September 2009
5 posts
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Salsaccio Fiorentino
One thing that is unavoidable in Florence is sausage in both its literal and metaphorical forms.
The farther north one travels in Italy the more meat specialties one encounters. In Florence the ‘menu turistico’ typically feature ‘ragu’ sauces, hearty stews and some lovely sausage. At the family-run and thus highly entertaining Trattoria Buzzino, located at the exit to the Uffizi, we enjoyed a...
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No Money, No Honey
While in Rome we’ve been staying around the corner from the Campo dei Fiori. Famous now for its daily open-air market, this square was famous a few centuries ago for being the site of public executions, including that of freedom-of-speech icon Giordano Bruno who was set alight by the Inquisition in 1600. The Inquisition may be long gone, but torture is still taking place near the Campo, only...
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Basta!
We’ve been in Italy for just over a week now, and we’ve certainly got a feel for the street fashion popular right now. What we like, which is true throughout continental Europe really, is that it’s perfectly acceptable to remain an attractive and well-dressed woman at any age. Plastic surgery is frowned upon, but non-invasive procedures are A-OK. In Italy, at least, the most...
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Dirty Feet and Lamb Chops
One of the things we wanted to do in Rome was visit the Caravaggio paintings that are still located where they were originally meant to be, in church chapels here and there around the city. We’re not fans of the Baroque, but we like Caravaggio. A supremely talented but hot-tempered and violent bad-boy, he was always that close to jail or the wrong end of a sword. Living to a ripe old age was...
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Benvenuti a Roma!
For the next two weeks we’re in Rome, doing as the Romans do. Already we’ve learned that that means eating your main meal at lunch with wine (very civilized), smoking a lot while doing everything (questionable), and pressing your groin into anyone you please on a crowded bus (not so nice unless it’s welcomed by the party on the receiving end).
Since some of us have never visited...