Thanksgiving in Italy and the Friday after

A day (Thursday) would not be complete without the passagarie, which we usually do for 1-2 hours. Afterward we made a traditional Thanksgiving dinner of Sugo di Melanzana, Pomodoro, e Mozzarella (eggplant, tomato and mozzarella pasta sauce) from our Marcella Says… cookbook. It was good but spicy. We used fresh tagliatelle that we bought at the mercato. This pic is of our neighborhood.

For Friday (11/23) we decided to check out some churches. We started with San Remigio across the street from our apartment. It was very peaceful as people were actually worshipping and there were not any other tourists.

Next we went to the Duomo. It is as amazing as ever but there were a few things that we a little sad. All of the pews have been removed which allows more people to be inside and without the seats people seem to forget they are in a church.

We then went to San Carlo dei Lombardi and then across the street to the Orsanmichelle. The Orsanmichelle is very beautiful and should not be missed. We then made a departure from the church theme and went to Palazzo Davanzati (thanks to Allison’s sister, Lori, for the tip). It is a restored medieval nobleman’s house from the 14th century. The palazzo had been closed for over 10 years due to safety issues, but just opened this year after extensive renovations. It was great to see and amazingly it was free.

We then tried to see Santo Stefano al Ponte but it turns out that it is only open for special events. This is a tiny church in a very secluded piazza. The original church was built in 969. The church was severely damaged in the 1993 Uffizi bombing but has since been restored.
Then we moved on to the Santi Apostoli, San Spirito, Santa Maria del Carmine and San Frediano in Cestello all of which were closed because we showed up during the lunch break.

During the passagarie we went to Il Vaniao, a vino e cichetti bar in our neighborhood. They have a self-service wine bar with glasses of wine for 2 euro each and the wine and glasses are out on a table on the street. Parilla really liked it because we immediately dropped a croquette on the ground so it was hers. Once again she was a hit with everyone.

We finished the night at the restaurant where we had our wedding reception. The food was not quite as good as we remembered, but it is a sentimental favorite.