My foodie experience in Florence

Florence- I would often get dreamy-eyed thinking about visiting the city. All the stories I had read of the city’s history, art and culture had intrigued me, and the fact that a conference was to be held in the city was a push to finally plan that trip.

Watching the sunset over the city of Florence was a beautiful experience

During my stay, I sure did walk around the city a lot, got lost a few times,spoke to several people- sometimes to ask for directions and sometimes just longer,deeper chats. While I have a lot of memories and pictures from Florence and Pisa, I’ll keep that for another post and for now, just focus on the delicious food I savored throughout my trip!

Although I don’t seem to have great pictures of all the food I devoured (I was probably too busy eating and drinking to take pictures), I still wanted to share my thoughts with you.

So, one of the most common street foods I found everywhere was ‘Lampredotto’. I spotted several carts selling this dish,more as a sandwich, and attracting a lot of crowd. The other popular street food seemed to be Trippa. However, since both of these dishes comprise of meat (more specifically innards), I could not try them out. I did hear a lot of praise for these dishes, so wanted to let you folks know.

Now, pizza and Italy go hand in hand, as is the case with Pasta. I was so excited to find the same kind of thin and delicious pizza everywhere in Florence! You can literally find good pizza anywhere in the city, I feel. Just out of curiosity, I looked up the history of Pizza, and apparently,it has deep roots. The ancient Greeks supposedly consumed a similar flat bread, with toppings, although the term “Pizza” is said to have been coined in Italy in 997 AD. “Pizza Margherita” or the modern adaptation of Pizza has its roots in Naples, in the 1800’s. Generally, I’ve heard a lot about the delicious pizzas in Naples; need to visit Naples at some point too! For some reason, the pizzas in Florence reminded me of the Tandoor items in India..

My half-eaten pizza

I had a lot of Pizza through the week; in the restaurant next to my hotel, at the Mercato Centrale (local market) and other random places I tried out in the city centre.

A friend of mine had visited Florence just a few months before me, and she suggested trying out a ‘Potato Pizza’ too. Potato Pizza? That sounded strange to me. It isn’t anything too fancy, she had told me; it can be found in small bakeries too and tastes really good.

So, while walking through the streets of Florence, I was looking out for places selling this pizza with potatoes, and came across a small shop doing so. They had a lot of different varieties of pizza, and it was possible to just buy a slice and pay according to it’s weight. I think my slice of potato pizza costed around 2 Euros or so, and it did taste quite good!

The slice of potato pizza.I was too hungry to wait and take a decent picture 🙁

Florence, being located in the Tuscany region, is also famous for the wines. What wines and food they have! I did attend a wine tasting event, where we were asked to try out each wine with the corresponding food items kept next to them.“You need to feel the taste of the wine.” The specific food items were supposed to enhance the flavour (and soothe your senses, err..if you ask me! ). I felt so bad later on for not taking any pictures at the event; but had an incredible experience.

Personal tip: If you happen to attend a wine tasting event, do not gulp down all 6 glasses in 30 minutes.Take your time to enjoy the taste and the ambience!

Tuscan wines

The next memorable experience I had was with Pasta. Pasta is obviously supposed to be good in Italy, but my friend had specifically recommended this restaurant called ‘Lo Scudo’ and said they had ” the best food ever”. This place was very close to the Duomo,which by the way, is a magnificent cathedral.

The Duomo in Florence

So, based on her suggestions, I ordered a blue-cheese pear tortellini,and it was so different from all the times I had eaten Pasta before! Lip smackingly delicious! Sorry again, for not having a beautiful picture of the dish.

The tastiest Pasta I’ve ever had

The other pastas were also good. Oh,and while you are there, you can ask them to recommend some of the house wines or other local wines that would go perfectly with your food.

All said and done, I couldn’t have left Florence without trying out some gelato! So many people on the internet have made huge lists of places you should try Gelato at, but due to lack of time, I just went into a gelateria near the Santa Maria Novella Church. There is really an abundance of Gelaterias in the city , but as my blogger friend Jasmine from Queste Dolce Vita recommends,

“Never go to ones where the colors look overly vibrant or where any flavors are written in English instead of Italian. Also, I never trust anywhere with elaborate cone towers or where the gelato is piled high, like mountainously high. When the gelato is genuinely good, nothing fancy is needed to advertise that it is. ”

She also posted a recipe for a mint gelato on her blog. Looks so tempting!

So many flavours to choose from! Picture source:Lee Brown Photography, adaynotwasted.com

And ofcourse, while you are in Italy, don’t forget to order coffee the Italian way! 

I suppose it really helps if you are aware of what food to try out , when visiting a new city. But otherwise, it is also very helpful if you take a food tour at the beginning of your trip. At the time of visiting Florence, I actually did not look up food tour options, but had an incredible experience with Devour Barcelona Food tours, when I visited Spain recently. I found the experience to be really one of the highlights of my stay, as I probably wouldn’t have gone to all those small places myself and got to know the stories behind this strong community of people living in the Gracia neighbourhood.

If you happen to visit Florence, you could consider trying out a food tour too. One option is the Emilia Delizia food tour,where you would be guided by a long-term expat(30 years!) in Florence. The tour lasts for 4 hours and costs 16 euros per person, taking only groups less than 8 people.

So, if you have visited Florence, do let me know what food you liked the most!Any tips for my next trip would be most welcome, although I feel I might visit Rome before a second trip to Florence happens. And if you have not visited Florence yet, what would you be most interested in doing in the city?I’m curious to know!

This post was in co-operation with Emilia Delizia. All opinions are, as usual, my own.

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