Dinner with Allison and Germ... Also a day trip to Fiesole

Wednesday (11/21) was mostly a rest day. We went back to the Mercato to get more supplies. We went shopping in the afternoon and we acquired some additional clothing to compensate for the cool weather.

In the evening we met up with a co-woker of Aaron’s, Allison, and her boyfriend and sister. We had drinks at an upscale hotel over by the Ponte Vechhio and then crossed over the bridge and went to a restaurant they had seen on Via San Spirito. We had a glass of wine hoping some people who were late for their reservation would not show at all. When they did arrive we decided the restaurant looked good enough for the hour wait. We decided to go to a wine bar over by the Pitti Palace that they had been to before and it was great. The wine bar was small with a beautiful atmosphere.

We returned to the restaurant at 9:30 and had an excellent meal. We were there for 3 hours and were eating for most of the time. Aaron had homemade tagliatelle with a duck ragu and then chicken pate for the second course. I had pasta made with a spicy salami sauce and for the main course beef carpaccio with cherry tomatoes, pecorino cheese slices and balsamic vinegar. We were so full I did not even look at the dessert menu.

Today, Thursday (11/22), we went to Fiesole. It is a small town above Florence that only took ½ hour by bus to get to. The views of Florence were great, but due to the haze over the city it did not photograph well. There are roman ruins in Fiesole which were very well preserved. The bus ride was pretty nice as you see a number of very picturesque villas along the way as the bus criss-crossed the hillside.

Once we were back in Florence we walked some more, this time from the Academia area back toward our apartment. Parilla made a number of friends along the way. We stopped at our favorite deli and they gave her some proscuitto which she loved. Our treat was finding probably the best gelato we have ever had near the apartment.