Friday, September 11,
2015
The plan for the day was to go to the Uffizi Gallery, one of
the great art museums of the world. We had a voucher that was supposed to give
us ‘skip the line’ access to the museum. As we approached the Uffizi on our
walk from our hotel, there were incredibly long lines around the museum. We
were thrilled with the fact that we had the ‘skip the line’ access … until we
learned that we had to redeem the voucher for the tickets before we could skip
the line to enter the museum. The problem was the line for tickets was of
hundreds of people long and we apparently did not have ‘skip the line’ ticket
access. Our assessment was that we would spend a huge amount of time in line
just to get our tickets, so we abandoned ship. Who wants to see a bunch of
great paint by number canvases from the Renaissance anyway?
So we decided to get inside the famed Basilica (the Duomo)
and have a look around. Entrance was free!! Just get in line and walk in! The
line seemed long (so what else is new), and there were salespeople trying to
sell us a tour that would allow us to (you guessed it) ‘skip the line’ and get
a guided tour. We balked on two offers, and just got in line, which was a great
move since the line moved very fast and we only waited 5-10 minutes to get in.
The Basilica, which is so beautifully intricate on the
outside, was pretty plain on the inside, except for the dome. It is huge and
cavernous, but the walls are pretty plain. The dome is exquisitely painted with
a view of Mary in Heaven. After 30 minutes there, we went to see another famous
church (they are everywhere) called Santa Croce or Holy Cross. Except for
Steve, the group had done enough churching, and the ladies wanted to do some
shopping in the local markets on the piazza in front of Santa Croce. Tim and
Chan sat patiently by and watched the women be gatherers as they collected
various items (Note: Florence is famous for fine leather goods). They thought
that watching spouses shop was the lesser of two evils, but when Steve
returned, Tim and Chan wished they had gone into the church. Note that Santa
Croce is steeped with history and culture – it is the final resting place of
Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Rossini, (maybe) Dante, Fermi and Marconi
(of radio making fame). It is also a strikingly beautiful church in its own way
with many side altars.
In mid-afternoon, we were picked up to go to a rural vineyard
(Santo Stefano) where we would learn some Tuscan cooking recipes and would make
our own meal. The drive was about 45 minutes from downtown Florence where we
stayed. Alessandro was at the wheel once again. The place was remote enough to
not be on a Garmin map. It’s never a good sign when your surgeon or your
drivers says, “Oops.” Alessandro turned up a very narrow road on a very steep
hill. Within 100 yards, the road became gravel and within another two hundred
yards it was dirt. We felt like we were four wheeling, except we were in an 8
passenger Mercedes van! We were bouncing through ruts and doing 180 degree switchbacks
up the hill while Debbie and Michele had their heads down not wanting to see
what was just over the edge of the road. After 5 minutes of jostling, shaking,
bouncing, Alessandro told us 3 more kilometers (i.e. two miles). We had gone another
4 kilometers, and that’s when the “Oops” popped out. We had taken the wrong
dirt road up the wrong hill. Alessandro pointed to a farmhouse and winery on
the next hillside from where we were and noted, “That’s-a where-a we want-a to
be-a.” Alessandro retraced his path back down the hill, drove on the main road
about 100 yards, and then we started the same trek up to Santo Stefano –
jostling, shaking and bouncing all the way.
OK, I will make this concise. When we got to the hilltop farmhouse/winery,
the views were spectacular. We got a tour of the cellars and the wine making
process. After doing some wine-tasting, we proceeded to the kitchens to make
our own meal from scratch with an expert Tuscan chef. The most memorable part
of the experience was the look on Chan’s face when he saw Michele cooking
dinner … on vacation nonetheless – talk about a miracle! BTW: the ever-quiescent Chan asked us … “Do
you know how Michele calls the family to dinner?” Answer: “Alright, everybody
in the car!” Michele did draw the line at doing dishes.
While dinner was cooking, we noticed the sun going down
behind the Tuscan hillsides, and we grabbed a few classic pictures before
enjoying the fruits of our culinary labors (Note: we made our own sea
shell-like pasta from scratch among other things). The food and the wine was
very good, including dessert. We even invited Alessandro to join us for dinner,
and he enjoyed that.
The story is almost over. We jostled, shook and bounced our
way down the dirt and gravel road for 10 minutes, and then Alessandro got on
the main road. It was pretty late by the time we got back to Piazza Santa Maria
Novella. We gave Alessandro a nice tip, and then he said we had to pay an extra
50€ since we took an hour longer than scheduled. This is the guy who went the
wrong way and then ate dinner with us!
In the end, we all agreed that we had just purchased another
VERY memorable experience.
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