Honeymoon, Part I

Honeymoon, Part I
Shane’s Notes

Florence

We were in Italy for three weeks and paid from around 3 to 30 Euros for our bottles of wine (1 Euro is around 1.4 dollars). We noticed that most of the mid-priced wines were very good, but not the type of wine you sit down and contemplate. It was refreshing to drink this unpretentious wine. It was as if the wine were telling us to quit analyzing it and just enjoy it. The wines were not complex but usually had good concentration, a few really nice flavors and were very enjoyable to drink. Only a few were overoaked. We didn’t take detailed notes – after all, we were on our honeymoon. We just scribbled down some quick impressions of most of the wines we drank.

It took us 36 hours to travel from San Francisco to Florence. We flew into London and had to travel from the Heathrow airport to Gatwick. This transfer was more difficult than we had anticipated. We had to shell out $70 for the bus tickets, wait an hour in the rain for the next bus and then endure a one hour bus ride. We finally caught our next flight and arrived in Pisa past midnight. Because of the late hour, we decided to catch a cab to our hotel. The Pisa airport appears to have only four cabs, and there were literally over a hundred people in the cab line. We waited at least 45 minutes before finally getting a cab, and our cabbie took every right and left turn he could find until I had no idea where we were. After driving about four times as long as we should have, we arrived at the hotel and the enterprising cabbie hit a button which immediately doubled the fare. It was quite a trick! Anyway, we spent a restful night in the hotel before getting up in the morning and catching a train to Florence.

We arrived in Florence around noon and caught a bus to our hotel. We quickly unpacked and headed into the city center. We immediately had to see a sight so we went to Santa Croce. It is a magnificent church and was one of the highlights of Florence. The Giotto frescos in the church are absolutely stunning. We then went to the outdoor statue gallery at the Piazza della Signoria and saw a variety of statues including the Medusa, the Rape of the Sabine Women and a copy of David. We had our first Italian wine of the trip at an outdoor café on this plaza, a Vernaccia di San Gmigiano (Melini). It was a white wine and a nice quaffer at 13 Euros. It was a touch creamy; and the palate included grapefruit with maybe a touch of herbs. It was a nice wine to inaugurate our Florence leg of the trip.

We decided to hit the main tourist sights on the second day of the trip – the Duomo, the bell tower, the Baptistery and the Duomo museum. The most impressive sight was the interior of the dome in the Duomo. We had to climb up about 400 stairs to see it and my poor cartilage damaged knees were sore for days, but it was worth it. Vasari’s “Last Judgment” covers the interior of the dome. I knew about Vasari’s book about the painters of the Renaissance, but I didn’t know he was a painter himself. I’m sure we had some wine somewhere on this day but our tasting notes are blank.

Our third morning was spent at the Accademia. Obviously, the Michelangelo statues are the big attraction and really about all that is worth seeing in the museum. We actually preferred the unfinished Pieta to the more famous David. Afterwards, we headed over to the Florentine Leather School to get Jen a purse. The guild is housed in a church, and you can actually watch the workers hand stitching the purses. Jen bought a purse and we then discovered one of our favorite drinking spots. It was a small snack bar near the Ponte Vecchio. We bought a half bottle of wine and enjoyed it outdoors in the Piazza di San Stefano. Our half bottle was a 2004 Chianti Classico by Banfi for 6 Euros. Unfortunately, it was served a little too warm. The palate showed cherry and lavender and it was a decent wine if not spectacular. That’s practically a ringing endorsement from us, because we usually aren’t too thrilled with Chianti.

The next day took us to Fiesole, a pretty town on the Florentine hillside. We sauntered around Roman ruins and then walked down the hill to San Domenico. We had hoped to visit the church but it was closed. So, we naturally headed to an outdoor café for some wine. The bartender poured us a Pinot Grigio. It was light, tangy and showed grapefruit. It was very refreshing.

On one of these days, we managed to find a decent wine bar. We had a heckuva time finding a wine bar as we think of them in the U.S. Most of the places mentioned in our guidebooks turned out to simply be wine shops that may or may not be having tastings. Anyway, this particular wine shop was tasting about a dozen wines. We started out with a glass of Brunello di Montelpuciano for 6 Euros a glass. This was one of the best wines of the trip. It was incredibly concentrated and the flavors unfolded in waves of licorice and red fruit with a very long finish. It was amazing. Next, I tried a Malvasia and Jen had a Chianti Classico. I didn’t like the Malvasia. It was disturbingly frizzy and much too sweet even for me. Jen liked her Chianti and found it to be very concentrated. Lastly, we each had a glass of Vin Santo at 2.5 Euros a glass. It was much different than what we were expecting. Instead of a rich sweetness, it was more grappa-like. It was a touch sweet and very grapey. It was okay.

