steak with olive oil, add salt and pepper and rub with fresh rosemary. Grill until you have it done to your liking but keep it very rare. Let the meat rest and cut it 1 inch slices perpendicular to the bone. See below.
Instead of a Cabernet Sauvignon to drink with the Steak Florentine, drink a good Chianti Classico. You will surprised and impressed. The good 2015 and 2016 Chiantis have great fruit and lots of tannin and go great with steak.
Silly story. When I was a child we went to Montreal many times. Every bridge had a sign that said "Pont Bridge". I thought that every bridge in Montreal had the same name. Go figure.
Interestingly, Bernardo makes his own wine with several others and he thought the wine might be available at the wine bar -Le Volpi e L’Uva. I went back to the wine-bar the next day and they were out of it. Oh well.
The tour consisted of 3 winery visits and lunch. The wineries were La Massa, Poggio Scalette http://www.poggioscalette.it/eng/home.html and Vecchie Terre di Montefili. https://www.vecchieterredimontefili.com/en/. Each makes superb wines. Critics reviews are off the charts and we loved them as well.
We had private tours of the wineries and the tastings were very comprehensive. Check out my detailed tasting notes at https://www.cellartracker.com/event.asp?iEvent=41818&searchId=52FADD5B&UISource=list
2015 and 2016 are great vintages in Tuscany. I bought one top of the line bottle at each winery. I try to buy wines that are not available at home. Each winery has wines that are available in the US. La Massa's La Massa s around $20 in NJ. Scalette Carbonaione is available in different vintages from $32 to $50. Montefili's Chianti Classico which we loved at the tasting was available in a shop in NYC for $28.
La Massa. They only make 3 wines.
Rome will be my next installment.
Miscellaneous
It has been a poor growing season for my garden. My tomato plants have struggled. Lots of eggplants, string beans and cucumbers.
Complaint of the month-- Farmers market vendors seem to selling more and more non NJ produce at the farmers markets. This is troubling. Vendors appear to have figured out that people will pay more for produce at a farmers market than at a supermarket. If these issues matter to you, ask the vendors where their produce come from. For more absurdity check out Costco's magazine that every month touts it farm to table program. Straight from farms in Mexico or anywhere in the world to your table. An amazing program.
Wines of the summer
Municipal Winemakers https://www.municipalwinemakers.com/ continues to be a fav. They run great specials and have free shipping for orders over $100 and for some specials as well. They make a sparkling wine, Mubbly, which comes in 500ML bottles and they also make a sparkling Shirazz, which I have not tried yet. They make very different wines but we have never had a bad wine from them. They have goofy names for their wines but the product is great.
If you like Champagne, WTSO has the best deals on Champagne. Philippe Prie Champagne and Nicolas Maillart Champagne regularly appear for prices from $24.99 to $27.99. If you buy 4 bottles shipping is free. When buying Champagne look for disgorgement dates so you know the non vintage bottling that you are buying. The Prie does not have a disgorgement date on the label.
