Florence Reloved

I'm back from three nights in Florence with my parents. We stayed at B&B Cimabue 9, located a ten-minute walk from where I used to live, just outside what remains of the city walls. The owner of the B&B was a twenty-something year-old Florentine who is the type of person you rarely encounter, someone who in Italian I would call bravissimo--in English a mixture of good, pure, and well-mannered, at least in the way I want it to mean for him. At the end I really wanted to grip him by the shoulders and say "Stay gold, Ponyboy", but I thought that it would both scare and confuse him. We met his mother while he was helping my mom get an appointment with the doctor (she wasn't feeling well) and I wanted to get my mom or dad to express our common-held sentiment to her, that she had raised her son well, but between my mom's limited Italian, my dad's shyness, and my age (it's more something a fellow parent conveys to another, no?), no one ended up relaying the message. At least you know now!

Another warm memory I will take away with me was my unplanned visit to my Italian school. We were walking in the area and stopped by the bar where I would grab the occasional caffe latte for some coffee. Then we entered my school and I decided to take a peek upstairs to see if any of my teachers were there. To my surprise, I was greeted warmly by the receptionist (who remembered my full name!) and we chatted for a few minutes. She told me to invite my parents up and then gave us a small tour of the school and interrupted one of my favourite teacher's classes so that I could say hi. He came out and gave me a warm hug, met my parents, and complimented me in front of them. Then, right as we were about to leave the reception area, I saw another of my favourite teachers and introduced him to my parents as well. He was also very friendly and flattering. I left my school with my spirits raised and a deeper love of Florence because I felt that I now had a more personal connection, since, being remembered, I felt that I had left a mark--granted, I only left Florence two months ago.

But having this impression is more than I could have asked for. I have revisited my old schools in the past and left feeling disappointed since the halls were no longer filled with people I had walked them with and teachers had a faint inkling of who I (maybe) was. And this time I was going to a school that I had decided to enrol in, funded, and learned in all on my own. It was giving my parents a glimpse of my independent life in Florence. It was showing them that I could. This repeated throughout our trip when I randomly bumped into old classmates, weaved our way around Florence's tiny streets, or showed them some of my old haunts.

I won't go into detail of what we did each day from June 25-28th, but I will tell you where we had our best meals and what I think impressed my parents the most:

Food 

Perseus

Spaghetti alla bottarga

Bistecca alla fiorentina -- we couldn't finish it all since we were so tired!

Panino bollito at Nerbone, Mercato Centrale

Il Santo Bevitore

Pappa al pomodoro, a Florentine tomato-bread soup 

Burrata and tomato salad

Assorted salumi

Baccalà

Dark chocolate lava cake, with Giagi in the background

Golden View Open Bar

Golden View's signature salad and four-cheese truffle crostini

Garganelli with octopus ragù

Tagliata di manzo (beef strips) with gorgonzola sauce and radicchio

Raspberry cheesecake

Chocolate variety platter, raspberry cheesecake, and view of Ponte Vecchio

Not Pictured

Gelato at La Carraia--because, well, each time we ate too quickly!

Ma and Giagi's Picks (as intuited by yours truly)

Il Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio

View from atop the Campanile di Giotto

Sunset on Ponte Trinita

Free guided tour of il Duomo (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore) courtesy of Ars et Fides

Not Pictured:

Free organ concert at Santa Maria de' Ricci (offered nightly at 9:15pm)

Art at Chiesa di Santa Maria Novella (no photos allowed)

Shopping for leather jackets at Barone

What I had to get used to was a much slower pace of travelling because of my Giagi's seconda gioventù (or "second youth", an Italian euphemism for old age) with its accompanying joint pains, as well as Ma's more than excessive photo-taking. All I can say was that my patience was tested and I had to learn to adapt. We ended up taking a few bus rides instead of walking, we didn't have enough time to see everything I had wanted them to see, and I couldn't meet up with friends; but, on the whole, I think we all had a great time.

Thinking back, maybe I should have ended this on an even more positive note. I suggest you reread the first 2-3 paragraphs.

Firenze, TVB!