September 4, 2010
I'm not the only one taking some time off of lawyer work these days. N, formerly of work, as well as her two friend J and L have taken off various amounts of time from their jobs and have rented an apartment in Florence, Italy, just feet away from the very famous Basilica de Santa Maria Del Fiore (the Duomo). I've known about this plan for much time, but hadn't planned to spend hardly any time in Italy, so had never really considered the possibility that I would join them. But after the trip to Cinqueterre, and realizing that I did not need urgently to return to Zurich, I wisely reconsidered, and via several facebook exchanges, confirmed with J and N that I would be joining them for two nights, how about that?
Once again, a late night followed a relatively early train. I was in the Riomaggiore train station, backpacks on back, tired, without espresso, at 9:35 a.m. for my train to La Spezia (where I spent about half an hour frantically navigating my way through crowds and reading signs, and running searches on my Blackberry in order to find out that I needed to connect in Pisa before the train to Florence). Those trains were spent in a state of half sleep, the journeys not long enough to conk out, my iPod keeping me company.
I got off the train in Florence at 1:03 p.m., J and N at the train station to greet me, and walking me to the apartment where they had arrived only a few days prior. They asked me what I had learned on my trip, and I told them.
Once again, I was lucky to find a place to stay so comfortable and convenient. Big rooms, a kitchen, nice bathrooms, and a big fold out bed to sleep on. While the girls complained that the blue covering on the fold out couch was not quite up to their cleanliness standards, I thought it was more than adequate. Even better, L had prepared lunch in my absence -- bread with chopped tomatoes, spinach raviolis, salad, white wine. Lunch was followed by a nap, which I think should follow all lunches. We woke up around 4:00 p.m., and walked up a long flight of stairs to a church, statue and gelato shop. We sat on the top of the mountain and watched several pairs of soon to be married couples take wedding photos. One guy had a shiny pair of pants and jacket on that I wish I had had the presence of mind to photograph. Another, much more attractive couple, looked like they had come out of Newport Beach.
We descended the hill to a wine bar, where we each ordered a very expensive drink (J's glass of wine was even smaller than she was), and were bitten by mosquitos. We also learned that in L's college Italian class, the teacher would force the entire class to sing "Volare" at the end of the period.
From there, we walked to Il Guscio for dinner. When we arrived, I was a little worried that the place was nearly empty (at 8:30 p.m.!), but by 9:00 p.m. the place was packed. We all agreed that Florentine bread was not our favorite (dry, flavorless, etc.) but the food we ate was excellent. We split an antipasto plate (vegetarian for J!), and I had fried cod and potatoes, which were truly super. There were some guys sitting next to us eating bloody steaks, about which we commented much, but we discretely did not speak to them.
From there we walked to a bar called Negroni, where supposedly, the drink itself was invented (although I think this may not be accurate). As a fan of all things Campari, I think I had two of them. The bar was very hip, and the bartendresses were extremely efficient in their mixing of the drinks.
This was followed by an Irish bar (name I can't remember), where in European fashion we drank Irish apple ciders until the bar closed and we were forced very suddenly to leave.
The Police -- Canary In a Coalmine
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