We also, of course, had a few bottles at the hotel over the first few nights. We had a 2003 Amarone della Valpolicella Val Pantena Carlevari for 20 Euros. This was one of my favorite wines of the trip. Jen also really liked it but not quite as much as I did. It reminded me of a Gigondas – the dominant flavor was a concentrated lavender and the texture was very heavy. Jen described the palate as having violet candy and prunes. It was not as dry as other Amarones I’ve had. The finish was endless. I had heard that we had to try a Bolgheri so we bought one of those as well. We had the Il Bruciato 2004 Bolgheri. It was a mixture of Cabernet, Syrah and Merlot. On the palate, the Syrah really comes through. It is fruity and funky with sweet red fruit and some currant in the background. It was a playful wine and fun to drink.

We spent the next day wandering around the Boboli Gardens and visiting a few museums on the premises. The museums were nothing special but the gardens are beautiful. I think what Jen remembers most about this day is that she had the best sandwich of the trip at their café. After a long day of walking, we went back to our snack bar near the Ponte Vecchio and drank a half bottle of 2005 Le Rime Banfi for 6 euros. It was a Chardonnay/Pinot Grigio mix. It was tart, metallic and a touch grapey. It was serviceable.

Later that night, we discovered one of our favorite restaurants of the entire trip, the Golden View. It was just on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio and was about 80% Italian and 20% touristy. It fit the bill because they were open at 5 and as we were still adjusting to the time change, we just couldn’t wait until 7:30 to eat. We had pizza and it was great. I had the Pizza Fuego which was topped with red and green peppers, onions and salami. Jen’s pizza was a deadly rich combination of Porcini Mushrooms, scamorza and white truffle cream. They had a very good wine list so we went with a moderately priced wine. We tried a 2004 Rosso di Montepulciano Dei for 20 Euros. As we noticed time and time again with Italian wines, it was very focused had good concentration. It showed prunes and herbal notes and had a long finish. We followed dinner with an incredible Vin Santo. It had a very rich texture and tasted of sweet vanilla, brown sugar, and burnt caramel. The brown sugar and caramel appeared on the nose as well. It was a bit nutty. It was wonderfully complex and concentrated – this is what Vin Santo is all about.

Back at the hotel, we opened a bottle of Santo Spirito by Frescobaldi for 7.5 Euros. It was a high octane white dessert wine. This was our cheapie to save some money. It was decent for the money. The palate was very sweet and showed a tart orange flavor. It was most likely orange muscat.

The next day was interesting. We headed over to the Uffizi with our reservations only to find out that I had just made the biggest mistake of the trip – our reservations were for the prior day. Fortunately, I was able to get reservations for the late afternoon, so we headed over to the Brancacci Chapel in the morning. We absolutely loved the Masaccio frescos there, especially the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. As for the Uffizi, it deserves it’s reputation. There are literally dozens of masterpieces there that everyone should see at least once. My personal favorites were the works by Lippi and Botticelli. We both agreed that the Botticellis were the best works in the museum. Jen preferred the Birth of Venus while I preferred the Rites of Spring. Once again, my notes are hazy but somewhere along the way, we had a white wine that day - aVermentino Maremma Toscano Tenuta Perolla Massa Marittima San Felice for 12 Euros. It was creamy with a dry, metallic finish.

I didn’t have any plans for our last day in Florence. We poured through the guidebook and chose two churches. We began the day at the Convent of San Marco. Our guidebook called it the most religious place in Florence and I would have to agree. You are allowed to look inside the individual cells where the monks lived and each cell contains a fresco by Fra Angelico. The paintings are remarkable and extremely well preserved. In the afternoon, we went to Piazzale Michelangelo and joined the hordes of tourists for our obligatory picture of us with Florence in the background. We asked an Aussie couple to do the honors. They took our photo and we reciprocated. They admitted that they had wanted someone to take their picture but their dislike of people had prevented them from asking anyone.

From there, we hiked to San Miniato. Jen liked this church even better than San Marco. For our last dinner in Florence, we headed back to the Golden View. I had another Pizza Fuego and Jen happily discovered a different truffle pizza with black truffles. We took our waiter’s recommendation and had the 2000 La Forra Chianti Classico Riserva for 30 Euros. I wasn’t too thrilled with spending that much on a Chianti but this one was pretty darn good. It was minty and funky and reminded Jen of a Bordeaux. There was a slight red fruit flavor underneath (cherry) and the wine finished dry. It was not at all like the chiantis we have had back in the states.

We walked back to the hotel and to prolong the evening, we stopped in a park near our hotel on the bank of the Arno. We ordered a couple glasses of Prosecco and had a toast to Florence. We suspect they slipped us Spumante because the sparkler was fairly sweet but it was still a nice way to end this leg of the trip.