20100102 – Eating Tripe in Florence

Before I type anything else, did you see today’s date? It’s the same forwards as it is backwards! How cool is that?

Today we both slept in, and didn’t get out of the room until about 9. We headed to a café that advertised free wifi. Once we arrived, we were happy to find some truth in advertising. I ordered a cappuccino and Jeremy ordered a latte. We spent about an hour or so surfing the internet arranging for lodging in Pisa, Catania, Palermo, and hopefully Genoa.

At 10:30, we went on a scheduled “Secret Passageways” tour at the Palazzo Vechio. The tour was really cool, and we were able to see many more of the secret rooms and stairways that the Medici used when they lived in this palace. I dreamed of secret passages as a kid, and this tour made me wonder again how cool it would be to live in a place with secret doors.

We ate lunch at a small market. The particular vendor was called “I Trippaio di Ant’Ambrogio.” Lunch was tripe! This seems to be cow’s stomach. We shared a bowl of Trippa alla Fiorentina, which is tripe stewed in tomato sauce. We also ate a Panini al Lampredotto. The tripe was sort of chewy, but it really wasn’t that bad. Lampredotto is “cow’s fourth stomach, chopped up and simmered for hours.” This was not bad either. Still, if I wasn’t as open to new foods, or if my stomach was queasy about chewy foods, then I wouldn’t have been able to get this down.

After eating, we walked around the market and bought about 4 days worth of bread and cheese. I had heard that Siena was more expensive than Florence, and I wanted to make sure that I had food supplies if we couldn’t find a market.

Our final museum of the day was the Paazzo Strozzi and the “Art and Illusions Exhibit.” This exhibition focused on art meant to trick the eye. We spent 3 hours looking at paintings featuring characters climbing out of the frame and other objects that were meant to truly trick you into believing that they were real. After spending so much time looking at art that requires some education to appreciate, it was definitely cool to be in a museum that featured art that just looked neat.

We ate dinner at Il Barraccio again. This time I ordered the Spaghetti with tomato sauce. The meat sauce was better, but this place still rocks.