Florence, Italy - Days 23-25

Days 23-25

John the Baptist Day

Florence, Italy

The reason we left on vacation when we did was due to John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence.  This mid-size city is one of the places you should visit if you travel to Italy.  We stumbled into the big celebration years ago after a bike tour of the Tuscan hillside near Florence.  On June 24 each year, they pay homage to their saint in a number of ways, including a parade in which many locals dress up in medieval garb.  Coupled with the architecture and the landscape of Florence, it’s a different kind of parade that has a storybook look to it.

I guess medieval parades don’t involve many smiles.  Maybe it was the hot weather and ancient garb these gentlemen had to endure.

The crowds loved them and others, including the old armaments like the crossbows.

The most action was from the flag throwers.  No accidents were noted while we watched.

We’ve been enjoying rainless weather.  Starting a little later this year may be the reason.  We only had rain once during our month of vacation and it was back in May in Berlin, a long time ago.  Our hotel is about 2 blocks from the Duomo of Florence, so we check it out off and on throughout the day.

We are very happy with our Tuscan food here in Florence.  It would be fun to be a food critique on assignment in Italy and have someone pay for our meals.  Thanks to recommendations and some knowledge from previous trips, we’ve had a good gourmet experience here in Florence.  My favorite is the Cappellanni con Tartufalo.  It’s a very thin pasta filled with ricotta and spinach with a butter and truffle sauce.  I’ve had truffle salt and truffle oil, but until this dish, I’ve never had thinly sliced truffles.  Deliousioso!

We also had fried zucchini blossoms from this restaurant - Buca Mario.

Partly due to our leaving Italy soon, we asked about a great pizza and were directed to Ciro and Sons where they make a great neapolitan (Naples) pizza.  I know we claimed one of our favorite Sorrento restaurants made the best.  We are not sure anymore.

Florence has so many renaissance landmarks that you don’t walk far until you come across one.  So much of what we like about Italy is here!