Author: My Husband
So, I had some pretty good Italian food this past week. In fact, in the past several days, everywhere I looked, I could only see Italian restaurants. And no, I’m not writing about Commercial Drive. 
I’m writing about a city that is home to this lovely church…
In real life, Brunelleschi’s dome is really very imposing and impressive. I’m glad I took “Western Civilization” in high school.
… and this rather famous fella
Please accept my apologies if the photo causes any offence. However, I feel that David should be seen the way Michelangelo intended for him to be. This version is a replica that stands outside the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio. The real Michelangelo creation has been moved to the nearby Accademia Galleria to protect it from the elements.
If the title didn’t give it away, and if you guessed Florence, you’d be right. I was there on business this past week and I tried, as best I could, to experience the artistic and gastronomic delights that were in such abundance in this city.
On a previous visit to Florence, my wife and I stayed in the historic part of the city. We did a lot of touristy stuff and ate at many restaurants that were obviously targeted at tourists. While the food wasn’t bad, we also did not see many locals eating in those places. And locals must know the best places to eat, right? Thus, on this trip, I leveraged my Italian colleagues’ experience and had them take me to eat at their regular lunch and dinner spots.
For lunch, the we mostly went to little pizzerias. In these places, you would find a coffee bar, a refrigerated display case showing sandwiches and salads, and a small blackboard showing the specials of the day. You would tell the guy behind the display case what you wanted, and he would extract it from the case or relay the order to the kitchen. After this, you find your own seat and wait for your order to arrive. A waitress would come around to take your drink orders, deliver drinks and food, take orders for coffee, and deliver your bill. After finishing up your meal, you take your bill to the cash counter and pay for your meal. It is simple and efficient (once you figure out the process), and unlike the sit down restaurants, the food at these pizzerias are pretty reasonably priced.
So what does a pizzeria meal look like? Continue reading to find out. I did not see any other people snapping pictures of their food, so in order to not look like a business-suited loony, I had to surreptitiously take the following photos with my Blackberry. The thing about snapping photos with a Blackberry is that it looks just like you’re checking email!
There’s always a selection of sliced-up breads served. And in many places, different types of breads can be found in the basket. My Italian colleagues just eat the bread plain – no butter or olive oil required. They rip the bread into chunks and just start eating. I don’t know if unfinished bread is reused or not, but it’s best to not think too much about it.
After the breads, they would deliver the sandwiches, which were lightly toasted in the salamander before being delivered to the tables. These small and simple sandwiches – the likes of which included tomato/mozza or prosciutto/mozza – were delicious, proving that you don’t have to load up sandwiches like Dagwood Bumstead to make bread taste good.
If you ordered something from the kitchen, it would be delivered after the sandwiches. Like this simple pasta for instance…
This was a simple pasta dish tossed with a tomato/basil sauce. See how the sauce sticks to the pasta? This was delicious!
Two courses would – typically – be more than enough for lunch. How about dinner? We had our dinners in full-service restaurants where meals would follow a similar format.
First, a selection of sliced breads would be served. Then drinks would be delivered. Then the first course, which could be pasta…
like this pappardelle. The above was the best dish I had during the trip. While it looks deceptively simple, the pasta sauce was out-of-this-world good.
… or cured meats.
This is a classic prosciutto/cantaloupe first course. The prosciutto was buttery, not too salty, not too gamey, and not too sinewy. It’s hard to find prosciutto this good in Canada, yet it’s just considered “normal” stuff in Italy.
After the first course, it would be on to the second, which typically involves some sort of protein.
Like fish…
Some nicely crisp and flaky sea bass served on a bed of roasted vegetables.
… or steak
An angus filet served with a truffle sauce. Incidentally, I was quite disappointed with this dish; the truffle sauce smelled heavenly, but didn’t taste like anything. This must have been the “fake” African truffles…
One night, we left the office at 11pm and even a restaurant used to serving late dinners turned us away. So I slunked back to the hotel and managed to get the bar to make something up for me. I was not really hungry (hunger had come and gone hours ago), so I made do with a typical late night “snack”…
A gran piatto of cure meats comprising salami, braseola, and prosciutto accompanied by some cheese. I would recommend trying braseola if you can find it – the cured beef is even less stringy than prosciutto!
Did I mention I have a thing for Italian coffees? I ended every meal with a caffe like this…
Many Italians finish their meals with a caffe, as did I. My drink of choice was caffe macchiato, which is a shot of espresso doused with a teeny bit of milk and foam. A demi-tasse is what caffe macchiato is supposed to be served in – not a 12 oz Starbucks cup…
Foodwise, I had no complaints about this latest trip to Florence. Eating at places where the locals did really paid dividends as I ate well without having to break the bank…
But beyond the food, Florence is a really beautiful city, especially the historic part of town. Here are some photos which I hope you enjoy…
The facade of the famed Duomo, properly known as the Basilica de Santa Maria del Fiore.
Typical narrow cobblestoned streets in the historic part of the city.
A view of the Tuscan hills from the Arno River.
Florence’s famous Ponte Vecchio. Both sides of the bridge are lined with jewelers and goldsmiths.
And finally, like in many European cities, small is considered beautiful…
Smart cars are popular, as are the really cute Fiat 500s.
And I really got a kick out of this little commuter bus. Cute!!
And as always, I’ll end this travel post with a comment or two about the airline I flew on. This time it was Lufthansa, and I’d have to say that it was a positive experience. No, they didn’t provide SIA-level of service (who does? no, not even Emirates…), but they acquitted themselves very nicely with the crew’s professional demeanor, their food offerings (very edible) and comfortable seats. Good news then, since I have another long-haul flight with them coming up in November.
