The Brandt Blog

After flying in just one week ago for a fun-filled, fleet-footed, family romp through Firenze … the time to bid, “ARRIVEDERCI” to Maddie and Blake arrived all too quickly. And so it was done. At 4:20am Saturday morning the driver escorted the zombie-walking and Flo-filled couple with their overstuffed suitcases into the minibus thereby reducing […]

With everyone together again it’s just like Christmas morning except without the jammies; that, and we’re gathered in someone else’s home – – – in Italy. We’re just as excited and running a frenetic holiday-esque pace as we go about fitting our lofty ambitions and long to-do list into a fixed time frame. Here is […]

One thing about ancient buildings and structures that’s easy to forget – maybe because of the wonder and awe they conjure up – is that they usually were embellished with beautiful art. Long since lost to the ages or invading hordes were: statues, friezes, tapestries, frescoes, paintings, woodwork, metalwork and more that all combined to […]

I’ve walked or ridden by these bridges what feels like 50x since landing in Firenze. Today while taking an easy ride heading from West to East they were especially eye-grabbing. The names of each crossing (In order of their River-bound alignment) are: Ponte Alla Carraia (1944), Ponte Santa Trinitá (1944) and the Big Daddy of […]

After 42 days of living La Dolce Vida (and also La Pasta Vida… and La Vino Vida… and La Baccala Vida etc.) in Firenze, we’ve officially reached the halfway point of our self-titled, “Residenza” (as opposed to this being a vacation). To be sure, there are many, MANY people, places and things that we miss […]

Here are a couple of action shots demonstrating the expert cooking techniques learned during our two weeks with Anna and Simona. First, Anne is making the veal/beef/pork Ragù for the lasagne… a little while later at the same cook station I’m making crepes for the Crespella alla Fiorentina. By the time we return to the […]

Who’d ever have imagined that steamed and macerated turnip greens would create the foundation of a tasty gnocchi/pasta sauce? Well, here’s my lovely emoglie and burgeoning chef-de-cuisine expertly driving the tasty, leafy greens into immersion blender under the careful guidance of our teacher, Anna. “Not too much – add some oil – that’s good!” Simple. […]

Here’s a post for our Obsessive Compulsive blog followers (it most definitely takes one to know one) based on the once-in-a-century numerical date string of the day. My ride on Route 222 clocked in at 2:22:22 this ‘Tues’-day 2/22/22. I stopped twice for (what else??) two double-espressos. Today = TUTTO 2 (everything is 2). Ciao! […]

The Brandt Home during my impressionable and pre-adolescent 1970’s was an ABC-TV family. Schoolhouse Rock, SuperFriends, Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Welcome Back Kotter and The Love Boat made up our broadcast banquet table. This is not to deny occasionally tuning into other network programming. We watched CBS broadcast the Walter Payton Bears on Sundays, […]

Part 2 – Cycling Using the tired but true cliché that 1 pic = 1000 words and excluding my quippy yet informative captions; here are 24,000 words about why cycling in Tuscany is on (to use maybe an even more tired cliché?) every rider’s bucket list. In humble objectivity, I can’t speak for every cyclista […]