Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Goodbye city life, hello green acres!

Finally we get a respite from the stone walls, traffic, noise of the motorini, confinement of the stroller, the crowds, tourists and lack of green space. A new friend from school and her husband have offered to drive us out to the country for a day of fresh air. We pile into their little car and zoom off through the southern doorway of the city with the wind whipping in our hair. Eisen and Gulliver are seated on our laps, (no car seat regulations here!) and Eisen thinks this is the greatest thing in the world. With a big grin on his face he turns to Gulliver every 4 seconds and proclaims in his wittle baby voice, “Dis is fun, Guvver!”

Once outside of the city limits we begin our ascent up a hill call Consuma, which, according to our host, is thusly named because it “eats” the cyclists that try to ride up it. Indeed it is long (about 45 minute drive) up up up a winding road. The view is astounding: farmlands, small mountains, stone clusters of houses.

We stop in a hiccup of a village to enjoy fresh-from-the-oven schiacciata (flat bread) baked with your choice of filling. Tim gets a piece with what appears to be a savory stew of fresh porcinis, I get carmelized onions with herbs and our hosts each get prosciutto cotto and fontina. YUM! So delicious, but I manage to save room for the torta della nonna, a crumbly cake crust with soft oozing creme, slivered almonds and powdered sugar on top. And of course I can’t resist buying an assortment of cookies for later: biscotti with chocolate running through the middle, ossi dei morti, and a large muffin-sized cake (torta pescatore) filled with dried fruit and almonds for Eisen when he wakes up. (Poor fella, after all the excitement of the first 20 minutes in the car he’s out like a light.)

Back in the car for the final 15 minutes through the country and we arrive at our destination: a zoo! But not like any zoo back at home. It is more of a park/refuge for animals which is privately run by an elderly couple. It is like visiting animals on a farm - some wander freely but others are in their fenced-in areas. Supposedly they are all native animals, but I’m not sure.


The view from the zoo. Note the castle looming in the distance.


Eisen is right at home here.


A lovely pond with ducks and a swan for feeding.



Tim, Beth, Xavian and Gulliver. What is over that wall, Gulliver?


Oh! A cute bear!


Eisen pets the albino donkeys.


The monkey is very interested in Eisen’s peach.


A reindeer! (see what I mean about this native animal thing??)


And Gulliver pretends to be one too.


All the animals looked very healthy and robust, including this gorgeous turkey. His charcoal colored chest feathers spiraled out in clusters and reminded me of how ash forms on a burnt log. He was puffed up pretty big and gave a hardy “gobblegobblegobble” when we came along.



Rusted irrelevance.


Gulliver running hither and yon.



This giant beast measured over 8 feet and came to greet us when we approached.


Gulliver got a little too close to the fence and when he wasn’t watching, the ostrich snuck up and bit his left hand. He screamed with pain and fear and jumped into the air crying. He was inconsolable until I pointed out that in his leap, he had jumped clear out of his sneaker, which was laying on the ground. The idea of jumping so fast that your shoes can’t keep up with you struck him as immensely funny and the tears were soon replaced by giggles.


Collecting giant pine cones.


Eisen, I think he’s staying.

Carnage, Cures and Cars

This week we have our friends Jules and Seth visiting us. It is so nice to share our favorite spots with friends and continue to discover new ones with people we know from our life before.
Today we finally made it to the Mercato Centrale in San Lorenzo. This massive building is a daily farmers market with two levels of fresh produce and carnage! I was so overwhelmed with the sights, sounds and smells that I hardly snapped any photos. We bought several goodies for our picnic: smoked tuna, braesoala, pecorino fiorentino, provolone, bruschetta...The fruit vendor had every kind of berry imaginable and when I asked Gulliver which one he wanted, he shyly but confidently proclaimed, “All of them.” To which I responded, “Oh no sweetie, we can’t get all of them.” But Jules stepped in and said, “All of them? Okay.” And whipped out her purse to make a 5 year-old’s dream come true: strawberries, blackberries, cherries and raspberries!!

