Italia 2011: First italian Tour, Buren Inauguration, Rainy Florence

Fountain in Quarrata by Daniel Buren

Wooo what a great weekend! My first Italian tour on Saturday went fairly well... the visitors were very nice and patient with my Italiano arruginito (rusty Italian). The fountain inauguration in Quarrata on Saturday night was great! Met Daniel Buren, as well as another artist who has done work here at Celle, Fabrizio Corneli. Buren's fountain was very impressive (despite it's use of geometric shapes and primary colours which usually turn me off) and the setting was incredible scenic. The fountain is at a stunning villa in Quarrata that is now owned by the city and used as a public space. Katie and I made friends with the guy who did the lighting for the fountain, and his very nice assistant (and girlfriend? not sure...). There was also an open bar and big outdoor buffet of delicious food. Then we went back to Miranda's place in Prato for the night.

It was great staying at Miranda's. Her apartment is right downtown Prato, a 5 minute walk from the train station, and from there it was a 15 minute train ride to Florence.

I was amazed at how well I remembered my way around Florence! (the last time I was there was 3 years ago when I spent the summer.) Unfortunately the weather was beyond miserable, rainy and cold... When we got there we wandered through San Lorenzo Market, saw Piazza Duomo (but didn't go inside the duomo... so many tourists!!), then wandered down to Piazza Santa Croce.

At that point we decided we were starving but it was only 11 am so nothing was open for a solid meal like we wanted. We wandered for a bit and the rain got worse, and we came to a fork in the road and didn't know which was likely to have more restaurants. I "went with my gut", and ended up at Vivoli (the world's most incredible gelato place, hands down) which is hilarious because even in my whole time in Florence before, I never actually knew where it was... I always let my intuition guide me. Apparently that intuition's still there. So we had a small gelato (mmmm zabaione gelato) and then went to a trattoria next door where I got tomto sauce all over the sleeve of my white wrap. I spent the rest of the day looking super cool in a purple "Vespa" hoodie I bought in the street (paired with leggings and a cute floral pattern dress. at least the colours coordinated...).

Then we wandered back over to Piazza Signoria (where the Uffizi is) and it started bucketing rain so we waited that out in a roofed area with a bunch of statues. When it let up we went back up near Piazza Duomo to do some shopping (I forgot how incredibly bitchy Florence shoe-store workers are. How am I supposed to know if I want to buy it if I'm not even allowed to pick it up?).

Then my Florence Albanian friends finished work so we met up with them and went to a funky cheap bar for some drinks just as it started bucketing again. By the time we left the sun was out and stayed out for about an hour. We went over ponte vecchio and up to Piazza Santo Spirito (super cool little square that I only discovered on my last night of my previous stint in Florence) where there was a big market so we tried lots of pesto and spreads and things. We had a glass of wine out on a patio, saw lots of adorable dogs.

It started raining again as we were walking back towards downtown, so we went for a couple more drinks at a great little bar/lounge called Naima that I used to go to every night. Then katie and I caught the 10:00 train back to Miranda's.

Back to the grind today! (Well, not really... no tours today. But still...).