Aaah Florence..

We had a cranker of a thunderstorm in the early hours of the morning. We're on the top floor of the building, and rain on the tiled roof was great to listen to! We had a pretty leisurely start to the day, having our scrambled eggs, toast, and espresso in the apartment.

We're just a 100m from the duomo, so very touristy, so most of the day we can hear this street performer playing an amusing variety of mainly show tunes on repeat! Wait, he's back to 'Beauty and the beast', and then 'I did it my way'!

We set off to explore with a vague walking tour in mind - we ended up just meandering through the streets, occasionally stumbling on key sites. I remember some things from our last visit 28 years ago, but there's lots of things we didn't get to back when I was 27!

We got a fair way away from the tourist centre and spotted a local restaurant that had a lunch special 😋 We got seated at Ostaria dei Centopoveri and enjoyed two courses and a 25cl wine and bread for €12 each. The food was great, I had the seafood penne and Gayle had the farfalle! There was another short rainstorm while we were dining, which made the air even more humid.

There was a nearby restaurant that I'd read about, so I popped in to check availability as it's super popular. I managed to get a 9pm reservation for Wednesday night at Trattoria Sostanza, which is cool. I know, it's all about food with us! We also stumbled across a very cool cocktail bar in this old building - noted for further investigation.

We wandered back through the heavily touristed city centre, watching all the tour groups walking behind the flag-holding tour guides. It was time for a well-deserved arvo nap 😴

In the evening, we walked about a blick up the street and stopped at Ristorante Rosso Crudo for an aperol spritz or two. We sat outside on the street, enjoying the breeze and watching the people and activities around us. The restaurant has a wine window, so we saw a few people stopping just for a drink or to take photos. The whole wine window thing in Florence was an old concept that had all but disappeared until a resurgence during the pandemic. People just knock on the window or ring a bell, it opens, and drinks are ordered and passed through.

We decided to dine at Ristorante Rosso Crudo as the food looked really good. We weren't disappointed - I had a pici carbonara (pici is like a thicker spaghetti), and Gayle had the Gorgonzola gnocchi with walnuts. We, of course, washed it down with a bottle of Vino Rosso dela casa - it was a chianti. We chatted to a lovely English couple who were travelling with their 10 month old son.

All in all, a very good day, primarily food focused 😋Read more