Highlights-Florence Day 3
I had good results from the nasal spray yesterday after I got pointers from a Large Language Model (LLM) on how to do it. It’s still weird to shoot stuff up your nose. As I was scouting for cafes this morning (a normal practice when I travel), I noted two dominant styles that I encounter in my travels. First, tiny places the size of walk in closets, with garage doors open to the fresh air no matter what the weather is, baked goods (usually croissants and muffins) delivered by a third party in an unmarked van (no “Muffins Are Us” label), and seating that looks like it was used to extract confessions during the Inquisition. When I have options, I just glance as I walk past. The second variety, bakeries (with hard liquor-hey, it’s Europe) that serve espresso drinks, have tables, and chairs that won’t make you the favorite customer of a chiropractor. BAR snack San Firenze (this is how the signs over the doors read, I called it “Caffe San Firenze” previously because it’s on the receipts so I have no idea what its REAL name is) is the closest example of the second variety so I visited it for the second day in a row. If you come too early, the display case of baked goods is nearly empty as the good stuff is still being baked and loaded on the dumbwaiter (“food elevator” is more elegant). Besides the quality of the baked goods and coffee, the other big attraction is its lack of social media following (i.e., no line). Its clientele is a mix of locals on their way to work (many drinking their espressos from tiny cups at the bar) and tourists in floppy sun hats wearing hiking gear. Beyond hiking gear, the other common tourist attire I see men wearing is a t-shirt with cargo shorts. That just screams “I don’t care about my appearance!” (their wives have probably given up). This contrasts with the women I see (usually from the east and I don’t mean New Jersey) dressed much more formally. No wonder they haul around those massive suitcases! My “get out of the apartment, you’re in Florence!” experiences today began with a no-frills spaghetti lunch (counter order, “service” was plopping the plate on your table with silverware). No bread and no cover charge. Next I had a Stracciatella gelato cup (cost almost as much as the spaghetti) while appreciating the external structure of the Cathedral (the view is built-in to the price). The Cathedral is better appreciated from the outside according to guidebooks, which also don't prepare you for the glam photo poses using it as backdrop (“What are those people doing?”). Stracciatella is a really cool Italian name for a type of soup. Applied to gelato, it means “chocolate chip.” The problem with consuming gelato in a cup that the tourist guides don’t warn you about (they should) is the “end of solid gelato problem.” This is when you are confronted with several tablespoons of liquid at the bottom of the cup. How do you eat that with a tiny paddle? It’s like consuming milk with a fork! You can’t tip the cup up and drink it without getting gelato on your nose (shallow cups—we know how that looks). If the Italian government can use laws to manage heater use, surely they could require warning labels on gelato cups. Following the liquid gelato gauntlet and pose observing, I did the Rick Steves audio tour, Florence Renaissance Walk. It’s free and feels like being on a guided tour without the throng constantly doing audio checks of the whisper box audio device (“Can you hear me now?”). It was two hours long, 1.5km of another kind of long, and I could stare at statues commissioned by the guilds of Florence (Renaissance marketing) as long as I wanted. That is, as long as I stayed out of the way of taxis, delivery vehicles, and tourists marching behind their guides. The taxis assist with collision avoidance by having high-pitched beepers (like delivery trucks backing up). If that fails for the whisper box equipped tourist group, there’s always the horn. The tour finishes at the Ponte Vecchio (PON-tay VECK-ee-oh), which is the cool and romantic Italian way to say “old bridge.” I think I recognized several shots of the Arno river from the movie A Room with a View. It was 7pm when I finished. Rather than return to the apartment and go out later for food, I bought a roast pork sandwich on a crusty roll for dinner. I erred (as I often do) in not buying a drink. I should write this down. I was only able to eat half before eating the crusty bread felt like I was chewing on mouthfuls of dirt. I did finish the pork, it is never dry.
Fashion Statement?
Or scuba goggles?
Eye Test?
If you didn’t have eyes, how would you see the sign?
Gelato with a View
No wonder it costs as much as a pizza!
The Tourist Guide Flag
If it’s coming your way, clear out!
Street Art in Florence
Renaissance style
Souvenir Cart Storage
I wondered where they went at night