Day two in Florence

Today was an amazing foodie day. We woke up a little late and had to hustle over to our tour which included the food, wine and gelato of Florence. Our guide was excellent, he pointed out a lot of interesting architectural and cultural points of interest along the way to the foodie stops. 

We started out in small wine shop called Enoteca, on via Borgo la Croce, where the guide had us taste several different kinds of wine. I think this is the first time I had drank wine before noon since college. Meanwhile people were coming in to fill up their wine bottles from the large metal vats for 3 or 4 Euros a liter, an amazing deal for very drinkable wines. Everyone on the tour was surprised to hear we have the same concept in Oregon - love my growler - so far we have only filled our Hydroflasks with water, but we may soon switch to wine.

Next we went to the Sant’Ambrogio market, which is the smaller and less touristy food market in town. Here we learned the difference between several parmesans, prochutios and pecerenos.  We also went to a small restaurant in the market where they served several typical Italian lunch dishes that were all amazing.

After lunch we got to see how gelato is made, and all I can say is the guy we met, was working his but off mixing up fresh ingredients to create new gelatos every day. I have a new respect for the art form. Another tip I heard is don't eat gelato from a shop that has a big mound of gelato, it should be flat in the container, or it's old and recycled.

Here are some interesting things we learned today:

In Florence in the 1400's homosexuality was rampant, with as many as 2/3 of men in Florence engaging in homosexual relations. To curb this the government encouraged prostitution and respectable citizens like the Medici owned the city's bordellos. A special court known as the onesta (office of decency) moderated disputes between prostitutes and bordello owners. 

In the old days if you were a dishonest merchant, maybe you shorted people on their cloth measurement, you could be reported to the authorities who sat up on top of the market. They would come down with their measuring stick, and if yours was short, you would be de-pantsed and your but would be pounded up and down on a circle tile in the public market.

I love modern art, and it turns out there is some amazing modern art in Florence.  We spent the afternoon in the Novecento Museum which was empty, which is a little sad, but great for two people who are sick of crowds. It is a history of art in the 1900's in Florence, and is a response to the challenge laid down after the 1966 flood, that Florence was coasting on it's artistic history and needed to be more respectful of it's modern artists. The 1966 flood damaged a lot of the classic works in town and as they were being restored, artists started asking why no one was paying any attention the present.

And finally a restaurant recommendation: Il Santo Bevitore restaurante is just across the river and the food is amazing.  It opens at 7:30 pm and there was a long line. Thank goodness we had reservations, as it would have been a long wait for a table. The food portions are big, so sharing is in order.