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Sunday, June 17, 2012

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." -Mark Twain

While we didn't plan to do too much shopping in Florence due to being there such a short time, there were two things we did want to try to find if we could: some leather shoes for Raja, and some leather gloves for me. Raja did some research for us in order to figure out where might be best for us to browse, and came up with two solid options: Luciano for the gloves, Francesco da Firenze's shop for the shoes.
The glove experience at Luciano is easy to sum up.


Awful. Terrible

We took a few steps in the store, where we were not greeted by the only clerk in the entire store. The space is tiny, so he couldn't have missed us. But that's okay... I don't really need to be greeted warmly by a shop owner as soon as I walk into the door. Sure, most of the Floerentine shop keepers had been extremely friendly and inviting as we wandered into various storefronts, but that's okay if Luciano's owner was a bit more reserved. Reserved quickly turned into rude, however. If we had a question about a certain glove or wanted to see a particular glove closer, he was very snippy with responses and generally acted like it was a huge burden to show us any gloves in his shop. After about 3 minutes of complete rudeness, Raja and I headed out the door.  It now made perfect sense why this shop was known for producing high-quality leather gloves,was easily discovered through a few minutes of research on the internet, but was completely and uncharacteristically empty inside.

We warily headed down to Francesco's shoe shop, hoping the experience would be vastly different. I was a bit rattled by the whole episode at Luciano, but Raja had been so looking forward to trying to find some custom-made shoes that we forged ahead. Sadly, when we arrived, the shop was closed for their mid-day break. We peered through the windows at all of the shoes in their window display, just to get a general idea of what was available, as we planned to return during their evening opening hours.

But then, a man's head popped up into the window, and he smiled hugely. He must have been in his work studio in the back and seen us walk by and stop to window shop. He made his way to the front door of the store, unlocked it, and greeted us boisterously in a very thick Italian accent. Despite the fact that we couldn't understand much past "Bongiorno!," this cobbler's smile said it all as he eagerly waved us into the store.

So the good news was, we quickly saw a shoe that we both liked for Raja. The bad news was that our knowlege of the Italian language encompasses about 10 words, and Francesco's knowledge of English is every bit as limited. Somehow, between lots of gestures, nods and shakes of the head, and even some sketching on brown paper, Raja and Francesco were able to understand each other well enough to start the process. Both parties were genuinely happy to be patient, drum up what little they could of the other's native language, and try his best to understand and respond. When I hesitantly held up my camera to ask if I could take some photos, Francesco lit up and immediately began showing me all around the store: I was free to explore deep into his cobbler's studio, take pictures of anything I wanted, and he promised to smile big in any people pictures. :) 

Here's Francesco himself:

Wandering around his work space was incredible. Everything he makes is done in-house, from scratch. The tools and machines he uses are so different from what you see in a big factory.





There were so many kinds of shoes to pick from! We stuck mainly to the men's dress shoes area, but there were dozens of different sandal templates, plenty of heels, different kinds of driving shoes, comfortable walking shoes... Any kind of shoe you need can be found here.


This is the design Raja modeled his own purchase after.

Once the details of the shoe design were worked out, the measurements started. No fancy machines here, no sir! Just a cobbler with some paper and a pencil to create the adjustments necessary when he discovered that Raja's right foot is slightly wider than his left..

So far, Francesco and Raja have done a pretty good job of navigating through this process despite an almost complete inability to use words effectively due to the language barrier. When this guy below wandered into the shop, Francesco apparently asked him in Italian if he could speak English. And he could! He was happy to help answer all of the questions that each side had for the other side. I thought this was going to be where things became hilarious due to all of the possible misunderstandings that could have occurred, but surprisingly, there was hardly anything lost in translation. The peace of mind for both Francesco and Raja was priceless - Things were on the right track, and both had a good understanding of what was going on.

