To Second-to-Last Nights

My parents’ second-to-last day in Florence had arrived, and we began the day by meeting Pauline at her new hotel, Hotel Santa Maria Novella. We knew that we were going to lunch with her, but we had no idea where. With Pauline, it’s always an adventure! I was absolutely thrilled when she took us around the corner from her hotel to the famous Cantinetta Antinori Wine Bar, a location that has been on my to-do list since before I arrived in Florence.

The Antinori family has run a winery in the Tuscany region since 1385, and the family-owned company is now in its twenty-fifth generation. Amazing! They own villas and vineyards all over Tuscany, and also in Umbria and Puglia, and a palazzo in Florence. Although the palace is not open to the public (nor are any of their vineyards), they have transformed a portion of the palace into a wine bar, in which they serve their wines and an assortment of Tuscan dishes.

What made this lunch even more special is that a group of my International Business students actually studied the Antinori wine family and gave a presentation on the company to the class. I hope that before the semester is over, that I can arrange a wine tasting for them so that they can learn even more about this unique winery. Oh, yes, and the lunch was delicious!
But we weren’t quite through eating for the day! At 7:00 that evening, my parents and I met my colleagues Bob, Janet, and Rebecca at the Golden View Open Bar for dinner. (This has come to be quite the hangout for faculty and students alike! We even ran into Gillian and her two sisters, who are visiting from California). Also joining us were Rebecca’s two daughters, Leia and Keira, and her niece Lily. Lily, who has been visiting from New York for the past few weeks, was also heading back home on Thursday, so we toasted to “second-to-last nights.” If only the three of them could stay on until the end.