If you are ever in Florence...

...go to Osteria de Pazzi, at Via dei Lavatoi, 3 R.

Much is said about Bistecca Fiorentina but honestly, I did not find much to it. It was simple steak.

However, I had this steak at Osteria de Pazzi, that was out of this world! Cannot remember the name for the life of me, but everything looked great.

If I find the card from the other restaurant where I had a memorable pork cutlet, I will post it.

Bal Harbour - Beware when driving through

Driving through Collins Avenue, in Bal Harbour, is very pleasant to me. I do enjoy the broad boulevard, beautiful trees and open spaces and gardens of that particular borough. The lights at night make it even more pleasant. However, if you are a visitor to Florida, or even a local, beware.

There is a traffic law in Florida, which I consider a good one, that calls for drivers to reduce the speeds of their cars when approaching a parked emergency vehicle with lights on. This is meant to protect the emergency workers, such as policemen, paramedics and firemen, as well as the people they are attending to.

As I say, it is a good law, when emergency vehicles are actually serving the public in an emergency.
However, the local police likes to place on the southbound lane two police cars with lights on, which are not attending to any emergency. An officer might stop your car way before it even approaches the emergency vehicles, flagging you with a flashlight. Guess what? They will tell you that you are supposed to reduce the speed upon approaching/ passing an emergency vehicle, and give you a hefty $106.00 ticket. This has happened to me.


There are two things wrong with the scenario. First of all, it seems clear that the law calls for the vehicle to reduce its speed upon approach and passing of the emergency vehicle. If you are a couple of blocks away from the police car you are not yet approaching the emergency vehicle. The violation would take place if the driver passed the emergency vehicle without slowing the speed, not way before reaching the police car. The driver must be given the opportunity to violate the law, before being stopped and given a ticket.

The second wrong scenario is that this law exists to protect emergency personnel and victims, in actual emergency situations, not to make revenue for the city. Placing two emergency vehicles which are basically doing nothing, but giving tickets, erroneously amounts to a light version of an immoral sting operation.
I suppose out-of-towners end up getting most tickets, and I really have no idea whether these ever get paid. Locals mostly dispute these in local Traffic Clinics.

I do believe that with the current real estate market debacle this type of practice might be even more pervasive. Thousands upon thousands of real estate properties are going on the auction block, foreclosed, and who knows whether real estate taxes are being paid on time. I guess they are not. As these constitute the brunt of taxes collected by local communities, there will be strong revenue shortfalls across the board, most specially in South Florida, where real estate speculation ran rampant in the last few years. Thus the need to make up for the revenue shortfall somewhere...

Cargo in Portland

I had always heard that the Pacific Northwest is an enclave of communists and activist left wingers in general. I am neither, in fact, I don't believe I fit any particular political label, so I don't mean this with any disrespect for anybody's political proclivities.

Thus I was not surprised to find a shop in the Pearl district Portland, Oregon called Cargo. The shop is a communist emporium, containing a vast variety of red paraphernalia, that will make a follower of Mao or Che Guevara cry and go on a shopping binge.

I found the place interesting due to the paradox of it all. The communist always took pride on being very pragmatic about consumption in general and being anti-religion. However, Cargo is stocked up with tons of useless goods, that seem to defy the communist consumption view and seem more fitting with capitalist merchandising and McDonald's giveaways, and it has an aura of religious temple, in which the main saints are the Maos and Lenins of this world.

I guess the joke is on somebody, I am not sure who!

Key Largo

The good thing about living in Florida is that there are tons of interesting short trips you can take, to diverse locales. I had always had a fascination for the Florida keys, so I had to visit Key Largo, having visited Key West a few years ago.

If you are a beach person only, don't come, you will be disappointed. The beaches in the keys are not that great, I guess they have been eroded away and destroyed by development. If you like the sea and nature, by all means, this is a nice place.

We stayed at a Ramada almost at the end of Key Largo. We booked the place for a couple nights on Hotels.com at $140.00. The rate was not bad. We were slightly shocked when we booked an extra night for $109.00, though. So much for the cheapest guarantee made by the website! The hotel itself was not a five star stretch by any margin, but the rooms were nice, with all amenities, and very clean. The swimming pool was small, but nice, plus they have a jacuzzi. I guess we will leave that for winter, though...

There are plenty of activities in the nearby keys, such as Islamorada. Tons of snorkeling and diving offerings. Make sure you book the best for your level of sea comfort.

There is a nice wild bird sanctuary nearby Islamorada, where pelicans walk beside you as if you are not there. Watch out, they might push you. If you are lucky you might get to feed them.

