La Terrazza

"La Terrazza" (The terrace)

I follow a blog by a fellow "slowtraveller" Sandra. Her blog is called, A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With ... Too Much Luggage . In one of her recent posts she talked about a familiar place that Aria introduced me to. It's a rooftop cafe called "La Terrazza". This is a small terrace cafe, only about ten small tables or so and it's on the 3rd or 4th floor, can't remember exactly which, in the department store La Rinascente in the heart of Florence. (1 Piazza della Repubblica; 39-055/219-113). It stays open all day. You can get a light lunch up there, soft drinks, wine even. But more important than what you can eat or drink, there is the "view." It is amazing. You get an incredibly close up view of the Duomo on one side of the terrace and from the other side, Piazza della Repubblica looms below. For a much better description of the surrounding area go to Sandra's blog. On the day that Aria and I were there it was a very cold,crisp February morning. The sun was out but our hands felt frozen. I said I wished for a hot chocolate, the kind they serve with red pepper on top. We were lucky because when we got there, there were some open tables. We were a bit unlucky though. They did not serve the peppery kind of hot chocolate I was thinking about. Oh, no matter. It was freezing cold so anything hot would be fine and I needed a cup of anything hot to wrap my hands around. And then of course there was that view. By the way, tuck this in the back of your mind: If you are in Florence in the midst of a hot summer day, Rinascente is a nice air conditioned oasis to pop into while shopping. They also have a convenient free restroom. Always something good to know in any foreign city.