I have always wanted to travel to Italy, mostly for the food, and was lucky enough to spend two-weeks driving around Tuscany with my mom last April. Although the trip was amazing, it left me wanting more. But it just so happens that my twin sister Monica is studying abroad in none-other than Florence this semester....so obviously I had to visit her!
Last Sunday I set off to Pisa Airport (don't go to Pisa...don't say I didn't warn you) and travelled by train into Florence to meet up with Monica. On Monday morning I woke up ready to eat a weeks worth of food in just 2.5 days.
Below are some of the things I ate in one of my favorite places in the world.
TRATTORIA SOSTANZA
Like most bloggers do, of course I did deep research on the best places to eat in Florence. I found this authentic Trattoria from one of my favorite fellow Londoners, http://www.thelondoner.me/.
Every post I read about this restaurant insisted I try the "pollo al burro" which translates to "chicken in butter sauce." So that's exactly what we did. My god were we satisfied. We split the chicken dish and also ordered "pasta with meat sauce" which was heaven as well.
The family style seating allowed for us to meet new people and chat with them about other restaurants in town. We were sat next a woman from Switzerland who let me take a picture of her piece of cake! I'm not really sure what it was, but it looked good!!!!
LA PRIMERIA - IL MERCATO CENTRALE FIRENZE
I love a good market more than most things in the world. I'm pretty sure if someone were to find me somewhere in a random city, it would be a fresh food market. The central market in Florence is next level. The entire ground floor is filled with vendors of local delicacies such as truffles and olive oils, as well as fresh food vendors selling local meats and fish. The top level of the covered building is what I like to call a gourmet food court. Seriously, it's a thing of beauty.
I wandered around for a good hour before I decided on getting a pasta dish from La Primeria on the ground floor. The tiny little window is a bit hard to find, hidden deep in the middle of all the vendors. On the other side of the street food window was a counter selling freshly made pastas/raviolis that were being made right there. This is my heaven. I ended up getting the spinach and ricotta ravioli with a pomodoro sauce. Simple is always best. It was so good and SO cheap (5 euro!!!) that I almost considered going back for seconds 2 hours later. Unfortunately my stomach stopped me.
When my mom and I were in Tuscany last April we unfortunately only got to spend one meal in Florence. This meal was a panini from Panini Toscani and I hadn't stopped thinking about it since I ate it. Whenever I travel I like to follow one rule: never eat next to a tourist attraction. They are usually tourist traps, however this one is the ONLY exception. Located in a very touristy location next to the Duomo, the food is the opposite of something you would find in an overpriced cafe.
The owner lets you sample five different cheeses and three different meats, all from Tuscany. You then choose your bread and which number meat and cheese you preferred. I picked cheese 3, a young pecorino, and meat 1 which I think was a salami. You then got to pick from a variety of italian toppings such as roasted sweet peppers, eggplant, zucchini, arugula, and more. To finish off the masterpiece they stick it in a toaster (not a panini press, those are American) until it's nice and toasty.
I ate plenty more amazing food, but the pictures of the other foods were taken at night and are not blog material. I hope whatever I'm doing in the future allows me to visit this amazing country at least once more. Until then, enjoy these pictures from the streets of Florence.
Thanks for reading!!
-C.
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