Spring is here! (Let’s hope that today’s being Friday the 13th won’t jinx it...) Last night was the first time we were able to eat dinner outdoors without a sweater or jacket (it helps that with daylight savings time, it stays light until after 8 pm) -- and boy, was it fantastic! We tried a restaurant called I Quattro Amici (The Four Friends), which is well-known for its fish, but it also happens to have a gluten-free menu. We’re a little torn between trying all these wonderful restaurants and staying home to enjoy our fresh fruits and veggies from the farmer’s market. It makes such a difference when you eat the fresh pick of the day, but we always end up buying much more than two human beings can eat in a day or two. The big things in the markets right now are artichokes, asparagus, and strawberries. I don’t see big piles of herbs, but when I ask for rosemary or sage or basil, the merchants give me handfuls for free.
Speaking of torn, the other problem is focusing on writing when there are so many interesting things to see and do. Allen has been much more disciplined than I have, but I figure I have the rest of my life to write, and only the rest of this month to see Florence. This morning’s little jaunt took me to the synagogue, built in the late 1800s when Jews were permitted to leave the ghetto and integrated as full-fledged citizens of a united Italy. The architectural team included two Catholics and one Jew, and the result is something that looks very much like an Eastern basilica. It’s shaped much like a church, except without the transepts (arms), and is decorated with stained glass, an enormous pipe organ, and even a raised pulpit on one of the columns (which Jews would never use). The walls and dome are painted in an intricate geometric pattern and dark hues that give it an Ottoman flavor, which I guess is appropriate given that it’s a Sephardic congregation (still active). (Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let me bring my camera in – this was the only place we’ve been so far in Italy where all visitors must pass through a metal detector and leave all electronics behind.) You can see a line on the walls here (and elsewhere in Florence) from the flood in 1966, when the Arno overflowed its banks and the water reached over 5 feet in just an hour and a half. Upstairs there’s a museum with interesting photos and models of the old Jewish ghetto, and across the street there’s a kosher butcher and a kosher vegetarian restaurant.
I also stopped at Casa Buonarroti – the house that Michelangelo’s family and descendants lived in for several centuries – and the Church of Santa Croce, in which luminaries from Michelangelo to Galileo to Dante and Machiavelli are buried. It’s an enormous church with so many things to see that I finally gave up on the audio guide. I’ve added photos of the day’s journey to our Florence photo album, which you can see here. Enjoy!
