A Visit to the Gucci Museo

After the Bargello, I decided to walk back to my apartment via Piazza della Signoria. I stopped by my favorite fountain, because for once it was on (I can't believe it took me multiple weeks to see this everyday occurrence). A happenstance glance to my right left me looking at the Gucci Museo...so on a whim I decided to go in! What better way to spend my Saturday afternoon than taking in some fashion?

Located in the Palazzo della Mercanzia (which has existed since 1337), the Gucci Museum shares not only the history of the brand, but also the cultural heritage of the city. This notion of preservation is evident not only in the guild crests along its exterior wall, but also in frescoes and pieces of sculpture that have been encased in plexiglass behind various parts of the exhibit. To further this point, 50% of the private museum's six euro entry fee goes to the restoration of historical monuments in Florence. 

The exterior. Note the crests above the first row of windows!

Just upon walking in you are transported to a world of chic and clean-lined glamour. The predominantly black and white space channels everything that makes us love movies like The Devil Wears Prada. But here we're talking Gucci, and even the diamond print on the walls will let you know it. 

There's actually a very cool 46 second video on the Gucci Museum page that shows them putting the space together before its September 2011 opening. 

The museum is divided into six sections, starting with travel, which is what the company was originally known for. It discusses the branding of the company, how the travel and toiletry cases evolved, the red and green racing stripe, and other things. In fact, this "Travel" section, is so devoted to its topic that there's even a Gucci car here. 

Each section had a card with background information on the topic the room was choosing to explore!

Notice the nice little paragraphs!

Other sections included lifestyle, logomania, evening, sport, handbags, flora, and precious. The "evening" section was breathtaking with red carpet gowns worn by the likes of Kate Beckinsale and Hilary Swank. The lifestyle section even had two Gucci surfboards (now those are something I'd like to see people actually use). 

As I entered the flora section, dedicated to the iconic pattern and Grace Kelly, one of the many workers decided to talk to me. For a while, I had been annoyed as they consistently shadow the visitor in a somewhat suspicious way, taking away from my enjoyment at taking in the museum (mind you, I was only staring through glass cases and reading labels). However, this woman was very nice and attempted to tell me about what I was seeing (bamboo handled bags, the print, the use of raffia, etc.). The one problem was that she did not speak English. Through pointing and my broken Italian, I somehow managed to understand most of what she told me though. Pretty cool. 

While the museum is mainly dedicated to the brand, it also contains a contemporary art exhibit, a café, a bookstore, and a library. The contemporary art exhibit is funded by Francois Pinault (of PPR/The Gucci Group). When I went, it was showing three works by Paul Fryer. One of Ophelia in her drowning moment (entitled Ophelia), one of a black egg floating above of a crown of thorns (entitled Ecce Homo), and one of Jesus in an electrical chair (Pietà). The space itself was very creepy with the pieces iridescently lit. My one complaint is that you can't walk around them even though they're not against the walls. It hinders completely viewing the artwork. 

Inside the café space. 

They have indoor and outdoor seating! I feel like whenever I need a dose of chic, I'll be coming here. 

After my museum trip I did not want to leave the space and the world of Gucci, so I stuck around and explored the bookstore, café, and library. The bookstore sells some Gucci Museo merchandise, but mostly art/fashion/architecture/film books. The library offers complimentary iPad use and access to all of its books. They don't mind if you just sit in there and read. The café has outdoor and indoor seating, but I decided to stand at the bar and have a cappuccino with whipped cream. Now that's what I call a good way to start the day. 

The Bargello - Part Two

Because I refuse to stop going, going, going while here, I ended up going to not one, but four museums on the same weekend as Cinque Terre. 

My Saturday morning started off at the Bargello to get a better look at the istoriato maiolica exhibit. I took my time to watch the video on how maiolica is made and to walk around and find my favorite piece. I particularly liked the highly ornamented wash basins. 

After checking it out, I decided to make the most of my visit and look through the rest of the museum. I went back to the Donatello room to study my favorite pieces more carefully (I'm started to recognize the various materials that statues are made out of!) and then wandered the rest of the halls. 

There are pieces of a fountain on the ground level courtyard that I wish could be put back together into their original water-baring fountain. The fountain was designed by Bartolomeo Ammannati. Originally conceived for the Sala Grande in the Palazzo Vecchio, the fountain found its way to the Boboli gardens. There its pieces were dispersed throughout the landscape until the 17th century. And today it is put back together (sans water) along the back of the Bargello courtyard's center wall. 

The "reconstructed" fountain.

Next I stared at Pietro Francavilla's Jason, standing over the dragon he slew and holding the golden fleece. 

My viewpoint. 

Other favorites included a case of jewelry and an ivory chess board by the Italian school. My one qualm as I explored these treasures and their surrounding rooms was that for the more "obscure" pieces, the Bargello museum labels were only in Italian. A rather hindersome affair for someone who did not purchase the audio tour and who is just starting to pick up a decent bit of Italian. 

