Florence

The other day I posed a question about whether or not I could include Uganda and Germany in my list of countries visited, even though I'd only every been briefly in an airport in those countries.

I had a sense that this was a bit of a nerdy question, but what I hadn't counted on was the level of nerdiness being raised by my own dear old dad who eMailed me to say that not only did he do this, but did so with the help of an Excel spreadsheet, with supporting data.....god help me. Now I know where I get it from.

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This is the last bit of a banana and chocolate loaf I made earlier in the week. It was rather splendid, even though I had forgotten to include one key ingredient. The recipe calls for softened butter, which I softened in the microwave, and then forgot all about.

I think I'm going to have to make this again, and this time use all the correct ingredients just to see what difference, if any, the butter makes.

What key ingredient have you left out of a recipe? Did it make much difference?

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Now I suspect that all of you reading this blog must see me as some incredible sophisticate. However, this isn't true. When it comes to being abroad, I'm more of a tourist than a traveller. I can be a little picky about food, and am not confident when thinking about eating in 'local' eateries.

Hotel bar.

On Friday after we'd arrived in Florence we checked into our hotel - The Plaza Hotel Lucchesi - and were pleasantly surprised. The hotel stands on the banks of the Arno and when we went to register, the lady behind the desk welcomed us and told us she'd upgraded us to a superior room with a river view. Good start. We went up to the room, unpacked, and after a wee rest set out to explore the locality.

Very quickly we realised how well positioned the hotel was. About five minutes walk from the Ponte Vecchio. After walking around for a while our thoughts turned to eating. Florence is a beautiful medieval city with narrow streets and bars, trattoria, shops at every turn. I decided to be a little more adventurous than usual and found a rather pleasing looking eatery, Fiaschetteria.

The place looked empty apart from a few locals sitting way in the back. I took the plunge and suggested we eat there. The owner brought us our drinks, and some garlic bread (to call it that is a sin, but it does describe it I guess) which was simple and tasty.

They had a couple of fixed menus and Gel and I had one each.

Salad, bruschetta, and lasagne for me.

Grilled aubergine, garlic bread and risotto for Gel.

Simple and very tasty. After paying, we went for a walk over towards the Uffizi where we came across a woman taking advantage of the accoustics and busking a bit of (I assume) opera.

We then made our way back to the hotel via a Gelateria and some rather splendid Florentine ice cream.

Although we were a bit narked about the delay in our flight, our short evening in Florence was splendid and I think we'd fallen in love with the city.