July 23 Thursday – Come on, Vogue!

A very sexy day!

We thought we might visit The Duomo this morning, but were surprised to find the longest lineup of the week, leading us to believe that some kind of group tour was in town – maybe a cruise ship, which would later prove to be correct.

We have also figured out that bank machines are few and far between here in the center of Florence, or else we are looking in the wrong places! At any rate, after winding around the streets in vain looking for a bank, we did end up at the Medici Chapel which were either not on the cruise ship itinerary, or were destined to be busy later in the day. For us, there was zero line and maybe 20 people in the whole place. It was so empty we thought for a while we were in the wrong place.

My favourite part of the chapel is, of course, the Michelangelo room, with two tombs, one adorned by dawn (a man just waking up) and dusk (a woman-man just falling asleep), and one adorned by day (a man) and night (a woman-man). If ever there was any doubt that Michelango’s passion was men, this is the place to be set straight (so to speak).

Michelangelo’s She-man.

He did also carve a beautiful Mary/Jesus for the tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and once again, Mary actually IS a beautiful young woman. Just like with the David, the faces of his men look different depending on where you stand.

But mother figures are always lovely.

There were a few really odd statues near the entrance. Someone with their head removed? A large slug protruding out of the collar? I dunno….

Back at the Lorenzo market, we tried one more attempt to land Kinga a dress or a purse. The market seemed extra large today, presumably because they were expecting the Duomo cruise ship visitors to come flooding in at any moment. This made for the market dudes to be quite a bit less friendly and less willing to negotiate. The dress guy basically told us to stop touching the clothes (which were hanging out in the open, clearly asking to be touched) and snatched them out of my and Kinga’s hands. I told him it was fine, we were happy to just spend our money somewhere else, but he didn’t seem to give a crap. We also had a run-in with a purse guy who refused to go lower than 25e on a purse that should not have cost over 20, as well as a couple of other non-negotiating vendors. We figured maybe word had gone up and down the stalls about the women wearing a red flowered dress (Kinga) and grey t-shirt (Andi), and that they had been blacklisted.

Meanwhile, Chrystal, full up on market stalls, went back to the food market to buy and cook us all lunch. The rest of us headed to the Leonardo Shoe store so that I could try on the boots I saw the other day. After several wrong turns and stops to ask locals for directions, we found the store in a spot that should have been super easy to find. I did end up picking up the boots and Andi got a nice pair of shoes, so the trip was not in vain! Back on our street, Chrystal had a very well-deserved diva moment (in truth, my blood sugar was plummeting) so we hustled upstairs.

Lunch was a spectacular, Chrystal-produced feast of spaghetti with olive oil and parmesan, tomatoes and (some kind of cheese), grilled fennel, tomatoes, local peaches, melon and salami. Oh my god, the food in Italy …!!!

More comments about the food. The market is full of packages of dried pasta in every shape and color. They are about 6-8 euros each. I asked the vegetable lady (who recognized me from last time) where she buys pasta. Or at least I tried to. She said that italians only eat pasta from the stall at the end. Spaghetti or fettucini. NOTHING ELSE. So I went to the stall at the end and it was a fresh pasta factory. The woman asked how many people, I said “seis!” and she measured out the appropriate amount. It was an exciting moment for me. So excited. Fresh pasta. (Pasta, 6.5 euros. Fennel salami and burratta (8.5 euros), 3 fennel bulbs (3 euro), two types of tomatoes, more peaches, basil (12 euros).

Right smack in the middle of the hottest time of day, we set out for the Sex, Drugs and Renaissance tour. The tour guide was a bit of a quirky guy who got off to a rough, awkward start, not helped at all by the fact that we were standing in the very hot sun. But eventually he did settle into a groove that ended up becoming a pretty interesting tour. A few more learnings:

He recommended the book The Swerve, which is about book hunters just before the renaissance, who discovered many old, previously lost books, the most important being “On the Nature of Things”. It is thought that the republication of this book was partly what brought about the renaissance.
We must read Dante’s Inferno. It is a must. He said so. Several times.
Dan Browns latest book Inferno was just filmed here recently
Leo X, who was the first Medici pope, is believed to have enjoyed the affection of men.
His son/nephew who became Pope Clemente VII (??) lived in the palace with Michelangelo and they were very close in age, became besties, and also both enjoyed the company of men. Nudge, nudge.
There are LOTS more vaginas than we first thought, including the doorways to churches. If you choose to believe that.
There is a very nice story of Dante and his unrequited love
He also recommended the Agony and the Ecstasy.

We went back to see the singing monks for a few minutes and then rewarded ourselves with gelato.

Back at the ranch, we had a little rest time before dinner. Dinner was at the Antinori restaurant here in town, to splurge a bit on one awesome restaurant meal. The restaurant was absolutely fabulous. I had insalata di pollo con salsa aromatica. Three bottles of wine (shared) then sachre toret and more baby biscotti with vinsanto for dessert.

Just a few glasses of wine later …

After dinner, we engaged in some theatrics in the lobby area outside the restaurant:

And then took it up a notch with some voguing in the street out front. Until we were photobombed by one of the waiters trying to head home:

We capped the night by finally stopping in at the jazz club that plays below our apartment bedroom windows every night. Coincidentally this turned out to be the perfect end to Vagina Day …