Gelato in Florence

While we're on the subject of food, I might as well enlighten you. My friends and I have come to adore a select few gelato places around town.

It seems that the base requirements for Italian gelato are that it contains at least 3.5% butterfat and that it has 16-24% sugar. It normally contains milk, cream, sugar, and flavoring (either in the form of fresh fruit, nut puree, or cocoa powder, among others), although I've seen a dark chocolate gelato made with olive oil instead of milk. Now that is some heavy duty dark chocolate.

Gelato supposedly made its way to Florence during the time of the Medici family, but it didn't gain Italian popularity until the first gelato cart appeared in Varese in the 1920s.

Today, as I walk the streets of Florence, gelato is more abundant on the streets than Starbucks is in New York. Another cool fact? Gelato is still more individually made by shops here than industrially produced and imported.

My friend David happens to be partial to Vivoli (he has indeed gotten multiple large cups in one sitting...his other goal is to try all of the 33 flavors there individually/not sharing cups), the rest of us have come to prefer Gelateria La Carraia and Grom.

On any given night, Gelateria La Carraia (located two bridges to the right of the Ponte Vecchio) is packed. Outside there are streams of local young adults and inside there's almost always a line (it goes quickly though). Their flavor du jour seems to be "cookies," but their chocolate is also sublime. Personally though, I find that their fruit flavors just miss.

Who wouldn't want to eat gelato while looking out at this view?

Then there's Grom. Being a "chain" gelato store, you would think that Grom should be sub-par compared to some of the more local joints. However, even looking at how they store their gelato, you can tell it's going to be good. Instead of having colorful mounds of gelato piled high in cases for visitors to see, Grom's gelato is in dark metal containers with lids and temperature gages. Grom was founded in 2003 and offers flavors such as Crema di Grom (their cookie-like flavor) and blueberry (which seems to be a rare fruit flavor finding here). Next time, I want to try their nougat flavor.

Trattoria da Ginone

What does one do after coming back from a day at Cinque Terre? Joins the friends who didn't go for dinner, of course!

As if I hadn't already eaten enough for the day, I decided to embark on my first trip to the Oltrarno (the other side of the Arno River) for a Trip Advisor approved meal.

Trattoria da Ginone is about two bridges to the right of the Ponte Vecchio and was filled with locals. In fact, it was so packed that our lack of reservation for a party of five had us waiting for 20 minutes. And I will say that the waiting was worth it.

Trattoria da Ginone from our outside waiting perch. 

My roommate Veronica and I decided to get two different things to split (why not try more for the price of one?!). Our choices were pappardelle with wild boar sauce (this time the wild boar had a pulled pork quality to it) and risotto with truffles. I also recommend the house red, but that seems to be the case in almost every Italian restaurant I go to.

I forgot to take a picture while it still looked appetizing. 

For dessert, our group of five decided to split three desserts: a blackberry torte, crème brûlée, and a chocolate cake. The crème brûlée was definitely the weak point, but then again it's also a french dessert that we chose to have in Italy. The blackberry torte was my personal favorite, if you ever choose to go (but watch out, because desserts progressively leave the menu as the night goes on and they get gobbled up!).

Blackberry Torte

Our lovely crème brûlée

Chocolate Cake!

Cinque Terre - Monterosso

I think they may have given us a bit of extra time for lunch, because we veered from our original four town itinerary and made it a three town one. If that meant food and getting to swim in the Ligurian Sea, then I didn't have a problem with it.

Even the view from the train tracks was beautiful. 

The train station!

We hopped the train from Manarola to Monterosso and entered a quaint beach town oasis. For five euro we each got our own awesome beach chair (Viareggio style with the shade that can be pulled up and adjusted) and access to the water.

Taking in the fresh air and the incredible blue hues, I sat back for a moment and wondered how this could be real life. Then I booked it to the water.

I'm pretty sure that it was my best salt-water swimming experience. The water was clear and you could see the bottom no matter how far you swam out. It was cool, but refreshing. The salt content also must have been pretty high, as floating was no problem. In fact, if I kicked my legs while swimming, my lower body would go up too high.

Views from the beach!

While we were here, we also so an old woman get a truly full-body massage from one of the massage-peddlers on the beach. 

After our half hour swim, we sat and dried off. One of my friends stepped on a sea urchin while jumping off of the rocks near the water and we had to talk to the Italian beach manager to get a needle and tweezers for her (ouch!). Somewhere in here I also found the time to call my dad with a "Greetings from Cinque Terre!" opener.

What's the best way to ease that sea urchin pain? Gelato. While it's not the best that I've had in Italy, the beachside gelato shack offered more fruit flavors than I had seen anywhere else. So I decided to try pink grapefruit. And you know what? It really did taste like it.

GELATO! It never ceases to make me happy. 

