In Search of Spaghetti

Gelato Goodness (aka the $9 ice cream scam)

Hello from rainy Florence! Hope all is well with the rest of the world. Karen and I are fairing quite well (and doing our part to rehabilitate the supposedly struggling Italian wine industry). It's the least we could do.

Sooooo, below you will find another bit of cut-and-paste action from my journal of big happenings here in Italia. Enjoy!

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Friday October 23, 2009 – Buon giorno! We're sitting on a train bound for Florence right now. Actually, it's not moving. We're pretty sure that eventually it will take us to birthplace of the Renaissance. We're not exactly sure what that means, but it sounds like it will involve wine.

Kidding, kidding.

Anyway, woo, big happenings in Siena yesterday! Where to begin? How about the night before when I signed off and proceeded to fall into a sleep so deep that neither one of us woke up in time for breakfast. By the time we were showered and out the door to explore (in the rain) it was almost noon. That was some seriously good shut-eye (which, as it turns out, we would end up needing).

First order of the day was to find a cappuccino, which isn't exactly hard in this country. We wandered in towards the main piazza and found a dinky bar with nobody waiting in line. Not sure if this was a good sign, but the cappuccino was tasty enough to pull us out of our haze and send us on an expedition of the less-touristy neighborhoods of the city. It's amazing how most visitors don't venture off the main axis of tourism. Go a few blocks in either direction and suddenly you're able to experience everyday life in Siena. Good stuff.

The Obligatory Top-of-the-Tower Photo

The rain stopped just after noon, and we were able to do our touristy bit of the day, paying seven euro to climb the Torre del Mangia. Cyclocross training came in handy going up all those steps (so much easier without a 20-pound bike on my back). We got to the top, took the obligatory photos, and went back down to Il Campo for a beer.

Make that five beers.

A little after 2pm we sat down in one of the expensive little outdoor cafes lining the piazza. The service is bad, the food is worse, but the view is excellent. And not 20 seconds after we sat down, we made a couple of new friends from London – two gals named Catherine and Alex.

Our new BFFs.

Our New Friend Alex and Her Small Beer

They were a hoot. Even before the beer came. As it turns out, we spent the afternoon – and into the early evening – chatting with them over drinks. Then Alex saw a woman drinking a fancy red-colored beverage with a slice of orange (that would be campari) and ordered one for herself. And another. And another. And another. And pretty soon she invited the woman over to our table.

Meet Sara.

A few drinks later we were all old friends, and suddenly Karen and I found ourselves invited to dinner.

At 9pm.

Which, despite our late wake-up, was still kind of a stretch for our American stomachs (Karen was sound asleep behind me while I was uploading that last batch of photos before dinner). Somehow, we still managed to pull ourselves together and get out the door to meet the girls back by the main square.

And it wasn't that we were starving (which, uh, we were). The reason we didn't bail out of the whole thing and retire to our room for a Clif Bar and a good night's sleep was because Catherine and Alex had invited us to London. And, erm, we want to go to London!

So we showed up for dinner, which turned out to be a pretty traditional Italian meal. Translation – lots of wine to start the affair, and then we didn't eat till about 11pm. And when we did eat, we got a huge plate with a little tiny portion of fancy pasta with an even fancier name. I have to admit, it might have been the best food I've ever tasted. It's just that it might have also been the smallest portion I've ever seen. And the meal ended up costing us 70 euro, which, given the current exchange rate, was about the same price as gold.

We wandered back to the hotel a little after midnight and went to bed, still hungry and counting the hours to breakfast. Which brings us to today and the new adventures we're about to have in Firenze! More to come.

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Okay, soooooo, we made it to Florence. Firenze. The birthplace of that Renaissance thing. Home of the big statue of the naked guy with the big right hand and the little winkie. You know the one.

Not a whole lot to say about today because it's raining outside. We wandered around for a bit. Bought a few touristy items. Took a few touristy photos. Made big plans for hiking around and taking photos tomorrow when it's supposed to be sunny and warm. Or at least not raining.

Tonight's goal will be to find a plate of spaghetti for Karen. We have yet to go to a basic mom-and-pop home-cooked kind of place, which has kind of been a bummer. Last night we were planning on going to one in Siena, but then we met those crazy British girls and ended up spending all that coin for a few bites of something fancy that left our stomachs growling for more all night.

All Karen wants is spaghetti. The real deal. And we're going to find it here in Florence. I can feel it.

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As always, you can view our newly added photos HERE.