The genuine Florence is “Oltrarno” (on the other side of Arno river).
“Oltrarno” is the area of Florence where Pitti Palace and the Basilica of Santo Spirito are situated.
This quarter is the only one preserving the true atmosphere of Florence.

There you’ll find the daily Florentine life: artisan workshops, centuries old jobs and traditions, typical restaurants and café with special recipes that every Florentine eats at home and that are not usually offered by restaurants…

En example? Sant’Agostino 23, a Florentine trattoria.
In this typical restaurant you’ll have the chance to taste what my 100 percent Florentine mom used to cook for me…

Italian version

If you want to taste a Tuscan specialty you can come in Florence and taste the original or try to make it on your own!
If you want to prepare ribollita, this is the recipe I found on Italian cuisine.

“Ribollita is a classic Tuscan soup that’s made with stale bread, so it’s very filling. Poor country people didn’t waste anything - and this was a great way of using up leftovers.
The name ribollita means ‘re-boiled’ and it would have been reheated day after day – increasing in flavour each time. There are different versions of the recipe, but the main ingredients are: stale bread, cannellini (white) beans and green leafy vegetables - some versions also add sausage or prosciutto. Adapt the recipe below to your taste.

Ingredients:

1 small green cabbage
4-5 handfuls of other green leafy vegetables (I like cavolo nero best)
1 leek
1 stick of celery
2 carrots
1 large tomato
1 large onion (red is best)
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic (optional)
6-8 slices of stale white bread (Italian if possible)
250-300 grams (around 8.8-10.6 ounces) of cannellini (white) beans – pre cooked or canned
salt, pepper
About 1.2 litres (around 5.2 cups) cold water
4 Italian sausages (chopped) or 2 slices of prosciutto (optional)

Method

Roughly chop all the vegetables. Dice the onion, sauté it in a little olive oil (amount can vary to your taste). Crush or slice the garlic and add to the oil, soften it, then add all the vegetables. Let them soften gently too.
Add the water, (if you’re using meat you can add it at this stage) bring it to the boil, then let it all simmer for around 1 and a half hours. Add more water if desired. Stir in the beans, season with salt and pepper, and add the sliced bread.
Let it boil for 10 minutes, then serve – perhaps drizzled with more olive oil and sprinkled with Parmesan.
An alternative method is not to add the bread to the soup as it cooks, but to use the slices to line the tureen or bowl. The soup is then poured on top of it and soaks in.
Warming and satisfying on a chilly winter’s day.”

But if you want to taste the original first, try out Lo Scudo Restaurant, in Florence.
Just few steps from the Santa Maria del Fiore Dome, this restaurant offers Italian traditional cuisine, and typical Tuscan and Florentine recipes.

Italian version.

Ristorante Lo Scudo
Via dell’Oriuolo 53r - Florence

As you well know, food is really important for Italian people and, if you want to say that you visited Rome, you have to taste what they use to cook there: ancient recipes and typical flavors.

If you want to eat what Romans eat, try Osteria Le Streghe.
It’s a restaurant in the centre of Rome, but not in a tourist area.
It is a real Italian trattoria, that offers typical Roman specialties.
It’s perfect for those who want to really live Rome and its traditions, without dining in tourist restaurants.

Italian version.

Belcore is one of the main characters of the melodramma giocoso “L’elisir d’amore” by Gaetano Donizzetti. “L’elisir d’amore” contains the popular aria “Una furtiva lagrima” (also used by Woody Allen) and is one of the 20 most performed operas in North America.

Ristorante Belcore’s history could be told as that of the character from whom the restaurant takes its name. Belcore is similar to a Don Juan, suave and persuasive. He is a seducer.

Abdel is the host of this hidden island in the heart of Florence. This restaurant offers a culinary adventure through the flavors of creative cuisine, also offering themed dinners and exotic flavors.

Belcore Restaurant is decorated with paintings and mosaics by young artists, and after dinner is the perfect place to drink something at the wine bar.

Italian version.

Business lunches in Florence | Restaurants in Florence | Restaurants in the center of Florence | vegetarian cuisine

If you are planning to visit Florence, even if just for a week end, I advice to book a hotel in the city centre.
A central accommodation is perfect for who wants to visit the city by foot, without needing buses: for the one that wants to go round and round without the fear of arriving behind schedule.

