Florence, Italy - Palazzo Borghese Firenze

The tour group leader announced that it was now time to stop for lunch.  We made our way, in no way prepared for the luxurious setting that was to serve as our dining room.  We walked through the narrow streets and I longingly looked at the little side walk cafes.  (Thought: let's just stop here!)

We made a few twists and turns through the streets, looking at the buildings and admiring the different facades.

Since I had, yet again, no idea of where exactly we were walking, I snapped a quick shot of the street sign high on the side of the building.

We eventually entered the building and climbed a set of stairs off of the main entrance.  What was this place?  Suddenly we were surrounded by luxury!  Statues, gold fixtures, high painted ceilings. WOW!

Tables were elegantly set in a grand sort of room with incredible chandeliers. I was speechless (except for the "look at this, look at that" constant chatter!). I later found out that this room is named "The Monumental Gallery".  It sure was!

A closeup of one of those marvelous chandeliers.

We had red or white wine options...for lunch!  Our tables were all marked so that we would stay organized. We are with "Group 2".  Several other tour groups were dining in this hall.

The first course was a lasagna. It was so good, I could have eaten an entire plate filled with the pasta course.

The Florentine waiter (how do I know?  you know I'm just guessing) brought around a platter filled with food and served each one of us.

Spinach, green beans, potatoes and a meat.  Very good.

Dessert...tiramisu?  It was gone in a flash.  The meal finished with coffee and ended too soon.  Well, this place was quite a surprise and I still had no idea where I was.

I left the main dining area to find the powder room and snoop around a bit.  I found this "must have" for my house, a long red couch, in one of the drawing rooms "The Green Room".  Perfect!  (I know, the walls don't look green.  They have more green in the photo below.

The wallpaper was fancy, doors were fancy, other rooms were fancy.  This is looking through the door in to the "Red Room" drawing room.

I walked back down the steps to find my group, and was pleased to find a large carpet with the name of the "palace" on it.  To get a good overall view with delightful photographs, see this website.  You may want to turn off the sound since the music clip is very short and repeats over and over.

Very very very nice.  Food was awesome, service impeccable.  I am glad that we did this instead of a cafe, wouldn't you agree?