Fork and Gobble it: Tuscan Honeymoon - Firenze

Tuesday. Day four starts like all the preceding. Sunny morning, espresso and a light breakfast and then we head off for Firenze, or Florence to the Yankees. We have an 11:30am appointment to enter the Galleria dell'Accademia and view the Renaissance works of art there including Michaelangelo's David. After that, we would just hang out in Florence until evening, when we would dine at Trattoria Garga. It is about a 45 minute ride from our villa to the city of Florence, but we allot an hour to allow for traffic, getting lost, etc.. The Italians have it all over us folks from New Jersey where road signage is concerned. Our experience has been that armed only with a map and our eyes, the road signs will usually get you where you want to be, albeit a circuitous route. Unfortunately this was not to be one of those times. Driving for about 45 minutes we both had to concede that we had not seen any recognizable landmarks for a while and we both had that uneasy feeling that we had no idea where we were. We pulled over into a service station to ask for directions. A couple of truck drivers were all too eager to help so long as we could translate their "Eyetalian" and our "Engleesh." Language barrier aside, they did actually get us oriented, and we continued on our way until we hit the most recognizable boundary of the city, the Arno River.

We parked the car and quickly walked the ten or so blocks to the Via Ricasoli and the Galleria dell'Accademia. By this time we were about an hour late for our appointment, but thanks to the miracle of Italian timekeeping and punctuality, we were ushered in immediately.

The artwork of Florence from the Renaissance era is truly breathtaking. The combination of detail, color, expressions on the faces of the subjects, and the fact that this was all done in the mid fourteenth century, leaves you in awe and feeling very small. Then you see Michaelangelo's David and you really feel small.

Hewn out of Carrara marble, the work had been started by another sculptor in the mid 15th century and then stalled before Michaelangelo picked it up and finished it in the period from 1501 to 1504. Standing in front of the amazing statue, again I was compelled to realize that much of what we take for granted today whether it be artistic, technological, or otherwise, simply pales by comparison.

All of this culture was making us both really hungry (and thirsty). Florence was by far the most tourist driven city we'd seen thus far and we went with the flow and selected Enoteca Frescobaldi, owned and operated by the well known winemaking family. I perused the wine list and again went with a rosato from Frescobaldi, the Saltagrilli 2010. It is a delicious wine made from primarily Sangiovese, and as far as I can tell, not exported to the U.S.. For my primi (appetizer) I choose Octopus stewed in red wine and tomatoes.

I followed it with a pasta dish of Spaghetti with Sea Urchin Roe. I was determined to be a food adventurer and although these kinds of dishes are fairly common in Italy, it is not easy to find them on a menu in central Jersey.

Lunch was spectacular. We were now refreshed and ready to explore Florence. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon and we had 5 hours to spend before we went to dinner. Many large cities in Italy have cathedrals, Catholicism being the predominant religion in the country. Many of these cathedrals have large domes as part of their structure and are referred to simply as duomos. The Duomo in Florence is huge and re-inforced the idea that the Italians like to spend money on culture and especially big churches.

Again, details, sheer size and recognition of the time that this building was created gave us a great sense of wonder. In contrast to this awesome work of art were the dozens of souvenir shops that lined the streets. Tiny, fully anatomically correct David statues, T-shirts and soccer shorts with likenesses of David's body parts, were everywhere and made us chuckle at the irony of it all. The commercialism and heat of the afternoon drove us to a small streetside cafe for a glass of Prosecco before dinner.

We walked into Trattoria Garga just as they were opening. Typically the natives eat out much later, but seeing that we had about an hour to drive to return to the villa, and still weren't 100% certain about directions, we opted to eat early. Garga is named for its owner, Giuliano Gargani. He and his wife opened the restaurant over 15 years ago in a smaller space before moving it to its current location. They both have since retired from active duty, but their son was running the kitchen. The signature dishes such as Insalata Garga, a salad of greens and a most un Italian ingredient, avocado, and veal scallopine with avocado and truffle cream, (he is very fond of avocadoes), were spot on.

We couldn't help but notice that when we arrived the crowd was obviously American. This led to the fear that this wonderful place that I thought was the anti-tourist restaurant, was not. As the evening progressed though, the Italian clientele came in and I was re-assured that Garga was indeed an "in" spot to dine.

Stomachs full, culturally sated, and safe in the notion that we were part of the food cognoscenti, we drove back to the villa. Wednesday we would go to Siena and simply do whatever.