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

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’re in Florence and want to dine out in a traditional place, try out a restaurant placed in an ancient and typically Tuscan “Buca” (cellar).
The restaurant “Buca Poldo”, for example, is situated in a buca just as stone’s throw from Piazza della Signoria and Ponte Vecchio.

There you can taste the typical Tuscan Cuisine (Crostini Toscani, just to mention one specialty), besides the original specialties created by the chef.
A really Florentine evening!

Italian version.

David is a statue sculpted by Michelangelo at the beginning of XVI century that portrays the King David, the biblical character that challenged Goliath.
This masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture is guarded in Florence (in Accademia Gallery) and has two replicas deployed in the city: one at Piazzale Michelangelo and one outside the Palazzo della Signoria.

The David by Michelangelo is one of the symbols of Florence, and has also named a famous restaurant of the city: Ristorante Pizzeria David.
This restaurant is perfect to spend a “Florentine evening”!

Restaurant pizzeria David
Via della Rondinella, 95/r - Florence

Italian version

There’s another Florence.

Not the one of the Dome Square, full of tourists, cameras and coloured guide’s umbrellas.
Nor the one of the glamour night discos, with its lights and music.
It’s the old traditions’ Florence, the one which have been lightly touched by the mass tourism and have preserved the charm of an antique place, with its voices and perfumes and so on…

The “Tripperia il magazzino” is “that” type of place: everything is the real Florence.
It’s a little tavern-restaurant-wine bar that have tripe as its specialty, and you can find it everywhere in the menu, together with lampredotto (tripe cooked with vegetables, oil and pepper) and game like rabbit or wild boar cooked with pappardelle.
Very wide is also the choice of desserts, including typical cantuccini (almond cookies) with vinsanto.
Luca is the chef and his mother Rosita helps him in the kitchen, while Alessandro is the sommelier: a nice family contest!
The restaurant is placed in Piazza della Passera: a nice little square in the very centre of Oltrarno Florence, where, during the summer, there are concerts and theatre shows.

I think that experience Florence life means also eating in such a place and transported by the way of being of real Florentines.

Italian version.

Florence is near to the sea but is not on the seaside.
When Florentines have free time and want to eat fish they usually go in Leghorn (Livorno) or Viareggio, that are sea towns not so far from Florence.

Livorno was defined as an “ideal town” during the Italian Renaissance. Today, it reveals its history through the structure of its neighbourhoods, crossed by canals and surrounded by fortified town walls, through the tangle of its streets, which embroider the town’s Venice district, and through the Medici Port characteristically overlooked by towers and fortresses leading to the town centre.

The Museo Mascagnano houses memorabilia, documents and operas by the great composer Pietro Mascagni. Every year some of his operas are traditionally played during the lyric music season, which is organised by the Traditional Theatre of Livorno. Also the “Terrazza Mascagni”, a walkway divided from the sea by a handrail, is named in honor to Pietro Mascagni.

Viareggio is a city located in northern Tuscany, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the main centre of the northern Tuscan Riviera known as Versilia, and the second largest city within the Province of Lucca.
It is known as a seaside resort as well as being the home of the famous carnival of Viareggio. The oldest building in Viareggio, known as Torre Matilde, dates back to this time and was built by the Lucchesi in 1541 as a defensive fortification to fight the constant manace of corsair incursions.
Viareggio is also an active industrial and manufacturing centre; its shipbuilding industry has long been renowned around the world and its fishing and floricultural industries are still fundamental sectors to the city’s economy.

Anyway, if you are in Florence you got an alternative: instead of traveling ’till the sea you can let the sea come to you…
There’s a restaurant in Florence specialized in fish dishes: Ristorante Lucamare, in the centre of Florence. Moreover, the chef is Sicilian so well knows how to cook fish delicacies!
Have a safe journey!

Italian version

PS: The descriptions of the cities are taken from wikipedia.

There is no sincerer love than the love of food.
George Bernard Shaw

Somewhere it becomes real.

If you’d like to taste the original Tuscan flavors and atmospheres, feeling the passion for food and cooking, I got to suggest you a particular place.

Hostaria il Desco is something like an experiment: a fusion between a modern and fashionable restaurant and the Medieval “desco”, the ancient Italian word for “table”, that refers to the typical cooking and the centuries old traditions.

They have a rich menu, with traditional recipes and new entries, included a gluten free menu.

Ah, I didn’t tell you that this restaurant is in the historical centre of Florence…not bad!

Italian version.

Florence is an ancient Italian City, you can see some of its most beautiful artworks just walking throughout the city. It is the city known in the world thanks to its dialect and to the famous actor and producer, Roberto Benigni!

I think all of you know Benigni and his movies, he has succeed in making Florence famous for its language through the whole world…
Benigni’s first film as director was Tu mi turbi (You upset me,1983) and after a carreer full of successful interpretations he had produced Life is beautiful and The tiger and the snow, in these last years.

If you want to find a place in Florence where you can live the Florentine irony and sense of humor and you can hear the typical Tuscan dialect, you can go to eat to I’Vinaino Restaurant. It’s spelled like the Florentine pronunciation and it’s only a little detail!

In the restaurant I’Vinaino you will find the typical Tuscany atmosphere, the cheerfulness, the joviality and the cordiality of a family-run management and taste the typical Florentine dishes, like sbriciolona, ribollita, tortelli with ragout, florentine steak, and many others specialities.

All typical dishes for a traditional lunch or dinner in the heart of “Tuscanity”!

Italian Version.

There are many different traditions, in Florence.
But there’s a gastronomic one that you cannot be unaware of its existence: the grilled T bone steak.
In Italy its name is “bistecca alla fiorentina”, that means “Florentine steak”, and it is the protagonist of traditional Tuscan cuisine.
It is a large t-bone steak grilled over a wood or charcoal fire, and seasoned with black pepper, salt and extra virgin olive oil. Steaks are thickly cut.

Tuscany has a lot of typical recipes, but this steak really is a peculiarity. People go to Florence just to taste a real one!
So, if you like meat you will appreciate it.
I can advice a restaurant where to eat this and many other dishes of typical Florentine cuisine and typical Tuscan cuisine: il Vecciolino Restaurant. It is situated near Florence and offers mushrooms, meat, pasta and all the Florentine specialties.

In addition to the high quality of the typical Tuscan cooking, this restaurant also has a wonderful location. It is situated on a panoramic place and it is so big that often hosts ceremonies and wedding parties.

Italian version.