Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Florence – Palazzo Castri 1874

    Florence – Palazzo Castri 1874

    Richard was leaving Florence on Monday afternoon, so we thought that we’d go for one last meal in this quite lovely Italian city. The Fork booking system had worked well for us this afternoon, and the Palazzo Castri 1874 were offering 50% off food and drink for diners who were willing to have a late lunch at 14:00. This restaurant is located within a hotel, which had a beauty to it and a real sense of calm.

    Richard broke the automatic door when we went in, so that wasn’t the best of first impressions, but fortunately no lasting damage was done either to the door or Richard. Such a relief that the door was free from any permanent damage. Anyway, we soldiered on and the welcome offered by the staff members was authentic and engaging.

    There were gardeners in the hotel’s courtyard, which looked inviting, as well as a cat who seemed to have taken up residence. The restaurant was around half-full, having that air of being professionally run but still wanting a level of informality. I don’t like pretentious places, although Richard does, as the charm of a restaurant is it being all about the customers, not the staff acting like they’re judges in some talent competition of the diners.

    Sparkling water was swiftly brought to the table and I, unusually for this weekend, decided against a drink. There was no drinks menu, although a wine list was offered on request, which seemed an omission. The hotel also calls its restaurant boutique, which the dictionary suggests is sophisticated or fashionable. I do judge restaurants on their craft beer selection, but this is Italy, it is perhaps a little unfair to dwell on that. So, I didn’t. I’m prepared to agree with the hotel though, their restaurant is boutique.

    As we were waiting for the meals to arrive, Richard commented that someone’s food arrived in a plastic bag. I had a strong suspicion that he’d be getting a close-up of a similar meal shortly afterwards, which he did, as it was the sea bream fillet that I had ordered.

    The sea bream was served en papillote and the cooking was perfect, even if the presentation didn’t perhaps look entirely elegant. The fish was moist, tender and oozing with the flavour of the tomatoes served underneath it, without overpowering the meat. The capers, which are one of my favourite things and I’d have them served with nearly anything if I could, added texture and the black olives were soft and rich. This was one of those dishes that I didn’t want to stop, not because I was necessarily hungry, but because it was delightful.

    The potatoes which came with the sea bream were soft (bar one which was a little hard, but I won’t dwell), perhaps slightly buttery and they had a crisp edge to them.

    Richard’s antipasti of cured meats, cheeses, honey, jam and walnuts. He was pleased with this selection, although I suspect that he was right about the lack of sun-dried tomatoes being unfortunate, but everything on the plate was of a high quality and had a richness of taste. The honey, which I think it’s fair to say that Richard was moderately sceptical about, was a delight with the cheese.

    My caffe latte, which I think was served too hot, it’s rare to get it so hot on mainland Europe (it’s very easy to find that in the UK) that it’s hard to even hold the glass, but this one was. The richness of taste wasn’t there, but it tasted fine and Richard enjoyed his first experience of an Italian coffee in Italy.

    Then the bill came, which was just under £19 for one wine, one bottle of sparkling water, two mains and two coffees, with the restaurant generously not charging a coperto (a cover charge) despite providing two baskets of bread. I think that’s it fair to say that this is excellent value for money, making it just a little unfair to even mention any negatives. I left being reminded that there’s a world of hotels other than Accor and just a little disappointed that I had to leave.

  • Florence – Uffizi Gallery (Saint Luke the Evangelist)

    Florence – Uffizi Gallery (Saint Luke the Evangelist)

    The provenance of the artworks in the Uffizi is quite outstanding, although it’s not known which Franciscan church in Florence this was originally painted for. It was painted in around 1280 to 1290 and there’s a Poor Clare and a Franciscan friar at the saint’s feet. It was moved to Church of SS. Annunziata in the city at some stage, where it remained until 1881 when it came to the Uffizi Gallery. It was on display there until 1936, when it was moved to the Accademia Gallery.

    The painting arrived at Montegufoni Castle on 19 November 1942, taken there to protect it from damage or theft during the Second World War. It returned to the Accademia Gallery on 19 July 1945 and was moved to the Uffizi Gallery in August 1948, where it has remained since. It has been restored twice in the twentieth century and is now in Room 1 of the gallery’s collections. The artwork’s frame is original and it has vibrant colours, although how much of that is due to the restorations I’ll never know…..

  • Florence – There’s a Lot Here…..

    Richard has now arrived in Florence, ready to partake in some culture and history. I’ve already visited getting on for 15 museums and galleries and I think I have enough photos to ensure that I have something to write about for some considerable time….. But what a rather lovely city, history at every corner and it’s just about tolerable and comfortable in terms of how busy it is here and also the temperature. However, it’s February and I can only begin to imagine what it must be like during the summer months…

  • Florence – Uffizi Gallery (Madonna Pisa)

    Florence – Uffizi Gallery (Madonna Pisa)

    When I was in the National Gallery of Art in Bucharest last week I struggled on occasion to find out much about the artworks, either at the site or on-line. The Uffizi Gallery is the reverse, hundreds of their works have their own Wikipedia pages, research documents and endless commentaries about their heritage.