The nice guy stuck around throughout the rest of the process, just in case he was needed, since he was shopping anyway. That made the last half of the transaction go much more quickly, since he was able to translate things whenever needed. Francesco's head, and mine, swiveled back and forth between Raja and the makeshift translator.

By the end of the process, we were pretty much one big happy family. Francesco truly couldn't have been nicer, and his wife also came in who was bright-eyed and lovely and eager to help. We bid our nice translator, Francesco, and his wife goodbye. If all went as planned, Raja's shoes would arrive to our door in about 3 weeks! SUCH a different experience than we'd had at Luciano, thank Goodness. :)

Within a few weeks, Raja's shoes did, indeed, arrive at our apartment. Since the process was so different due to the language gaps, the sketching on brown paper as opposed to high-tech measuring techniques, etc. we were optimistic but not certain that the shoes would be a perfect fit. But they were! We'd left Francesco's shop in Italy a few weeks back with nothing but faith... Faith in his long-standing strong reputation in this industry, faith in his kindness and willingness to take the time to try to get things right despite less-than-ideal circumstances, and faith in his craft and passion for that craft. We couldn't have been more right.





Francesco da Firenze
62R Via Santo Spirito
Phone: 011-39-055-212428 
Francesco da Firenze's Facebook Page

Saturday, June 16, 2012

"Architecture in general is frozen music." -Friedrich von Shelling

Our trip to Italy was essentially divided into two main parts:  our time in the Tuscan countryside, and our trip to the coastal areas of Anacapri and Positano.  Since we needed a car to get from one Tuscan hilltown to another, but needed to AVOID driving a car on the steep, winding, cliff-side roads of Capri and Anacapri, we established Florence as our rental car pick-up and drop-off site. We took the train in to Florence from Milan at the start of our trip to pick up our car, drove off into the rural region, then drove it back in to drop it off before exploring Florence and then taking a train to the Southern coastal areas.

We only had about a day and a half in Florence, which was perfect for us since I wanted to explore that city a bit, but didn't want to give up much time in either the countryside or by the water in Southern Italy.   We also used this stop in Florence to wash everything we'd worn so far on our trip, so we could essentially start over in the wardrobe department.  This allowed us to pack light (only 1 small rolling carry-on each, in addition to a backpack and a shoulder bag for the whole trip!), which was crucial for how often we were hopping on and off planes and trains, wedging ourselves and all of our stuff into tiny cars, and lugging all of our baggage up about 200 stairs in Positano.  If you plan a 2-week trip but need to pack light like this, I highly recommend building a trip to a laundromat into your plans at the midway point. It was so nice to have only clean clothes and a wide range of choices when heading into the second half of our vacation.

Anyway, I'm way off track... back to Florence. :)  So of course there was a duomo, and of course we went into that duomo. It was actually one of the prettiest (externally, anyway) cathedrals we'd encountered during our trip, so I was quite happy to let Raja embrace all of the historical trappings that is an Italian duomo, while I snapped photographs and walked around the entire structure. 

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore's (English: Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) brick dome was the largest in the world up until the development of more modern structural materials, and today retains its status as the largest brick dome ever constructed.




The facade is covered in these pink and green marble panels bordered by white trim, and the amount of detail in almost every panel is stunning!





Gorgeous, right? We did go inside but the interior just wasn't as visually stunning as the exterior, so in order to keep things manageable from a photograph standpoint, we edited and uploaded only the photos from the outside.

After we explored the duomo, we took some time to stroll the city streets and just take in the culture. Florence had so much to offer in terms of museums, shops, delis, gelaterias, restaurants... The list just goes on and on, and it made me wish I'd done more research and maybe allowed for a little bit more time to explore interesting shops, try amazing restaurants, and seek out the best gelato. Sadly, you can only research so much for a trip, so I didn't plan out Florence in detail. Our strolling around yielded us plenty things to see and do, luckily... There's something interesting around every corner!

One thing that struck me was the charm present in the buildings and streets themselves. Almost every street looked like a postcard, and the buildings were exactly what I'd imagined when I'd tried to imagine what Florence might look like. We just wandered around and got lost in the streets.







