Photos at Uffizi, Tombs at Santa Maria Croce, and Confusion at Coquinarius

Tuesday, September 25, 2007.

We met for breakfast at quarter after 7 in the morning, at a corner café near our hotels. After cappuccino and pastries, we headed off to line up for the Uffizi.

Seemed we got there at a good time. Not too far back in line. By the time they let us in at 915am (we’d been there since about 730am or so), the line up had stretched way behind us. But we got in after not too long a wait, thankfully. I tried to take some photos, without realizing that photos weren’t permitted (oops). At one point, I was about to snap a photo of a diptych, when a security dude threw his hand in front of my camera, and said, “Non!” Yikes. I thought he was going to slap me in the face. I sheepishly put my camera away.

After the gallery (we spent over two hours wandering around in there), we took a break for some lunch. Found a street café and ordered sandwiches and beverages. After finding a stable wi-fi connection, Adam and Jen did some blog updates, and I did some reading of my Uffizi Gallery book (17 euro and it weighs a TON, but worth it I think). After that, we decided to wander to the Santa Maria Croce, to view the tombs of various famous people, like Galileo, Machiavelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. And a memorial to Dante (not actually buried there since he’d been exiled years before). Many of my photos, unfortunately, were blurry and unfocused, since I couldn’t use a flash inside the church and I was suffering from shaking hands syndrome again. Ah well.

After all that walking, we took a short break at our hotel rooms, then met for dinner. We ended up going to a restaurant called Coquinarius, an enoteca that also served fantastic food. I ordered the spinach tortelloni (which showed up in a ravioli casing instead?) and Jen ordered the ricotta and pear ravioli (which showed up in a tortelloni casing instead?). And Adam ordered something called, “the Volcano.” At least there was no confusing Adam’s dish—it looked like a volcano. We also shared two bottles of fantastic red wine, upon the recommendation of our waiter. And there was certainly no confusion regarding the wine.