The Theater of the Sea is a must to visit. Beautiful surroundings, good shows and nice animals.
However, plan on arriving before 3 PM, as they will not sell you a ticket after that time. It would be nice if their ads said so. Also, the swimming with dolphin adventure has to be better planned.

Just don't think you are going to arrive there and one of 125 dolphins will be ready for you. Places are limited and will cost you $168.00 a pop. Don~t go there if you are allergic to cats!!!!
Make sure you visit Ballyhoos restaurant. The service is well meaning, but quite pitiftul and amateurish, the surroundings indifferent, but the fish is out of this world.

Delta's customer service is crummy too

Some days ago I wrote about a problem I had on an Alitalia flight going from Miami to Rome. It turned out this was a code sharing flight, I bought the three tickets on Delta, but the flight was operated by Alitalia.

Since Alitalia's response was less than adequate, I decided to write Delta.
Of course, no email was provided, just one of those web based forms. These are suspicious, if you ask me, because they barely ever work on my sites, or sometimes they work on and off. But
I got a receipt from Delta.

This was, in fact, the only thing I got from Delta.

It is nice and dandy to advertise to the world that you fly to places you really do not fly to - in essence, that is what code sharing is. So as an airline you reap the benefits of having an extensive network. However, with benefits come responsibilities. If Delta finds it suitable to call the Miami-Rome flight its own, the least it could do is respond to complaints about it.

No such luck.

So I guess I have to strike to airlines from my list of preferred suppliers, Alitalia AND Delta.

Miami Beach is a dangerous travel destination

Police statistics are sunny for MB. That is, if you consider robberies, murders and things of the sort.

The danger lies in something we, residents, are very much aware of.
If you come to MB and rent a car, you might be prone to a very bad experience. No, it is not car theft. It is theft of a different kind.

There are good many merchants that have parking lots in Miami Beach. These are mostly ungated, free access parking lots. Beware of them.

You will notice there are signs in all of these parking lots, warnings with the name of one or another towing company. These operators are supposed to protect the private property from non client abuse, in other words, people park in company "x"'s free parking lot, and go to company "y" to do business. You would think that if you go to do business in the company that owns the parking lot, nothing will happen to you. Think again, fast!

I just had a very bad experience with a towing company, and found out, from reading on the Internet and speaking to friends, that I am not alone. In fact, almost every local resident has a horror story involving these two companies. The two "accredited" towing truck operators apparently tow away many cars that are not violating any parking privileges every day.

I did not know this was a problem until it hit, me, and apparently, many others. For some reading on the matter seehttp://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2007/05/surprise_youve_been_towed.php http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2009/04/oh_the_endless_joys_of_being_t.phphttp://www.miaminewtimes.com/1998-09-03/news/parking-and-politics/7 http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2007/04/beach_towing_strikes_again.php

In other words, you are really playing games when you go to a CVS or Chase parking lot in Miami Beach, because a ruthless Towing operator might be looming around the corner, just expecting another sucker dish out as much as $225 for retrieving his car. And this can happen any time of the day or night, mind you, in South Beach, North Beach, anywhere within MB. Beware because another car, parked with a "permit" might be there as a bait.

The horror stories are so many on the Internet, that you would think, how come nothing gets done about it? Well, it seems that the City of MB makes $25 for every tow, which adds up to more than $300,000 a year from both operators, quite a nice piece of change. So what if a few thousand tourists and quite a few residents get taken, year in and out? The majority doesn't, so the party goes on, while these two towing company operators continue to get rich.
By the way, there is a towing bill of rights that requires two operators to accept two forms of payment. You probably guessed it - at least Beach only takes cash.

My advice to you - if you dream of coming to MB for vacation, do not rent a car. Sorry, Hertz, Budget and all car rental companies. If you must drive, go somewhere else, there are many other beach towns in Florida. If you do drive, there is a big chance these two towing companies will spoil your party.

Don't say nobody warned you.

Therein lies the institutionalized danger of Miami Beach.

New York Gastronomic memories

I suppose I am thinking more about food than I should, because I am trying to lose weight. This means I am eating less than normal of course. I have been thus far successful in my quest, however, thoughts about my favorite restaurants pop up here and there as a result of my undereating.

As I lived in New York for more than 20 years, of course most of memories are from the Big Apple. I was never a wealthy person (too bad) so it was very unlikely you would see me in the Russian Tea Room or Le Cirque. Moderately priced restaurants were, and remain, my thing.
The problem with this type of restaurant is that they do not last long. Places that easily extract more than $100 per client have a better chance of surviving in the long run, and are better investments for their owners, than simpler eateries. So I am writing this post about restaurants that are no longer around.

