Merry Christmas to all especially to family who are celebrating at home. Thank you to Auntie Leigh, Gram, and Gramps who have made this trip possible for Ryan and Jon by giving Alex and Sam a special Christmas at home.
This morning in lieu of our usual Christmas breakfast we are enjoying the sweetness of pastries and a traditional panettone. We have a unique way of warming the pastries – a radiator with a built in warming oven. It works great!
Warming oven in radiatorRyan and Jon on Christmas morning waiting for breakfast
We have mimosas and beer with our panettone and pastries. The panettone is so delicious, sweet and yeasty. Sarah promises to make one for next Christmas!
Our Christmas breakfast spreadMain attraction – panettoneInside the panettone
While Sarah works on the lasagna and John and I loll about Ryan and Jon take a walk through the quiet streets of Florence and enjoy the architecture.
Ryan and Jon on their walk
In the early afternoon we all meet to go visit the beautiful Santa Maria Novella church full of early Renaissance frescoes. It is a favorite of mine.
Ryan and Jon in front of Santa Maria Novella
Founded in the first half of the thirteenth century Santa Maria Novella has so many marvelous works of art to see –
Beautiful Annunciation by unknown artist ~1370Crucifix by Giotto 1288-89From the Strozzi Chapel, Filippino Lippi 1489-1502, St. Phillip the Apostle at the Temple of Mars in HierapolisAltarpiece by Orcagna, 1354-57Jesus leads redeemed souls to Paradise, Spanish Chapel
After our visit to Santa Maria Novella it is time for Christmas dinner. Sarah bakes the lasagna and we all enjoy it a lot!
Sarah photobombing a picture of Ryan and Jon before dinnerLasagna out of the oven!John servingMy sliceSarah, our wonderful chef for Christmas Day!
Ryan and Jon have fallen into a pattern of going downstairs to the cafe each morning to have a pastry and cappuccino. Jon says it is the best cappuccino he has ever had. I am happy that they are having such a good time.
Jon and Ryan’s favorite breakfast
Sarah and I are looking for bagels and other items for Christmas breakfast and dinner at the Pam grocery store. Once she has all her lasagna ingredients we have to make an executive decision about breakfast. We decide to buy a panettone from the bakery downstairs. It turns out to be much more expensive than the ones in the grocery store but we are hoping for a much better quality one. While we are at the bakery we also pick out a bunch of pastries. This is definitely a far cry from bagels and lox.
A 1 kilo panettone should be big enough for the 5 of us
Jon and Ryan go to the Duomo and visit the Opera del Duomo which contains older works that are no longer adorning the church or items that were on the outside and have been brought in to keep them from getting damaged from the elements.
John heads out to find more goodies for our Christmas Eve celebration. He is a regular at the Salumeria where he buys so much chopped liver that we will have an unopened container to give to Mikki and France when we leave.
Salumeria
We gather at lunchtime and Jon says he wants to go back to la Bussola for more pizza. No one puts up any arguments,
La Bussola, our spot for pizza
Everyone orders pizza but I am afraid if I eat pizza I will be too full to enjoy tonight’s hors d’oeuvres. So I order linguini vongole, a favorite of mine.
Sarah makes the lasagna in the afternoon and I help (watch mostly) and take various taste tests. Later she and I go out for tea at a restaurant in the Piazza della Republican and take some pictures of the decorations and store displays.
Piazza della RepublicaWindow display at Gilli’sDecorations in the nearby street
Later over wine and hors d’oeuvres we sing traditional Christmas carols and then everyone is off to bed.
Today we are going to have my birthday celebration and I am really looking forward to it. I have made reservations at Il Pennello. We will meet there at 1 PM.
Jon and Ryan scurry off to the Accademia to see the David and the other earlier works in the morning.
Ryan and Jon on their way to the AccademiaLook who is there!
Sarah and John spend time this morning trying to find bagels for Christmas breakfast. The website says that Mama’s Bakery is open but when they get there they find it is closed until January 7. Bummer. They go to the the Mercato Centrale and the Conrad but these stores do not carry bagels. We will have to come up with Plan B.
Back to the birthday celebrations…
We go to Il Pennello for our 1 PM dinner. We are eating early in the day because it is Sunday and the restaurants will be closing for dinner.
Il Pennello
I get to sit between Jon and Sarah while John and Ryan sit across from us. We all order wine.
Mary with Jon and SarahJohn inspecting some antipastiRyan with a glass of white wine
Everyone has brought me birthday cards! I love it! It is possible that I reminded everyone to put cards in their suitcases.
Birthday cards!
We order a wide variety of things to eat.
clockwise from left: Ribbolita, spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce, pici with sausage, onion soup, penne straccicateAlso from bottom: braised beef, white beans, fried veggies, trippa Fiorentina, veal scallopine with artichokesHere we are outside after lunch and we have not exploded!
This was my best birthday ever!!!
After lunch Ryan and Jon head off for the Galileo Museum, the Baptistry, and climb the campanile. They have so much energy!
Astrolabe from the Galileo MuseumInterior of Baptistry domeRyan and Jon at the top of the CampanileView of the Duomo from the Campanile
John, Sarah, and I head for the Accademia. Here are some things we enjoy-
Nuptial parade painted by Scheggia, the younger brother of Masaccio, circa 1450“The Virgin of the Sea” painter may be Botticelli or Filippino Lippi, 1475-80Annunciation, Neri di Bicci, 1465“Tobias and the Three Archangels” painted in the International Gothic style by Domenico di Michelino, 1465John, Sarah, and other art lovers admiring Michelangelo’s “Prisoners” and heading toward “David”Can there be too many Davids in one post? I do not think so.Who doesn’t love these old Byzantine paintings! Unknown provenance, circa 1250
At this point John and Sarah go upstairs to do more appreciating and I take a seat behind the statue of David appreciating his butt and watching other appreciators. They are gone a looong time. When they finally reappear I have been texting them for quite a while. Unfortunately, the texts never reached them.
Since we are all quite full from our big lunch we just pick over our salami, chopped liver, cheese, and chips for dinner.
I have been up half the night worrying about Ryan and Jon. Will their flights go smoothly? Will they make their connection okay? Will they figure out getting train tickets? Are the trains to Florence sold out? Although Jon has been texting me all the way and things seem fine, I will not calm down until I see them. John and Sarah go to the train station to meet them. I stand at the window watching for them until I realize that I don’t know which street they will come down. Finally I hear the elevator. Yay, they are here!!
They look at their rooms. They seem okay with them. I think they find all the nooks and crannies absurd but enchanting. We decide to go out to lunch as soon as they are settled in.
Ryan and Jon’s living roomRyan and Jon’s bedroom
We head off to La Busola, our preferred pizza place, for lunch. It is such fun having everyone here. We order our own personal pizzas and beers all around!
Sarah, Jon, and Ryan at La BusolaRyan and John having a beerYum, pizza!
Afterward we take a walk by the Duomo. Florence is really bustling with people! I thought it would be fairly empty this time of year. Maybe too many people took my advice to come in the off-season!
Sarah, Jon, John, and Ryan in front of the Duomo in FlorenceSarah, Jon, Mary, and Ryan in Florence (plus soldier with big gun!)
Ryan and Jon decide to explore the surrounding area while the rest of us have some food shopping to do. We meet back later for hors d’oeuvres and wine. It will be our dinner since we are still pretty full from lunch. I am so happy that Sarah, Ryan, and Jon are here to help me celebrate my birthday and Christmas!!!
