The primary excuse was to take Italian lessons. My wife has been studying Italian for years while my studies had been limited to one week in Cefalu, Sicily, last year. As a result we were at very different levels.
We were staying in a great apartment on the Arno, so we often woke up in the morning to the sight of exercise buffs rowing on the river. They only have a relatively short length available to them as the Arno has several weirs controlling the level of the water.
After a hasty breakfast, we set off for our Italian course. We were only five or six minutes away and went down some little side streets, although since the closing to traffic of the road in front of the Pitti Palace there are now many cars trying to wend their way through these streets.
Judging by the many posters on the walls, this change is making the mayor very unpopular in this part of town. It should also be pointed out that it makes driving even more difficult than ever as some of the turns require two or even three attempts.
We would pass several craftmens' workshops, including one that had a cat door in the iron grill.
We would also pass the Osteria Toscanella (see previous blog) and would frequently do so just as Fabrizio Gori, the artist and restauranteur, was arriving. However, we did not have time to chat as we usually left just enough time to get to class.
Being back in a classroom was a difficult experience for me, especially as the first two hours were focused on grammar. Fortunately, at eleven o'clock we had a coffe break. My wife and I would meet just up the road and I would have a cappuchino and share a "brioche".
I should have mentioned that the school, Il Centro Machiavelli, is beautifully situated on the Piazza Santo Spirito, one of the fine piazzas of Florence, just in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito
The Caffe Ricchi, where we took our morning coffee, has a great collection of different possible restaurations of Brunelleschi's fine facade, which he never completed.
The Caffe Ricchi's versions are somewhat more decorative.
My favorite ones were:
The Basilica is well worth a visit with frescos by Filippino Lipi and many other 15th-17th century artists. If you can work out the opening hours, the Sacristy contains a crucifix carved by Michelangelo when he was seventeen.
Sometimes we would buy some fresh vegetables from the market in the Piazza, although most of the market was taken up with stalls of cheap clothes.
Then it was back to the grindstone with the next two hours dedicated to conversation. It took almost the full three weeks for me to start using some Italian instead of Spanish, with which i am more familiar and which is too close to Italian....but not close enough! The classes were an interesting experience as the other members of my class were either Japanese or Korean. They were a very interesting mix ranging from an operatic baritone, an architect turned artist, someone intending to open an Italian restaurant in Tokyo....etc.. Our teacher, Gino Tozzetti, did an incredible job to keep the class interesting and stimulating. I definitely intend to return for some more courses.
On leaving the school, we would either go back to the apartment for a light lunch, or, despite our good intentions, we would be tempted into having lunch at one of the local restaurants.
Then would be the time to plan our afternoon. Here one needs internet access, a recent guide book and a slide-rule. The problem is to work out which museum, art gallery or church is open when. Some are open mornings only. Others are closed on bizarre days, like the first, third and fifth Monday of the month. Others close early in the afternoon, but stop letting one in half-an-hour or an hour before closing time. Others just seem to have somewhat random hours, that are occasionally quite different from their website or the guide books. There is certainly no shortage of things to see. Sometimes we would just wander and soak up the sights and atmosphere.
In the evening we would usually eat out, occasionally returning to the Piazza Santo Spirito, where the Restaurant Ricchi (next door to the Caffe Ricchi) is one of the few restaurants in Florence that has a strong focus on fresh fish.
Other evenings, we might go to a concert in a church, a ballet in the Teatro della Pergola, or even Dvorak's 9th conducted by Zubin Mehta in the (yet unfinished) New Opera House - which has superb acoustics for where we were seated a few rows back from the Mayor and the Cardinal!!
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| Teatro della Pergola |
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| The New Opera House |
Unfortunately, the lobby area of the New Opera is as soulless as the average airport - perhaps that part is not yet finished.
And then back to the apartment, with plenty of Italian homework to do. We were certainly kept busy!
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