Piazza del Duomo

Florence in winter is a delight. You can get even into the Uffizi without queuing. Stand quietly in front of your favourite paintings or frescos for as long as you like without crowds around you all the time.  And when you feel like feeding body rather than soul, get into decent restaurants which are half-empty. It can certainly be cold: but with luck, you’ll be able to walk around under blue skies. We hadn’t expected snow, though! Nor had the Florentines, judging by the way everything ground to a complete halt for a day. But it did all look wonderful.

If you happen to be in Tuscany before January 23, do go to the Bronzino exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi. It is a unique opportunity to see some 80% of Bronzino’s surviving paintings together. And the exhibition is quite beautifully put together and wonderfully presented (the contrast with the Uffizi’s dreadfully drear hanging could hardly be greater). And if you have the chance, get yourself on one of the weekly tours of the Contini Bonacossi collection acquired by the Uffizi a dozen years ago and still not on general display. It includes the wonderful Veronese portrait of Iseppo da Porto and his young son which we liked so much at the Louvre last year.

We ate well (surprise, surprise). These are the three places we’ll definitely go back to (and they will still be there after January 23rd, so make a note!):

• Cibrèino (Trattoria Cibrèo) Via de’ Macci 122/r. This shares a kitchen of the very expensive Cibrèo restaurant next door: but you will eat as well for less than half the price. (You can’t book, and might have to share a table if there are only two of you.)
• Olio & Convivium Via Santo Spirito 4. A modern take on Tuscan food — we liked the atmosphere, the food, and the stunning wine list.
• Cantinetta dei Verrazzano Via dei Tavolini, 18/r. Fantastic place if you want a light (not cheap!) lunch.

But there are far worse places to be forced to stay a couple more days than planned. The galleries and the churches were still open more or less when they were supposed to be; the restaurants still a delight; and our welcoming and very comfortable hotel had no problem letting us stay on a couple of days (and we indeed had the very room that was used in the film A Room With a View: here’s the Ponte Vecchio from our terrace, the day after the snow.)

There were of course other tourists still around; but we were a sprinkling among real Florence out and about doing its Christmas shopping. Even the Uffizi was quiet. Still, after six nights, you begin to suffer from visual overload, and even I find that the thought of yet another meal out begins to pall. So it was good to get back last night to an equally snowy Cambridge.

And I just love the sound of the language. Must be all those hours and hours spent once upon a time in Cambridge cinemas, at a very impressionable age, watching the likes of Monica Vitti (pictured!).

• Fèlsina, Beradenga Chianti Classico ’05 (*). Still a bit closed(?) but opens up nicely after a few hours. I can get this in Cambridge and maybe I’ll put a few bottles under the stairs for a while. (Felsina’s recent top wines are by all accounts amazing, but we didn’t splash out this trip. I was going to say that this is their entry level wine. But actually, you go round the back of their winery, and can get last year’s unbottled at 1.80 euro a litre into your plastic box, and that’s pretty good too!)
• Fèlsina, Beradenga I Sistri ’05 (*). Their chardonnay: very different from New World chardonnays and indeed from French ones. But I thought the ’04 we had last year was better. This is just a bit too heavy perhaps with surprisingly little nose. (But I’ve bought another bottle here, just to check, you understand …)
• Poggio Bonelli, Chianti Classico ’01 (later years get * or **). This was recommended by our local restaurant, and comes from just down the road. Inexpensive but perhaps the best Chianti we drank all month. The bottle age made it very rounded, almost unusually smooth for sangiovese, without losing character. Excellent!
• San Felice, Chianti Classico ’05 (*). Rather undistinguished, I thought, though others thought it better of it. Maybe I was just getting picky.
• San Felice, Il Grigio, Chianti Classico Riserva ’04 (*). Rather better but again I wasn’t particularly impressed.
• San Felice, Pugnitello ['04 I think]. Now this was something else. “Rediscovered” old Tuscan grape-variety. Quite excellent. Purple, complex, very full in the mouth, but not overwhelming. Very drinkable!
• Ricasoli, Castello di Brolio, Chianti Classico ’04 (***). Very good indeed. A quintessential “modern” Chianti. (I suppose you might say it was a bit “middle of the road”, but it has enough character and texture — and I bet will be terrific in a few years).
• Dievole, La Vendemmia Chianti Classico ’05 (*). Gambero Rosso says “easy drinking”, and yes, it was. Good for a light meal.
• Dievole, Broccato ['04 I think] (*). This is a sangiovese blend, much fuller bodied. I think the Gambero Rosso underestimated this. Excellent for a heavier Tuscan meal! (An honourable mention too, by the way, to Dievole’s Rosato, which is terrific hot-weather quaffing wine — which we’d have drunk more of if the weather had been better.)
• Villa Arceno, Chianti Classico ’05 (*). This is the really local wine, which our restaurant gives you as their wine-by-the-glass. Nothing outstanding, but as-it-were essence of good-ordinary-Chianti.
• Lornano, Commendator Enrico ’04 (**). Sangiovese/merlot which we usually drink at the Bottega di Lornano. Seriously good for accompanying Tuscan-style food.
• Castello del Terriccio, Lupicaia ’04 (***). No. Philosophers aren’t paid that much. This was by courtesy of a very generous son-in-law! Even so young was sumptuous. Classic. Words fail. And in a few more years must be unbelievable. (Drank this at Bottega del 30, surely one of the best restaurants in the world, just a couple of miles away. Sigh.)

Siena itself is like Cambridge at least in this respect: the tourists tend to stick to a small part of the city. So it can be very busy round the Campo and the Duomo. But other sights, even those the guide books warmly praise, can be more or less deserted. We did make one nice discovery a couple of days ago when it was dry in the afternoon. We found ourselves at the botanical gardens which we’d never visited before (and, predictably, they were more or less empty of people). They are very fine, cool under the trees, tumble down a steep slope, and so the views out of the city are beautiful. Recommended.

The trees have been brutalized since last year, obviously scaring the living daylight out of them, and as a result they are beginning to fruit like mad. I can report that the local olive oils vary, but from merely very good indeed to the amazing. (And judging from the ages on the gravestones in the village cemetery, they must have magically life-extending properties.)

Meanwhile, we went yesterday to the Archivio di Stato in Siena (which does guided visits three times a morning). The interest there — apart from the great ranks of volumes of documents — is an exhibition of the Tavolette di Biccherna. These are painted wooden panels that were produced as covers for bundles of civic account books, starting in 1258 with the practice continuing to the eighteenth century. The earlier ones, in particular, are fascinating (particularly interesting to see secular art of the time). Very definitely worth a visit: we enjoyed it great deal. There were exactly two other people there when we went.

As always, the last mile or so climbing up to Montalcino itself was stunning, worth the journey in itself. (And if, when you get there, you want somewhere to eat more than a snack but less than a big lunch, try the Enoteca Osteria Osticcio in Via Matteoti. The tables inside at the back have the most wonderful panoramic views over miles and miles of countryside, the people are friendly, and food very good.)