    This artwork was painted between 1250 and 1260, although some think it’s very slightly later, although it’s not known who the creator was, but it may have been Maestro della Sant’Agata. The painting is named after Luigi Pisa, who was a previous owner of the work, and whose heirs gave it to the Uffizi Gallery in 1933 and it has been on display since 1948.

    This was how the painting looked before 2015, in its unrestored state. Personally, as a non-art expert, I prefer this to how it looks now, it has heritage, authenticity and a sense of history to it. The current heavily restored painting is almost faultless, but I’m sure many like seeing how it might once have looked and it’s certainly now much cleaner.

    The Virgin Mary has long fingers and the gaze of Jesus and his mother deliberately don’t meet. The painting is in Room 1 of the Uffizi, a newly re-opened room which houses some of the oldest paintings which have mostly been recently restored.

  • Flights – London City Airport to Florence (British Airways)

    Flights – London City Airport to Florence (British Airways)

    This is the first time that I’ve flown from London City Airport, an accessible and easy to reach airport in east London with its own DLR stop. And I’ve liked the DLR ever since I lived next to one of the network’s stops a few years ago.

    One of the advantages of London City is that it’s relatively small and compact, so it’s possible to roll up around 45 minutes before a flight and still board in time. I can’t be taking those sort of chances though, but I didn’t go through security until two hours before my flight, which is cutting it very fine for me. The airport was comfortable and clean throughout, with an almost endless supply of power points and places to work from for those who needed that.

    There’s an extensive views of the airfield from the departures building.

    The walk to the aircraft went by the side of a building, with the nature of London City Airport meaning that there aren’t air bridges routinely used.

    Approaching the aircraft.

    I started off on an aisle seat on the seventh row, but there were some empty seats ahead, so a crew member said that I could move to a window seat on the fifth row. The aircraft was clean and comfortable, feeling slightly tired though, with this aircraft being G-LCYI which is an Embraer 170 which BA have owned since new in 2010.

    This flight left at 15:50, so there were some spectacular skies visible from the other side of the aircraft, they almost looked photoshopped in on this photo. But they’re not, I can’t use Photoshop….

    The CityFlyer service still comes with free food and drink, although I was unsure exactly what the choices were before boarding. They actually seemed to be generous, with Speedbird available which pleased me. I think there was Heineken as well, but the Brewdog/BA partnership that has led to Speedbird is IMO much better. And BA are releasing a new beer soon in partnership with Brewdog again, so hopefully this venture has been a useful one for both parties.

    The food was much better than I had expected, it was salmon on rice, along with a side salad, roll, cheese & crackers and a chocolate dessert. There was also a water thing served with it, although it was easy to get extra drinks from the bar from passing crew members.

    The crew were friendly throughout and their announcements, as well as those from the pilots, were professional and appropriate. The aircraft landed into Florence slightly early, with the whole process being seamless and well managed. It was a reminder of how BA used to be across their short-haul fleet though with the free food and drink, as it allowed an engagement between the crew and customers. Now, that engagement has been nearly entirely lost, and on most flights there’s nearly no connection between customers who don’t buy anything and the crew. It’s a shame, the crew are one of the best assets that BA have in my view, but I’m sure that Alex Cruz knows what he’s doing…..

    This, incidentally, is my 2,000th post on this blog. How lovely….

  • Bucharest – National Village Museum (Half Buried House)

    Bucharest – National Village Museum (Half Buried House)

    This half-buried house dates to the beginning of the nineteenth century and it was brought to the museum in 1949 from Drăghiceni, a town in the south-west of Romania. There are two functions to this sort of property, with the primary one being that this helps with keeping the temperature under control, so it would preserve the cold in summer, but also the warmth in winter. I’d note that Ibis have some hotels like that, although they preserve the heat in winter and the heat in summer, which can be most annoying. There was also a defensive element as well though (to the half-buried house, not Ibis), there were occasional Turkish raids and this sort of property was easier to defend. It wasn’t though a cheaper construction option, as building a half-buried property apparently uses more wood than building a traditional structure.

    This house was popular with children at the museum, who enjoyed climbing down into the property. The roof was constructed with oak planks and there would be a straw type finish on the top.

    That’s the step down.

    And there’s the entrance room. Behind this would have been the kitchen, and further into the structure would have been the living room. It seems to me to be quite a fun place to live as well, something a little different.

  • Bucharest – People’s Salvation Cathedral

    Bucharest – People’s Salvation Cathedral

    Work on this religious building started in 2007 and it’s starting to come to an end now and it will be the Romanian Orthodox Church’s Patriarchal Cathedral, replacing the current Metropolitan Church in Bucharest. It’s an enormous building and is visible from throughout the city, standing at 135 metres in height and it will be the largest Orthodox Church in the world by area. It has cost €400 million all told, a significant sum of money for any religious building.