As I am Brazilian, I will start with my favorite Brazilian restaurant. The Brazilian Pavillion was the best Brazilian restaurant of the 80s, when run by Joaquin Gonzalez. Service was impeccable, and dishes such as Churrasco Oswaldo Aranha and Frango no Catupiry, memorable. Joaquin knew how to run a tight ship, and dining experiences there were consistently positive. Unfortunately, he did not repeat this with Brazil 2000, a restaurant he opened on the West Side, when he leased the Pavillion to another restaurateur. Brazil 2000 had its flaws, and some of the spark was gone. Then Joaquin decided to change cuisines, and opened an Italian restaurant mid-town. I never went there, I already had a large roster of Italian restaurants up my sleeve. Eventually he died, I believe in his early 60s.

Another Brazilian restaurant that was interesting was Brazil Brazil, in the Upper West Side, nearby the Museum of Natural History. For some reason, I vividly remember the sausage that was served as appetizer. The owners had run another place called Rio de Janeiro, on 57th Street, which did not last long. Brazil Brazil was somewhat on the expensive side for a Brazilian restaurant, with flashy decor, and did not last long.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cabana Carioca was not expensive. However, it seemed a bit run down, dirty even, and service was at best poor. The food was tasty, but the poorly kept, filthy bathroom made you wonder about what happened in the kitchen. This was one place I thought would never close, but close it did. My best memory from Cabana Carioca was that this was the place where I proposed to my wife, not that I really meant it to be that way.
Unfortunately, the place where we celebrated our marriage also closed, Arlecchino at Bleecker Street. The first time I ate there it was called Trattoria Villaggio, and it served the freshest tomato I have ever eaten. Then, it changed hands. The new owner, Cesare, was very lively, sometimes the caricature of an Italian, very flirty with the ladies and nice with the guys. He had a lot of charisma, and the food was consistently good. Eventually Cesare left, and the place lost some of its aura.


Another Italian place I liked was called Prego, on 6th Avenue and 56th Street. It served a pasta called orecchiete with escarole and sausage that was out of this world. I have not seen this at any other place. Again, as dishes were often priced less than 10 bucks, the restaurant obviously did not survive a lease renewal and it simply vanished.

Victors Cafe had a place in 71st Street. As I lived on the West Side for a while, I ate at that Cuban restaurant quite a few times - good vaca frita. The waiters were a bit nasty, but the food was consistently good, so it did not matter. They insisted on having a tenor singing from table to table, which was a bit annoying.

I believe the best, classiest Chinese restaurant I have been to in New York was called Peking Duck, on the West Side. I don't eat duck, because it is my favorite animal. However, every dish Peking Duck served was delectable, and light. The owner was a very classy lady, and service was better than average, especially for a Chinese restaurant.

On the East Side, there was a Chinese place called Hunan Park (there are probably hundreds of places with similar names...) located on Second Avenue and I believe, 76th Street. It had a peculiarity - it served free white wine with every meal, with refills! But the one thing that made the trip worthwhile was a dish called Chicken Star, which I have not found any place else.
I like Greek food, and we used to go to a place called Plaka, on Bleecker Street. The food was good, and the ambience very Greek. The owner used to have long arguments with his friends, and suddenly shift into a laughing mode. Very bipolar. The place was gone before the 90's, but later I found out that real good Greek food can be found in Astoria, not Manhattan.

There was a Mediterranean cuisine place called Cafe Ovo, on third Avenue, that served a wonderful brunch on Sundays. I liked to go there after church. They always had dishes with lentils, which I love. It did not last long...

Belgium, the land of comic books

You might have heard that Belgium is the land of comic books. It is indeed the one country in the world where comic books are still popular, perhaps only Japan can rival it. There are tons of current artists, making comic books of all sorts, for children, adolescents, adults.
Such love for comic books can be felt all over town, in the souvenir shops especially. If Tintin ran for president in Belgium, he would probably win! There is so much Tintin merchandise to put Disney to shame.

Comic books are not to be found in newspaper stands, which, by the way, are few in Brussels. They are really books, with hard binding and all. Serious stuff.
Since I like comic books, I had to visit at least one of the comic book emporiums. I visited two.
Before you get to excited, thinking you will find reissues of old American comic books, slow down. You will find mostly (90%, I would say) Belgian goodies, some Disney, some Japanese material. No Little Nemo in Slumberland, Captain America stuff there. At least I didn't find it, and I did look.
I did find French Michel Vaillant books, and bought this one, that seemed to have an interesting story.

Additionally, most material is in French and Dutch. There are small English language sections. For the record, I also bought some Tintin material, including a book that tells how each Tintin album was created.