Trattoria Locanda il Porticciolo

After the hike, we had all worked up quite an appetite. So, we decided to enter the main "center" of Manarola and pick a place to eat. The jolly pink wall color of Trattoria Locanda il Porticciolo drew us in and the seafood made us never forget it. In fact, we still talk about how amazing this meal was and I count it as one of the best I've had while abroad.

An interior shot of the happy, but simple Trattoria. 

The back wall was cute. 

It started off with a spritz. The orange drink contains prosecco, aperol, and soda water. As we had seen it in almost every town so far (and as we had heard that it's the drink of choice among locals), we decided to give it a shot. Personally, I was not a huge fan, but two of my friends were. To each his own, I guess.

Spritz!

After chowing down on some lackluster bread (the lack of salt in bread here is somewhat unfortunate), the main even arrived: seafood pasta.

I've been taking a kind of "go big or go home" approach to food here and breaking out of my picky/scared eater shell. At this point I only knew that I liked shrimp and fried calamari (and langoustines from Venice)...but I dared to order the seafood pasta and oh what a marvelous choice it was. It had octopus (mini-sized with all the legs still attached), clams, mussels, shrimp, and non-fried squid. Add whatever butter sauce was on it and you have heaven. Yum.

Manarola - Some Horizontal Views

When I said the Manarola cemetery had a wonderful view, I meant it. 

A man collecting grapes on the hillside. 

A famed spot in Manarola: The Church of San Lorenzo. 

One of the many views in town. It seemed as if no matter where you turned, Cinque Terre offered an incredible sight. 

Manarola - Come on a hike with me!

I could go into long descriptions of all of the incredible sights and narrow stairs that I was talking about, but I feel like I might do them better justice through images. After all, a picture can speak a thousand words, right?

Looking back at Manarola

 I just really liked this statue. 

Our tour guide said with a chuckle that they like putting their cemeteries in spots with beautiful views, but it really was something to see. Supposedly, the bodies of those "buried" here are removed after ten years when their bones are brought to a type of communal boneyard. 

Up the narrow stairs we went. 

Manarola from the vineyards. 

I wasn't kidding about this hilltop vineyard thing here. With one of their largest industries being wine, they had to find a way to cultivate grapes on the treacherous landscape. 

One of the bell towers in Manarola. 

Cinque Terre - Entering Manarola

Down the Lover's Path we went until Manarola rose up before us. The next of the five villages, Manarola is considered to be the oldest and is known for its Church of San Lorenzo, its fishing industry, and its wine.

When I say industry, it's not in the sense that you would normally think. According to our guide, there is approximately one appointed fisherman per town. How he manages to catch all of the fish that goes around the restaurants makes me question this.

The first thing you see on the approach is a few colorful houses built into the mountainous landscape. The train station to the left seems unreal with the perfectly blue water that laps up against the platform's wall.

Manarola in the mountain. 

The train station. 

Before getting our two hours of free time in the town (for a nice Italian lunch), we went on a hike. And when I say hike, I truly mean it. Think of hills, ground that falls out from beneath your feet along the stacked vineyards (I have the bruises and scrapes to prove it), and narrow stairs.

The vantage points, however, were magnificent.

Swimming pools Cinque Terre-style?

Manarola behind me!

Me, Abby, Jessie, and Lily!

Cinque Terre - Views from La Via Dell'Amore

You legitimately could see for miles upon miles. This picture doesn't even cover it (but you can click it to enlarge it!). 

Another view of the path.

Zooming in even further. 

Cinque Terre - La Via Dell'Amore

While one of my roommates opted for the 5K hike when she visited Cinque Terre with her mother, our group decided to mainly travel by train instead. One of our few "hiking" endeavors took place along la via dell'amore (a.k.a. the "lover's walk").

The entrance to La Via Dell'Amore

Before the walk was built, the only way to travel to Riomaggiore from one of the other four villages was to hike over the hilly landscape. As Riomaggiore housed many of the major institutions for the five towns (banks, markets, school, etc.), citizens would make the trek daily. School children would have to factor in a two hour commute to class.

After a while, the citizens of Riomaggiore and Manarola came together to build the lover's walk. How did it get this name? Benches were built along the pathway and given certain names. Town boys and girls would agree to meet at specific benches for their "dates." Today, you see many lovelocks (similar to the ones I wrote about while in Paris on the Pont des Arts) along the path, sealing couples' love for eternity.

One of the many benches. As per the white plaque on the left, this spot's name is "Penelope."

Greetings from La Via Dell'Amore! This is the most famous spot to put a lock along the path (and that's one of my roommates on the right!).

On the day we were there, the air was so fresh and clear that in the distance (according to our guide) we could even see France. With the sky a perfect blue and the water an even more exquisite shade (my favorite color, if you didn't know), I couldn't help but keep looking back at the exquisite and growing landscape.

The path along the water. 

Cinque Terre - Even More Views of Riomaggiore

A more full view of the beach (click to enlarge!).

Greetings again!