    Its location is next to the ridiculous Palace of the Parliament building that was the pet project of Nicolae Ceaușescu, with this being a deliberate choice. Nicolae Ceaușescu had demolished great chunks of the city to build his new building, which included the demolition of three Orthodox churches and the moving of two other Orthodox churches. It’s sited on Spirea’s Hill, which is for the same reason that the Palace of the Parliament was built there, it’s at a high point of Bucharest and the project can be seen from far and wide.

    The cathedral is though controversial, there have been links made with the excesses of the Palace of the Parliament building and the cost is not insubstantial for a country that still has a long way to go on its economic road. However, there has long been a demand for this building within the church, they’ve faced economic difficulties, the Second World War and then communism, so it’s not as though they haven’t been patient.

    Inside the cathedral is going to be impressive as well in numerous ways, not least because it will have the world’s largest free-swinging church bell in it, but also because of a one-million piece mosaic standing 16 metres in height. The Pope came to visit the cathedral on 31 May 2019, and it will likely be a popular site to visit for tourists and locals. The cathedral will be able to seat 7,000 people, or 10,000 people can stand within it, with the wider site being able to cope with 125,000 visitors. There’s still a lot to do though, the full opening isn’t expected until 2023 or 2024, when this enormous construction project finally comes to an end.

  • Bucharest – National Village Museum (Swing)

    Bucharest – National Village Museum (Swing)

    This nifty swing is from Zăpodeni, in eastern Romanian near to the border with Moldova. It’s relatively modern for this museum, dating to the early twentieth century, and it was primarily used on major holidays. Traditionally, two boys would start the contraption going and they’d be rewarded with a gift, such as Easter Eggs at Easter. If I had a garden, perhaps I’d create something like this for Dylan and Leon, although I suspect they’d take one look at my handiwork and refuse to go on it.

  • Bucharest – Capitoline Wolf Statue

    Bucharest – Capitoline Wolf Statue

    Known locally as the Statuia Lupoaicei, this statue was given to the people of Romania in 1906 by the Government of Italy and is a copy of a similar one in Rome. The Italians gave statues like this to numerous countries and it depicts a wolf nurturing Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.

    For many years this was located at the Piata Romana (the Roman Square seemed an appropriate place for it), but it’s now at the intersection between Bulevardul Ion C. Brătianu and Strada Lipscani. There are over twenty-five Capitoline Wolf statues across Romania and I can’t imagine that any other country, with perhaps the obvious exception of Italy, has more.

  • Bucharest – Bucharest Airport (TAROM Business Lounge)

    Bucharest – Bucharest Airport (TAROM Business Lounge)

    There seem to be two airport lounges that Oneworld status customers can use, but apparently they’re very similar and this is the one that I found first. It’s clearly signed when walking towards the gates, up one set of escalators. The staff member at the reception desk was helpful and the sign-in process was quick and easy.

    The main corridor of the lounge, there is food and drink on both sides with the seating area at the rear.

    The lounge interior, all quite modern and airy in its decoration. I thought that the temperature was just a touch too hot when I visited, which was mid-February, so I suspect that it might be quite challenging in the summer months, unless they have some excellent air conditioning.

    There were some spirits, wines and soft drinks.

    The bulk of the food offering was really crisps and snacks, with a choice of three different flavours of crisps.

    I didn’t turn the crisps down, that would have been rude. The coffee was rather bitter, but the orange juice was flavoursome. There were also some sandwiches, which weren’t particularly a taste sensation if I’m being honest.

    This was the only beer available and I decided to give Ursus just one more chance, having had it at the Ibis hotel as the welcome drink. I’m pleased that it is consistent, it’s a truly awful beer in a can as well as on draught. Entirely devoid of flavour, taste or any complexity at all, it’s slightly pointless.

    In terms of dining, the airport has quite a strong array of options in their food court, so anyone wanting something more substantial would probably be better heading there. However, the selling point of this lounge is the relaxing environment and a place to get work done, with some excellent views of the runway. There weren’t very many power points around the lounge, although they did have charging stations where people could leave their phone to charge. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at leaving my phone, I worry about it…..

    There’s a smoking room at one end of the lounge, which was fortunately nowhere near me, although for reasons unknown to me, they allow vaping anywhere in the lounge. There aren’t any toilets within the lounge, but they are just a short walk around the corner and given that closeness, I’m surprised that they weren’t part of the lounge’s footprint to save guests leaving and returning.

    Anyway, the lounge was clean and comfortable, although certainly not exceptional in many other ways. The staff all seemed friendly and helpful, that added to the warmth of the atmosphere somewhat, so it was a comfortable place to spend a couple of hours. I’m not sure that I would have paid to get in the lounge though, unless someone wants a little privacy and quiet, it would probably be better to find a table at one of the restaurants in the airport’s food course. But, since this was free (well, as part of my ticket), I was entirely content.