Day 5 - Hitting our Stride
June 26, 2023: The great thing about spending an extended period of time in one place is you are able to develop a rhythm and not feel rushed. Instead of trying to squeeze everything into a few days, you are able to take your time, relax and enjoy just “being” in your new surrounding. Our routine has been to get up and have a coffee and small breakfast in our beautiful apartment. Then we go out and explore for the morning, do our tours and grab lunch somewhere. In the afternoon, when it’s almost 100 degrees, we go back to our place and read, play cards, and sometimes nap (Deb). Later we head for Apertivo and then dinner.
Today we did a wine tasting at a little place call Enoteca Pitti Gola e Cantina. It is directly across from Pitti Palace which we will be touring later in the week. We haven’t typically bought Italian wines other than Chianti, so it was fun to learn about the different regions and try some different wines. I did whites and Jimm did reds. Our sommelier was very knowledgeable and friendly. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We learned that to be considered “Chianti Classico” and earn the DDCG designation and rooster label, the wine has be at least 80% chianti. The image of the Black Rooster has been linked to Chianti Classico ever since the 14th century. It was all very interesting. We have a 4-hour wine tasting tour to Grieve which is in the chianti region next week. I am sure we will learn even more about one of Jimm’s favorite wines.
After our wine tasting we took a walk to San Spirito Piazza. There were several restaurants along the piazza so we checked the menus and settled on Borgo Antico where I had my first pizza since coming to Italy and Jimm had a Niciose salad. We sat outside and enjoyed the piazza for a while before heading back to cool off at the apartment.
For Apertivo, we went to our third rooftop bar call Loggio. It was our least favorite of the three so far, but it was shady and we enjoyed relaxing there and seeing a view of the city from a different perspective. We had not dinner reservations, so we just walked around until we found a small family owned restaurant on a side street called Trattoria Bordina. A historic venue, that has existed for over seventy years. During the Second World War in 1945, after the bombing by the Germans around Ponte Vecchio, it is one of the few places built around 1400 that remained unharmed. See photos and videos for some interesting pictures inside the restaurant.
Tomorrow we get up at 4:30 AM to make our way to Piazza Michelangelo to watch the sunrise over the city. While dreading the early morning, I can’t wait to see it!