Almost December. Chilly weather has settled onto Florence. Last night, the full moon rose over the Duomo, peeked into the window of our apartment and told us that it is time to move on.

Florence is of course for western civilization one of the most historical and valuable cities on the planet. Between say 1250 and 1500 there was an explosion of human creativity here that shook off the slumber of Christendom .. and transformed Architecture, Painting, Sculpture and all of our artistic and scientific expressions .. into those we still today consider the modern world.

There are so many churches standing as they were centuries ago, all crammed with extraordinary art and the graves of historical Renaissance people, and an honor to visit.

You can follow a chronological route through the rooms of the Uffizi, and see unfold for yourself the profound transition in art that occurred in an eye blink of time, just two hundred years .. going from flat, cartoon-like depictions of people and spaces to realistic, seemingly photographic and almost three dimensional representations.

For people who really can appreciate art, the Pitti Palace contains an endless number of paintings displaying works of art over centuries. And also in Florence, there are museums here for Sculpture, Stone inlay, Renaissance Science, Etruscan history, and more …

You can walk all over the city, and must, in fact. And although it is annoying with the tiny sidewalks and the people and the motorcycles and the taxis .. you see the great spaces and buildings.

This is a superficial little blog. There is so much here, but we have been coming to Florence many times over perhaps 25 years. And these days, we just visit our favorite churches and museums and then walk and walk and hang around to focus on the extraordinary food.

And so, if you think of coming here (which you should) or just want more information and photos of Florence, you might want to look at these two previous blogs which contain much more information about this great city.

Florence. Tuscany. Italy. | Lew’s Walkabout (lewswalkabout.com)

Florence 2022 | Lew’s Walkabout (lewswalkabout.com)

One caution: Try to visit off season. The waves of tourists that used to be here throughout the summer now splash here in November and perhaps later, and we were told that this past summer they were a Tsunami. On a Chianti wine trip this visit we were in a group of 9 persons, but at one winery the host told us that during the summer they regularly had 5 buses of 50 persons each bus in a day.

There are still some “real” places in the old town .. like out around the university and the Sant’Ambrogio market, but otherwise the old center is completely a tourist zone. There are as many people snapping photos in the Central market as those buying produce.

All of the restaurants in the Old Town no matter how lavish or hole-in-the-wall have more or less the same tourist menu. We shopped in the fabulous markets and cooked almost everyday.

The bottom line: All of the wonderful historical things in Florence are still here and available to access, but you must just accept that the city has become “Disneyland does History”.

If you decide to exit this little blog here I will understand. I am now only going on to talk some about Chianti wine country.

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CHIANTI

The countryside of the Chianti wine region is beautiful. Sharp hills and valleys. Surprisingly empty. There are maybe 5 significant and ancient villages in the region and their names often appear on the bottles.

Just like all Burgundy wines are Pinot Noir grapes, all Chianti wines are Sangiovese. DOC regulated to contain a minimum of 80 percent. The other 20 percent can vary.

If you buy them, I suggest looking for the Chianti Classico, those displaying the Black Rooster are DOC controlled for the best quality production.

Three observations/opinions of mine:

We have tried numerous Italian Rose wines. We have never drunk one a second time.

The Black Rooster wines are fine drinking wines. Maybe they would improve up to 8-10 years. But we are not talking Barolo. Blindfold me and give me 10 and I would struggle to point out any one notably different from the rest.

“Super Tuscan” wine is a total marketing ploy .. with no legs.

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And that’s it. We are now off to cold cold London to see some plays on our way back to totally frozen Bemidji.

Thanks for coming along.