Day 13: Leaving Il Villino

Day 13 of our Italian holiday, and sadly it is the day to say goodbye to our friends and to our lovely home for the week, Il Villino. This week was like living in an idealized movie about a Tuscan vacation. The setting was picture-perfect, and our time with our friends was priceless.

Our bottle collection from our week at Il Villino (Mike's idea.) We counted 83 bottles of wine--not including the vodka bottles and the beer bottles, nor the bottles we drank out at restaurants. Suffice it to say, a good time was had by all.

From Il Villino, Tim and I decided to spend one more day in Florence before heading to Venice. Our hotel in Florence was the J and J Hotel, a small hotel in the heart of old Florence near the Pontevecchio

Courtyard at the J and J.

Lobby at the J and J.

After some lunch, we headed to the Palazzo Pitti to see the Boboli gardens.

 

The Pitti Palace is an imposing and architecturally severe building of massive size that was originally built in 1547 by a banking colleague of Cosimo d'Medici. After Pitti's death, the Medici family acquired the Palace as their principal residence. They enlarged it and added the extensive formal Italian garden on the Boboli hill behind the palace.

One of the fierce stone lion heads carved on the facade of the Pitti Palace. In addition to becoming the home of the Medicis, the Palace served as their storehouse for the many treasures they collected--paintings, sculptures, silver, porcelain, etc.

 

But our main interest was not the Palace, but the extensive Boboli Gardens behind it, from which you could see impressive views of Florence across the Arno River. Here is Tim with the red brick dome of the Duomo in the distance.

Another view of Florence from the Boboli Gardens.

From the highest point in the Gardens, this is a view of the hills behind it with an old castle on the top.

All in all, we were very disappointed in our tour of the Boboli Gardens. It was hot and dusty, and all the fountains had been drained and turned off. The grass was all dead and brown, and the hedges were all in a state of neglect--appearing untrimmed for several weeks. We were not sure if this was due to the hot August weather in Florence, or if this was all a result of the Italian austerity measures, given their current national financial crisis.

After the Garden tour and some souvenir shopping in Piazza San Lorenzo, the central market in Florence, we chilled at the hotel before going out for dinner at a lovely restaurant we spotted on our afternoon walk.

Gastone was a chic and restful restaurant with both Tuscan and classic Italian dishes and an extensive wine list.

After antipasti, we both had the aubergine and parmesan casserole with pomodoro. Very Tuscan and very delicious with the bottle of Brunello wine.

I had baked cod with chickpeas and sauteed spinach.

Tim had the Italian version of grilled tuna over a bed of grilled vegetables.

Not shown: gnugi--ricotta balls with spinach and tomato puree--and risotto with fresh baby spinach and tomatoes. Gastone has the best Tuscan food we have tasted so far.

After dinner, a cognac back at the J and J, and then some rest before our trip to Venice tomorrow.