Moreover, in the historic centre you can find a hotel made inside an historic palace.
The Hotel Santa Croce, for example, is situated in an ancient area of Florence, where there’s the Basilica of Santa Croce, and has created an ancient Florentine atmosphere also on its inside.

The hotel is placed near to monuments and historical buildings, like Michaelangelo’s house, the Uffizi Gallery, Santa Croce square and the Ponte Vecchio.

A perfect location to visit Florence!

Italian version.

Near Navona square, in the centre of Rome, there’s a friendly bed and breakfast that I found delightful: La Danesina B&B.

They have few rooms, I think only 3, and the atmosphere is really warm and comfortable. Obviously, it also is very central.

The b&b owners also have the restaurant La Danesina, that is situated in the same building. I think  this is a quality guarantee: it’s not easy for a touristic business to survive in the centre of Rome, because of the competitors, just imagine that they have 2 businesses which both have success…

Italian version.

Roma Termini (in Italian, Stazione Termini or Stazione di Roma Termini) is the main train station of Rome. It is named after the ancient Baths of Diocletian (in Latin, thermae), which lie across the street from the main entrance.

The station has regular train services to all major Italian cities as well as daily international services to Paris, Munich, Genève and Basel. With its 29 platforms and over 150 million passengers each year, Roma Termini is one of the largest train stations in Europe.

Termini is also the main hub for public transport inside Rome. Both current Rome Metro lines (A and B) intersect at Termini metro station, and a major bus station is located at Piazza Cinquecento, the square in front of the station. However, the main tram lines of the city cross at Porta Maggiore, some 500 metres east of the station.

On 23 December 2006, the station was dedicated to Pope John Paul II, more or less like Rome’s main airport at Fiumicino is dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci.

The Termini station is, obviously, very central and well linked to every part of the city.
If you want to visit Rome and want to accommodate near the station, try out Hotel Mari. It comprises two hotels (Hotel Mari 1 and Hotel Mari 2), and you can ask for a bedroom with private jacuzzi…

Italian version.

Texts taken from Wikipedia.

I don’t have to explain you what is there to visit in Florence or why is it defined one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

I don’t have to remind you that the Florentine recipes gave the birth to the famed French cuisine.

I don’t even have to tell you that an high percentage of the world renown works of art are kept in Florence.

Being certain of these, what are you waiting?!

If you want to visit Florence you ca choose an accommodation in the countryside (like in the Chianti area) or in the historic centre.

If you want to stay next to the Dome, in the town centre, inside an historic building, try out Tourist House Ricci: it is placed in the Martelli Palace, few steps from the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral.

Enjoy Florence!

Italian version.

Cagliari is the capital of the island Sardinia. Its foundation is assigned to the Carthaginians, then it was under the Roman Empire.
Later in the centuries, the region has been conquered by Aragon and had a Spanish domination.

D. H. Lawrence compared Cagliari to a “white Jerusalem”, because of the effect that the sun light has on the  white lime-stone city.

Cagliari has some peculiar gastronomic traditions. Many dishes are based on the wide variety of fish and sea food available, for example, burrida.
Although it is possible to trace influences from Spanish cuisine, Cagliaritanian food has a distinctive and unique character. Very good wines are also part of Cagliaritanians’ dinners: excellent wines are in fact produced in the nearby vineyards of the Campidano plain.

It’s a city that a tourist has to visit: there are too many works of art, landscapes and flavors to miss it!

If you want to accommodate in a central area (near to the sea and to the historic centre) try Hotel Italia.
…let’s set off!

Source: wikipedia.

Italian version.

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work (called an opera) which combines a text (called a libretto) and a musical score.
Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. The word opera means “work” in Italian (it is the plural of Latin opus meaning “work” or “labour”) suggesting that it combines the arts of solo and choral singing, declamation, acting and dancing in a staged spectacle.

Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language.
Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers, including Handel, Gluck and Mozart. Works by native Italian composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini, are amongst the most famous operas ever written and today are performed in opera houses across the world.

Dafne by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the “Camerata de’ Bardi”.

Have you ever watched Opera? Come in Italy and experience it!
If you choose the Capitol, I advice you the accommodation: the Opera street bed and breakfast.
The b&b has thematic rooms (like Tosca room or Traviata room) and overlooks the Opera Theatre of Rome: perfect!

Texts taken from wikipedia.

Italian version.