It Don't Get No Better Than This Right Here

Yup. "It don't get no better than this right here."  Those words came out of some hick-American's mouth while looking at some sub-par church in Siena.  While I was laughing so hard I almost pee'd my pants, all I kept thinking was gawd dangit, he's gottabe from Texas, and he is probably the reason why these Europeans think Americans are all cowboys. (Refer to previous post.)

In his defense, Florence was gorgeous.  Definitely better than Rome.  We spent three days there then took a bus up to Siena & the Chianti region for a day.

The most amazing meal of our trip so far was on our first night in Florence at Il Latini.  It was recommended by two of Kristen's friends, Rachel Ray & the Food Network.  Apparently they only have two seatings a night, and we just happened to get there at the right time.  We sat at a table of six - it was family style seating - they just kept bringing food out - in huge portions.  First was prosciutto. Then salami. Then a caprese salad. Then sun dried tomatoes. Then pate. Those were just the appetizers. Then we had bowls of ravioli and a wild boar pasta.  The main course was beef & lamb, with spinach & the most amazing potatoes I've ever had.  Dessert was panna cotta, some sort of cream puff thingy, and moscato.   They then brought little biscottis with brandy.  Oh, and this all came with unlimited wine. Yuuuuummmm.  I'd post pictures, but they don't do the meal justice.  All I can say is if you are ever in Florence, eat there.

That meal pretty much consumed our entire budget for Florence, so from then on it was grocery store meals for us... which brings us to our evening(s) at the Duomo.  

On our walk home from Il Latini, we turned a corner and bam, there was the Duomo.

That was a nice little surprise.  It was amazing.  We just sat there, stared at it, and took pictures of it. 

With our now limited budget, the next night in Florence was spent on a bench in front of the Duomo with a box of wine (1.60 euro) & a picnic of bread, salami & cheese, and our new plastic silverware & cups from the Euro Store (Dollar Store).  Not sure if it was legal or not, but we did it anyway and made friends.  Later that evening, they blocked off the plaza with fences and started laying sod.  Turns out there was going to be a Benediction there tomorrow and someone was about to become a saint.  (Or at least that's what we were told.)

We wanted to spend one of our days in the pretty-winery-esque-rolling-hills of Italy, so the last day we took a bus to Siena, a little over an hour away.  Even though the bus ride up was pretty, it turns out Siena is just a little town to walk around in.  A little disappointed, we boarded another bus to Castellina, a town in the Chianti wine region that was recommended by the bus station worker as the most popular town, with lots to do, and that was easy to navigate without a car.  It was supposed to be about 40 minutes away, but it took an hour.  No complaints here though because the view were absolutely stunnnnnning.

We ate. We drank. We took lots of pretty pictures, then decided to catch the bus back early because there really wasn't a whole lot to do.  Having difficulties finding the bus stop, we went to the tourist info booth only to find out that we just missed the bus. It leaves every three hours. Extremely confused, because we should have had 15 minutes to catch it, we come to find out that we were not even in Castellina. We were 20 minutes past it in a town called Radda.  Whooopsie.  Having time to kill, we did what we are becoming good at - eating & drinking on park benches. 

We eventually found the bus stop and made it home safely.  Now, off to Venice!