Florence 2005

Description:

Author: Dave Schweisguth

Day 1 - Florence, Pisa

Late first-night dinner at the budget annex to one of Florence's most famous restaurants. The wait (no reservations) was more than worth it. We still remember the stuffed chicken neck. On the way back, we saw for the first time the crowds of young Florentines making their own nightlife in the Piazza Santa Croce.


2

Volpe e l'Uva (Le)

Location:

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Piazza de Rossi, 1r
50123 Florence, Italy

Phone:

39 55 239 8132


2

Pitti Gola e Cantina

Location:

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piazza de' Pitti 16
50125 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 055 212 704


2

Spedale degli Innocenti

Location:

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Piazza della Santissima Annunziata 12
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-249-1708


2

Museo Opificio delle Pietre Dure

Location:

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Via degli Alfani 78
50125 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 055 26511


2

Cibrèo Trattoria (Cibrèino)

Location:

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Via dei Macci 122r
Florence, Italy

Phone:

39 55 234 11 00


2

Alla Vecchia Bettola

Location:

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Viale Vasco Pratolini 3/7
On Piazza Tasso
50124 Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-224-158


2

Museo Nazionale del Bargello (Bargello Museum)

Location:

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Via del Proconsolo 4
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 055 238 8606


2

Palazzo Pitti & Giardino Boboli (Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens)

Location:

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Piazza de' Pitti 1
Piazza Pitti
50125 Florence, Italy

Phone:

Galleria Palatina 055-238-8614, Galleria d'Arte Moderna: 055-238-8601. Museo degli Argenti:


2

Hermitage Hotel

Location:

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Vicolo Marzio 1
Piazza del Pesce (to the left of the Ponte Vecchio as you're facing it)
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-287-216


2

Il Santo Bevitore

Location:

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Via di Santo Spirito 64/R
Florence, Italy

Phone:

39 55211264


2

GustaVino

Location:

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Via della Condotta 37r
Florence, IT


2

Antico Fattore

Location:

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Via Lambertesca 1-3r
Between the Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio
Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-288-975


2

Trattoria dei Quattro Leoni

Location:

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Via de' Vellutini 1r
50125 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 055 21 8562


2

Piazza dei Miracoli

Location:

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piazza del Duomo
56126 Pisa, Italy

Phone:

+39 050 835 011

Day 2 - Florence

Visits to the various buildings that make up Florence's iconic Duomo, punctuated by a memorable meal surrounded by ravenous locals at old-school Il Latini. This was Dante's neighborhood, too; here and around Florence, marble plaques with triplets from the Divine Comedy mark the locations which they mention. (A book of translations, available in Florentine bookshops, is an essential accessory.) The Casa di Dante was under construction, but the nearby little church of Santa Margherita de' Cerchi, where Dante first saw his muse Beatrice, is always open.


1

Battistero

Location:

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Piazza San Giovanni
50129 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 55 230 2885


3

Piazza del Duomo

Location:

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piazza del Duomo
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 055 2 3320


4

Casa di Dante

Location:

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Via Santa Margherita 1
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 055 219416


5

Campanile di Giotto

Location:

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Piazza Duomo
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 55 230 2885


6

Enoteca Coquinarius

Location:

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Via delle Oche, 15r
50123 Florence, Italy

Phone:

39 55 230 2153

Day 3 - Florence

In the morning, Medici loot and the atmospheric garden that must have been the model for so many leafy mazes around the world and in fiction. Quattro Leoni is conveniently near the Pitti Palace. In the afternoon, back across the Ponte Vecchio to the Museum of the History of Science, a very distinguished cabinet of curiosities. Tonight's dinner was one of the best of the trip, in a charming small restaurant with a personable host and food both firmly Italian and successfully creative. Good wine, too, including an exceptional vin santo from the Val di Nievole that I dream of having again some day. Today set a pattern for the rest of the trip in that so many of the great places to eat and drink (including a couple we've forgotten) were south of the Arno in the Santo Spirito and San Frediano neighborhoods. We seemed to commute to dinner down the long, January-dark Via di Santo Spirito almost every night.


1

Ponte Vecchio

Location:

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Ponte Vecchio
50125 Florence, Italy


2

Museo degli Argenti

Location:

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Piazza Pitti, 1
50125 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 55 238 8710


3

Giardino di Boboli

Location:

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Piazza Pitti, 1
50125 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 55 265 1838


5

Museo Galileo (Science Museum)

Location:

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Piazza dei Giudici 1
Next to the Uffizi at the Arno end of Via dei Castellani
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-265-311


6

Enoteca Le Barrique

Location:

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Via del Leone, 40r
50123 Florence, Italy

Phone:

39 55 22 4192

Day 4 - Florence

Up promptly this morning for an ascent of one of the West's artistic Everests, the Uffizi gallery, less than a block from the hotel. Lunch at Antico Fatto, too was only steps from both gallery and hotel. We finally left the neighborhood in the afternoon for a walk around the city including the fabulously overdecorated Medici Chapel.


1

Gallerie degli Uffizi (Uffizi Galleries)

Location:

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Piazzale degli Uffizi 6
Off Piazza della Signoria
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-238-8651


3

San Lorenzo

Location:

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piazza di San Lorenzo
Piazza San Lorenzo
50123 Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-216-634

Day 6 - Florence

Today's walk around the northeastern center of Florence included the famous David (outshone, in my mind, by the Accademia's fine collection of Gothic paintings), a museum of the colored-stone opus sectile tables and such that are seen in collections all over Florence, and the famous Della Robbia decorations of the orphanage imitated in at least three places in San Francisco alone.


1

Galleria dell'Accademia (Academy Gallery)

Location:

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Via Ricasoli 60
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-238-8609


2

SS. Annunziata

Location:

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Piazza SS. Annunziata
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 55 239 8034


6

Pane e Vino

Location:

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Piazza di Cestello, 3r
50124 Florence, Italy

Phone:

39 55 247 6956

Day 7 - Florence

Back to the Pitti Palace for the art collections, and then to Santa Croce for its frescos and tombs.


3

Santa Croce Church

Location:

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Piazza Santa Croce 16
Piazza Santa Croce
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

+39 055 244 619

Day 8 - Florence

A lot of walking today: around the city, up the dome of the Duomo, and around the fortresses and churches east of the Boboli Gardens. We were sustained by two paragons of Tuscan cooking. For lunch, Da Mario, a wonderful hole in the wall packed to the rafters and with barely an amenity but filled with warmth and serving standard-setting renditions of classic Tuscan dishes. At dinner, Vecchia Bettola, a big and bustling and yet nearly impossible to find trattoria near San Frediano's western city wall, where the stellar crostini while we waited for our table made us glad we'd been late for our reservation, and it was impossible to decide what looked best from all of the tables packed in around us.


1

Orsanmichele

Location:

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Via Arte della Lana 1
Via de' Calzaiuoli
50122 Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-284-944


3

Da Mario

Location:

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Via Rosina 2r
At the north corner of Piazza Mercato Centrale
50123 Florence, Italy

Phone:

055-218-550


5

Piazzale Michelangelo

Location:

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Piazzale Michelangelo
50125 Florence, Italy

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