The Baptistery, a Monastery, and Lots More Food

We seem to have established a routine for our time here in Florence that is much more laid back than the other towns we've visited so far. We enjoy our daily cappuccino and find ourselves exploring different parts of the city each day. And we try to get in at least one artistic/historic site per day. I know that some folks come here and knock off three or four museums and churches in a few hours but we are fortunate that we have the time to see things more slowly.

The other day we got to the Baptistery early trying to beat the crowds, and getting there at 8:30.... we did it. There were only a few people there which was really nice. I'd read it was like a little jewel box, and I can see why. The ceiling literally sparkles. And the floor is this crazy pattern of tiles. So I spent the whole time looking straight up and straight down.

The gold glittery ceiling

The black and white floor

You can buy one ticket to see the Duomo, the Baptistery, the Duomo Museum, and the tower, and you have 48 hours in which to make the rounds and see them all. It's a good deal if you want to take your time and visit each site.

The rest of the day we were walking around the doing "errands" which in Florence is much more exciting than at home. We went to the grocery store, and then the Sant'Ambrogio Market to buy food for breakfasts and dinner. Many people like this market best because it is where most of the locals shop and they feel the Mercato Centrale is more for tourists. But Greg and I prefer Mercato Centrale. At the Sant'Ambrogio Market, we felt that a couple of the vendors took advantage of us by giving us more than we had wanted and as a result, increasing the price. Plus there were some aggressive beggers in the market that made shopping a bit sketchy there. However, according to Greg, the bathrooms are immaculate and only cost 1 Euro! These are the kinds of tips you need to know in visiting a city like Florence!

Yesterday we made a few exciting discoveries (but then we are easily excited about things like this). We found a new favorite place for coffee called Caffe Rainer. We like it best because the cappuccino (what's the plural of cappuccino.... is it cappuccini?) is excellent and the owners are Austrian and have great pastries and cakes. Plus it's very close to our apartment. The second discovery was a new favorite place for paninis. When we've ordered paninis in Italy, we have been handed everything from a plain bun with a piece of prosciutto in it (so dry you can't swallow it) to this......

The lady making our panini

And it was awesome!

The place is call Panificio Brunori, and it was the first place where they basically said "What do you want on it?" and I just started rattling off all the things that sounded good to me..... pork, mozzarella, eggplant, tomatoes, lettuce, and artichokes... and all this was in a fresh bun.

To work off lunch, we first did a bit of shopping. We're going to have fun with the UPS man comes to our house after we get home.

And then we visited the Museo San Marco. It was a convent back in the 1400's and has many frescoes painted by Fra Angelico. I don't know how one person could have painted all of them; he probably never slept. The most interesting part of it was the upstairs where the monks had tiny cells in which they lived.

One of the cells

Each cell  has a fresco and a window. That's it. It's clear that all of the frescoes have been restored and I suppose they must have been in horrible shape. But I prefer to see them the way they were rather than looking new like these did. But it still was an interesting museum to check out.

Last night Greg and I did something we have never done before. Ever. We made dinner reservations at a place I'd read about and after we got there and were seated, we looked at the menu and looked at each other and said.... This isn't where we want to be. We just didn't have a good feeling about the place. The menu was pages long (felt like I was at Chili's), there were throngs of tourists walking by outside, and I felt like the staff was more interested in pulling people into the restaurant than paying attention to us. So we walked. Just got up and left.

I called another restaurant on my list, Acquacotta, and they had a table so we grabbed it. Turned out to be a cute place, and I'm sure we had a much nicer dinner.

Baby Octopus Salad

Asparagus risotto with prawns

Lamb roast

And that brings me to today (Sunday). We were up early with notes about the bus schedule and how we were going to get to our destinations. The first bus took us to Fiesole, a small town up in the hills overlooking Florence. And I really mean UP! You can see the entire city of Florence, and the view is incredible. Fiesole was having a little antique market today, so we looked at the booths and fortunately saw nothing we had to have. Our suitcases are already full and our wallets are getting empty. Fiesole is a cute town to visit and an easy bus ride.

Next we waited for the bus to take us to Montibeni, a tiny little village in the hills with just a few homes. We had read a review about a wonderful restaurant called Tuillio a Montebeni with delicious Bistecca Florentine. (Remember my rant about steaks here?) This is the kind of place that's fun to visit for Sunday lunch when the place is full of local families getting together for a big meal. You can get the Florentine Steak at almost any decent restaurant in town but going here made it a bit more of an adventure.

And as we walked in, this is what greeted us.

A window into the kitchen!

So we settled in and ordered our steak for two along with a great salad! Sometimes it's hard to find salads around here, and this one was perfect. But back to the steak. Before they grilled it, they brought it out for us to approve. Oh yes.

And after they cooked it, it looked like this.

But in the end, it looked like this. I think we did pretty well.

We hiked down the hill a ways to Settignano and then got on another bus back to Florence. I think we're beginning to get the hang of the buses here but I don't know if we'll ever completely trust them after they deserted us last week.

No need to worry about much for dinner tonight!