Day 4

After an amazing dinner the previous night, I wasn't very hungry so I had pancetta and formaggio panini for lunch which was exceptionally good. I also had a glass of sangiovese. What's great about Italians, as opposed to say the Irish, is the implicit moderation. My wine class had a line on it marking off 10ml (see photo). So, if you have a little wine with lunch you only have a little wine with lunch. It's so civilized. Perhaps this is how we should reduce binge drinking in the United States. We could encourage norms in which we drink 10ml glasses of wine slowly during lunch. That way, we might learn to enjoy life a bit more.

The cafe that I ate at was just around the corner from one of the fish markets. The fish are all cleaned up and out of the street by noon. I thought about buying some of the more interesting looking ones and cooking them at home (with ham I guess), but (alas) people keep inviting me out to dinner.

I took a wrong turn while running today and ended up on a five mile jaunt this afternoon. so I was good and hungry by dinner time (which is 9pm) Earlier I had asked the manager of the apartment I'm renting where to go for pizza when the boys and Jenna get to town (Jenna being big on pizza!) He told me this place that's down the alley, then down another alley, then down an alley. Sounded promising. I meet up with Elena, a visiting professsor from Spain, who lived in Florence for four years while studying at the EUI who wanted to get a quick, early dinner because she was taking the train out early the next morning. We get there at 8:30 and it's EMPTY. So we look for another place. The only other pizza places look like the Italian version of Ann Arbor's New York Pizza Depot. Great pizza, but no ambiance. So, we return to the original place. It's now 9:15 and we cannot sit on the ground floor because the place is so crowded. We're shuttled upstairs and I'm given a menu in English without being asked. Must be the button that says "I don't speak Italian" that I'm wearing.

Elena gets tagliatelle in bolognese. Thick, al dente pasta that's almost mustard yellow with a very meaty sauce. She's extremely happy with the dish. I try one bite and would feel regret were I not eating the most amazing pizza I've ever had. Fabulous thin crust. Light sauce. Parmesan cheese, finished off with a "rocket" salad with cherry tomatoes on top. And, if that's not enough, they bring me a bottle of olive oil infused with red chiles that I drizzle over the pizza.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention the deep fried squash blossom, sardine, and eggplant antipasto. It was not unlike something you'd have at say Olive Garden (ha!)

For the record, I have been told that the only sushi place here is lousy.