Fresh capon, anyone???

Fifi, how long do you think it would take you to polish off that giant provolone on the left?

Oh if only my suitcase were big enough to fit some of these wheels of parmigiano!

The fish mongers displayed an assortment of catch that were new and different to us.

Check out these mountains of fresh porcini!

Next we paid a visit to the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella - Florence’s first pharmacy. The friars of this church began making herbal cures, rose water and creams in 1612 and it continues to this day to be a specialty pharmacy held within the original chapel of San Niccolo. I had read about it and wanted to visit, but I had no idea it would be this incredible living “museum” of the artistry of pharmaceutical history within a frescoed palace. I highly recommend a visit by all visitors to Florence.

Here Tim gets a shot of the ceiling in one of the rooms.

At this moment I am reading the List of items for sale while also trying to keep an eye on a rambunctious 2 year old.

This small room held a library of books pertaining to herbal cures.

This part of the pharmacy preserved the instruments of the trade.

Hey Printmakers! It's the press room for printing all the labels, papers and boxes.

One of the sales rooms.

Yes, I’d like a bottle of your “Vinegar of Seven Thieves” prescribed for fainting fits, please.

Strolling from Santa Maria Novella back towards Piazza Reppublica we passed a street parked with vintage Ferrari’s. Seth’s brother had told him to bring back a Ferrari for him from his trip to Italy. Now, which one of these shall we pick...



Complete with matching helmets in the back.

Boboli Gardens

The Boboli Gardens are the formerly private, now public, gardens belonging to the Pitti Palace. It is massive and there are endless paths and hidden gardens and wooded areas and fountains and scented gardens and a small lake and an impressive vista overlooking Florence.

This day we started with caffelattes and brioche at this cafe on the otherside of the Arno. Eisen was already asleep for his mid-morning nap (he had been awake since 6:00am) so we were able to have some peace at the bar without having to chase him around and keep him out of trouble. Gulliver perched under the bar like a baby penguin on his papa’s feet.



Here is the facade of the Pitti Palace. There is always some sort of renovation going on in Florence and when I was a student here some 20 years ago many of the beautiful buildings were covered in a green mesh of scaffolding. You would easily pass by an important structure because it looked like some skeevy parking garage. But now the italians are really clever, they have designed these fabric scaffolding covers that are paintings of what the facade looks like underneath. They are really well done and in fact there are two in Piazza Beccaria that I have seen several times and never realized they were not the real facades! Usually there is also a giant advertisement on them, like the converse one above, I suspect this is how the whole thing is paid for.
Gulliver and Eisen's first encounter with Adam & Eve.

Coy fish in the waters at the feet of Adam and Eve.


We entered this archway tunnel and Gulliver turns around to look behind us and exclaims! He is amazed at the branches over our heads. see photo below.


At last Eisen wakes from his nap and stumbles down this path with his brother. What is deceiving about this photo is that this is a fairly steep decline and soon the boys find themselves picking up speed and barreling down unable to stop. This tunnel is followed by a second and then a third. Each time Eisen falls, he picks himself up, brushes off his hands and continues on, trying to keep up with Gulliver.

At the bottom of the paths we find this formal “lake:. It is surrounded by large dense hedges that have niches cut into them for seating areas. We can imagine the clandestine meetings held here in centuries past.

We choose one for ourselves and make our picnic.



The statues come alive around us.


After our 5 hour excursion, we reward ourselves with the daily dose of gelato. This time from an “artiginale” shop that makes all the flavors on the premises.

Eisen is having “After Eight” which is mint chip, Gulliver is enjoying his fragola and coconut, and Tim is having dark chocolate with a second flavor of caffe. The caffe is so intense it tastes like you are drinking a cappuccino right there. Soon after these photos were taken, Eisen falls, drops his cone and then proceeds to pick up the bits of ice cream-covered cone from the sidewalk and eat them, much to the horror of the other patrons.

I sigh and shrug.