White Beans and Renaissance Art.

Why is it that every Italian city is a "must-see" to Lonely Planet? According to 816 pages of full colour text, my guidebook believes I need to see every one of these cities.. I don't know about everyone else, but I am feeling overwhelmed, and find these recommendations a little unreasonable. :P

After narrowing down the list, and deciding on a much shorter Italian itinerary, I find myself touring through Florence, and Bologna so far, with Venice next on the list. This is where I will meet up with a friend, and former office-mate to tour through Venice and then to Rome. After Rome? TBD.

Ok, Italy officially wins for weirdo statues. Florence.

Fontana del Nettuno, Bologna.

Florence, or Firenze, an "essential stop in everyone's Italian itinerary", is known for holding the world's greatest collection of renaissance art, and of course David, an extremely famous sculpture because it was carved out of a single block of marble. (by Michelangelo, who finished it in 1504 when he was only 29! just.. by the way.) 
In my opinion, a busy, loud, gorgeous city with a ton of churches and piazzas... and renaissance art. I spent my days in Florence eating spaghetti and wandering through the tiny streets of this beautiful, cultural and artistic city. 

Even though 80% of the time I was lost, I refused to use a map. Florence is not a big city, and I should be able to find my way around. Unlike Barcelona, where some streets were a mere 3 ft wide and went in every which direction, Florence felt like it had some flow to it. Or I am just getting better at navigating, I don't know. At least I had a full river to base myself off of, I tried here in Bologna and found it to be a park. Not exactly helpful when you're looking for a river -as noted on the map. 

Directly translated, Fiume means River. 

The Uffizi Gallery, attracting some 1.5 million visitors a year, was full of Italian paintings and sculptures, including Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Michelangelo's Holy Family, for all you renaissance art junkies.  I bet they do alright with the people rolling through there, they don't even give student discounts. I was pretty bored after about an hour, to be blunt and honest. 

Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.

Cannellini, not to be confused with the delicious pasta cannelloni, is white beans. Yup, just.. white beans. Guess its some thing here in Florence. Served with breakfast, they looked...well gross. It is a form of Italian white kidney bean that is supposed to lower cholesterol, while be super tasty at the same time. I wish I could say I agreed with that, 100%.. but they were somewhat undesirable next to the mixed berry yogurt. I don't understand why this is a classic Tuscan dish, I mean really? You buy them in a can! Other than avoiding white beans, I ate an excess of spaghetti and gnocci in Florence, and couldn't be happier with my decisions. 

I didn't take this picture, but at least here they put it on bread with pepper, I guess thats some kind of improvement..

Trying to be more open minded in Bologna (pronounced like the sandwich meat, yes.) I will push to broaden my Italian food horizons a little beyond the Golden Arches next door. 


So far, I know that McDonald's has thoroughly invaded Italy and Europe, and that it is a classy place. I also know that when I chose to come to Italy, I was choosing where I wanted to eat. Simple, incredible food (minus the beans). Bologna means I need to have bolognese sauce, or ragu (which I think is just a tomato-ee meat sauce over pasta.. but TBD as well). Also, Bologna is known to be where classic pasta dishes like tortellini and lasagna were invented. Just a Fun Fact for the day! 

Looks like I have a lot of pasta ahead of me, and I am not complaining. Other than eating here in Bologna, I will probably wander through a few old streets to find some piazza's and churches too.


Arrivederci! shannon xx