Since Raja's dad is an architect, Raja's early travels often included views of famous architectural landmarks and marvels, and he has this ability to understand and explain the fundamentals behind how things are built and why they have to be built certain ways. Since we've traveled quite a bit together, I've learned just how many types of bridges there are, why certain materials are used for certain bridges but not others, and what provides the support in each different kind of bridge. Needless to say, the bridges in Florence were architectural pieces he wanted to see in person.






Even on a cloudy day, the bridges and the Arno river were stunning sights. I wish we'd been here a couple more days so we could hopefully catch the views during a sunny day, but even in this overcast setting, I still wasn't disappointed.

After another half day of exploration and some shoe shopping, we were on our way out of Florence, headed down to the coast to explore the vertical village of Positano, and relax in Anacapri. Florence was quick, but worth it - and proved to be much more than our rental car pick-up and drop-off site. :)

Sunday, June 3, 2012

"Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance." -Benjamin Franklin

The foothills of many areas in Tuscany have become homes to hundreds of winefarms, often long held in families and passed down through generations, and producing inky Merlots, aged Chiantis, fruity Sancerres, and food-friendly Cabernets.

When planning our trip, we knew we wanted to tour at least one winery, and we wanted to steer clear of the large, factory-style wineries in favor of the more intimate feel from a small family business. After researching a few vineyards, we settled on Altesino, located in the Montalcino region and specializing in the production of Sangiovese grapes. We made our appointment for our tour, and four weeks later, here we were. :)

Remember when I said that many times, we would be greeted by pets first, then the business owners/guides second?  This held true yet again.


German shephards. Fabulous. My favorite. ;)  All kidding aside, they were very sweet, of course.

Not longer after these two furry guys greeted us, Melissa followed and greeted us just as warmly. When we discovered that we'd be on a private tour, with our group consisting of Raja, myself, and the two dogs, we knew we'd made the right decision in going for the smaller winery experience.

Melissa showed us the grape and olive vineyards, which take up 108 acres of the Montalcino region, and also the house where the owners and some members of the staff reside.




Before long, we followed the same path their grapes take after the harvest: from the winery and into the processing center, which is where fermentation, refining and bottling take place.  The first task is to separate the grapes, then transfer the fruit to a destemmer/crusher where the stems are separated from the grapes and the grapes are crushed. After de-stemming and crushing, the grape juice is poured into fermentation vats, where yeast converts most of the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol. Their time inside these sets of tanks is when red wines develop their colors, scents, and flavors. This is also when the juice naturally ferments, turning sugar to alcohol.




When the time is right, the vintner transfers the partially-fermented liquid into oak barrels or stainless steel tanks, depending on the kind of grape being used. The wine sits in these oak barrels, which encourage further fermentation and initiate the beginning of the aging process.  The use of oak plays a vital role in the winemaking proces and can have a dramatic effect on the resulting wine, affecting the color, flavor, tannin profile and texture of the wine. The length of time that a wine spends in the barrel is dependent on the grape variety and style of wine that the vintner wishes to make.





After the aging process is complete, the wine is ready to be bottled, sold, and shipped. Rather than heading straight for the buying process, we decided to do a wine tasting to determine which wines we'd like to take home with us. With well over a week left in our trip, we were excited to take a few bottles with us to the next stops on our journey.



After trying four different wines, Raja and I easily agreed on a favorite, so we visited the sales area where Melissa could pull the specific bottles we wanted and package them up for travel. She was a wonderful guide... gracious, friendly, and knowledgeable. I snapped one last picture of our sweet host, we exchanged our goodbyes with both Melissa and the pups, and we headed off, wines in tow.  We were ready to see where the next unmarked, dirt road would take us. :)



Altesino Winery and Vineyards
Località Altesino, 54 53024 Montalcino (Siena)
Tel. 0577 806208
E-mail: info@altesino.it