Firenze Trip – Getting Fed

Continued from: Firenze Trip – Getting Culture

When one goes to Italy besides all of the things you might want to see or do, certainly tasting the local fare would be high on your list.  There are many foods and dishes Florence is famous for, obviously homemade pasta but also surprisingly beef steaks.  Unlike Amsterdam where every night, you can sample a different ethnic food, all of the restaurants we came across were predominantly Italian.  On our journeys we came across one Mexican restaurant, one Indian restaurant, and a couple of Chinese restaurants.  But even before going, I knew I wanted to only eat Italian food while in Florence.

As background, there are three main types of restaurants in Florence.  First is a Ristorante which is typically a higher end establishment easily identified by white linen tablecloths and fine China.  Next is a Trattoria which is a small, family-owned business where recipes have likely been passed down generation to generation.  The last is an Osteria which originally was a bar that did not serve food but has now transitioned to be more like a Trattoria, but retaining its often-rustic décor.  As you walk the streets, you will see these names prominently displayed at eateries and sometimes even incorporated into the name of the establishment.  During our stay, my wife and I dined at all three types.

Included with our hotel room was an extensive European style breakfast buffet so we started out each day there.  But then throughout the day, whether we were seeking a place to eat for lunch or dinner, we would walk up and check out the menu on display in the window.  Based on that we would decide to either stay or keep searching.

My brother had made one restaurant recommendation to us based on his trip in the spring which we did eat at but otherwise, it was just random how we came upon the places where we ate in Florence.  And we did not have one single bad meal.  But enough with words, I know you really want to see some food.

I mentioned our first night that we just ate sandwiches but our second night, we enjoyed a complementary three-course meal at our hotel that was included with our vacation package. Surprisingly, it was really a five-course meal as it came with two separate appetizers and two separate desserts.  For the main course, we selected their highly recommended beef steak.

It was more food than we could possibly eat as off to the right unseen, was the huge steak from which these slices were cut.

Eating like a true Italian, I had pasta at least once or twice a day.  I specifically wanted to try pasta with other than a traditional tomato-based sauce.  I found one that was so delicious it quickly became my absolute favorite, one with a white truffle sauce.  Ravioli is one of my favorite types of pasta and surprisingly these were stuffed with the creamiest mash potatoes you have ever tasted.

Pasta with this truffle sauce was so good I had it at three different restaurants, and all were excellent.

Another night, we really got off the beaten path and came across an Italian restaurant that did not even include an English translation on the menu.  The waiter translated it for us but sitting next to us was a young American woman, a flight attendant making her first trip to Europe, eating what looked like a delicious dish.  I said I’ll take what she is having making my selection very easy.

On the night we ate at my brother’s recommended restaurant…

… I took a break from pasta and had their delicious filet steak.

In many of these food photos, you will also notice a glass of wine although more accurately, each one is a glass of Chianti.  In fact, other than breakfast, I had Chianti with every lunch and dinner meal I ate. But why Chianti you ask?

I learned this on a 1/2-day bus trip we took to some wineries (more on that later) but Florence is at the very top of the edge of the Chianti region.  And just like Champagne wine being named for the Champagne region in France, Chianti wine is named for the Chianti region in Italy (i.e., the region is not named for the wine).  In the map above you will notice a light pink colored region and a dark rose colored region.  The pink is the Chianti region, and the dark rose is the Chianti Classico region.  Both are made predominantly from the Sangiovese grape, with the Classico having about 10% more Sangiovese and often more complexity in the taste.  And I learned from all my tastings that Classico is typically more expensive.

If you are like me and reached legal drinking age in the 70s, you may still recall terrible tasting bottles of Chianti in wicker baskets.  Those cheap, inferior wines ruined the name of Chianti.  But in the 1980s, stricter laws were put into place that ensured higher quality wines only.  And I can vouch for the superior taste in the wines we had at restaurants and those I bought for enjoying in our hotel room at night.  I paid between 9 and 50 Euros for each bottle of wine we drank, and they all were great.

And if you get a hankering for a nice glass of wine, while wandering the streets of Florence, all you need to do is run across one of these wine doors.

Simply knock on the little wooden door, and it will be quickly opened by someone who will sell you a glass of wine.

And what trip would be complete without trying Gelato which was actually invented in Florence.  We were told to look for the word Artigianale Gelato on the sign meaning artisanal homemade gelato.  We had it twice and it was delicious.

      To be continued…