Our Hood

It was our last night in Florence, so we decided to keep it local. We walked about a 100m to a restaurant that is on the Michelin Guide for 2017 called Alla Veccia Betolla. We pass it every day and every night, and in the evening it is always packed with people. So, it seemed like a sure bet.

We went right at 7:30 because we didn't have a reservation. It is communal seating, and we were seated by a family of five from San Diego. They had just arrived in Florence via Rome. They were doing three weeks in Italy just like us!

We ordered the primi course and each got our own pasta. Evan had lasagna, Brad had penne with a spicy tomato sauce, and I had a thin pasta with porcini mushrooms. Then we shared a secondi of veal steak and zucchini flowers. The steak was juicy and charred just right, and I've spoken previously about our love of fried zucchini flowers. The real bonus of the meal was the huge bottles of Chianti on the table. It was basically all you can drink house wine for 4€!

The waiter didn't have to twist Evan's arm too hard to talk him into dolci. Evan got an apple tart (really a tart/ crepe hybrid) with vanilla gelato. I barely got a bite as I was chatting with the people from San Diego (who also ordered the tart after seeing ours). Luckily we had planned to go to the sorbettoeria just across the street.

I'm not sure what the technical differences are between sorbet and gelato, but we had seen this sorbettoeria lined up most nights. Evan got the straticalla and caramel sorbet, while I got lemon-sage and ricotta with honey. I know those flavours sound bizarre, but they were delightfully refreshing! We ate our sorbet in the park while we watched a game of football (soccer). It was the perfect evening to cap off our time in Florence!Read more