Day 20

Italy 2010

Day 20

The four of us took a train to Prato, a small town northwest of Florence renowned for its biscotti. Knowing something about trains, and knowing a little bit of the local language, is a giant step in getting around. In trips past, we often rented a car because train and bus travel seemed impossible.

Anyway, the Prato biscotti are very good, but we took a vote, and our friend Ruth makes as good a biscotti as the world’s number 1. We didn’t take to the suggested method of eating it – dipping the biscotti in sweet wine. On the other hand, a certain member of our group did like her octopus.

If blindfolded and not told what you were eating, lots of people would like it. But when people see it close up, it conjures up some sort of horror scene.

The restaurant featuring this fine food and other more traditional foods was recommended by the nice lady where we bought the biscotti. It was a great recommendation – the food and prices were outstanding. This town is noted for friendly people. All the people we met here were very nice and patient with our attempts at speaking Italian, and they were helpful with information we forget to ask as we try to find the right Italian word or phrase.

The duomo in Prato was recommended in Frommers partly due to the artwork on the inside. We hope we are not repeating ourselves, but the art was a significant way to illustrate bible stories to the illiterate public. There are many stories illustrated, and the artists have different ideas for displaying the stories.

We finished off the day playing euchre, a great card game, and the men won all three games!

Day 17

Italy 2010

Day 17

We have a new home for a week in Florence! This is the home of Michelangelo, and it’s rumored Roberto is a 4^th cousin 6 times removed. While Roberto is half Italian, we base this discovery partly on the artistic abilities of our grandkids. One of our first sites was a glimpse of the Duomo – more pictures of this in later days.

The new villa is in the heart of Florence and is a two bedroom/two bath affair as Jan and Dan Studer join us this evening for the remaining two weeks. Their navigation skills will be tested as they have a 20-minute walk from the train station in the middle of the night. Neither of us has a cell phone, so we are dealing with this the old fashioned way.

Moving days usually aren’t our best days. But, we did enjoy the huge market which is great for meats, veggies, fruits, leather, and various clothing. We were ‘hailed’ from 20 yards to the meat market shown here.

This is only half the counter loaded with a lot more than meat. Notice all the pancetta slabs hanging about the butchers’ heads.

We like people who love their work. It makes shopping fun. Who wouldn’t want to buy veggies from this guy?

With a lettuce leaf on his head and a stalk of asparagus over each ear and a smile on his face, you gotta buy something from this guy. BTW, he later added a long nose ring made from a green bean.

The bread lady wasn’t quite as colorful, but we still liked the outfit.

One last but important item. Check out on the upper right of the Blog a link to Culture Discovery You Tube. If you clink on this, you’ll go to a YouTube video of what the cooking school is about. There’s good music, movie, and still pictures. Check it out.

As of this posting, Jan and Dan made it – at 2:30 am!!