by Katherine

by Katherine

Key Words
Reasonably Priced, Simple, Burgers
                 
Would We Come Back?
I would, and I would definitely recommend it to any Americans craving a Burger. But, Brad would head elsewhere.   

          So in the middle of the day, our driver recommended that we stop for lunch at "The Crazy Butcher".  Being that our driver had taken us on an excellent adventure thus far, we took his recommendation. The restaurant sits  above the butcher shop of Dario Cecchini in the town of  Panzano in Chianti. The day was lovely, so we sat outside at a large family-style table, though we didn't end up conversing with the people around us.

by Bradley

          When we stopped in Greve in Chianti we had no idea our driver had already planned a snack and wine tasting for us! He is friends with those who own this Butcher/Cheese shop so he took us in for a treat.

          We got to try 4 different variations of the same cheese, it was pecorino I believe. We tried regular, aged, with crushed red pepper, and with truffle! The truffle one was definetely our favorite but they were all great. I also liked to dip the crushed red pepper one in the honey, it was so good. Even the bread was great, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. 

by Bradley

Key Words
Reasonably Priced, Good Pastas
                 
Would We Come Back?
Yes! Katherine has already been here multiple times. The cheap pastas are delicious!          

           We stopped in at another restaurant Katherine had visited when she came to Florence to see her friends. Actually, they all became regulars here and became friends with the owners. It's family owned like many little restaurants in Italy and the whole family is involved in cooking the food, serving, etc. Katherine remembered one of the guys and they had a conversation remembering years past.

by Bradley

          Venice has their own version of tapas and they are called cicchetti. When you walk around Venice make sure you stop into a few restaurants and see if they have a standing bar/food on display. You always stand for cicchetti or take it on the go, its small bites of food for real cheap and you'll also want to get an ombra. Ombras are small glasses of wine, also cheap. This style of dining is great for trying a lot of different things at a lot of different places!

          On our cicchetti crawl we ended up stopping at 3 different places. It was lunch time, and the hours were a little weird at some places that we tried to go to; they just weren't set up for cicchetti yet. I'd suggest wandering around at dinner time to have the most options open!

by Katherine

          One of the first things I did in Florence was head over to Grom, which was my favorite gelato place the last time I was in Florence. They had the BEST pear gelato - it was pure heaven and I couldn't wait to go there everyday this trip! And then it turned out that they didn't have it - not that they were out of it temporarily, but that it just wasn't a flavor option anymore! Yes, that depressed the hell out of me. So after that, I was on a constant search for some pear gelato. I found some in Venice! The pear flavor was very present, but the bits of pear skin were obnoxious. Though it most certainly wasn't as good as Grom's, I was happy to have found something to feed my pear gelato craving!

by Katherine

                 Key Words
     Reasonably Priced, Good Wine,                                        
                     Good Flavors
                 
       Would We Come Back?
    Yes, all of the food was good and        
    the pear gnocchi is pure heaven!


          My friend Kate recommended this place to me because she had heard it had pear gnocchi and knew that was right up my alley! Turns out this place had amazing pear gnocchi and offered a lot more! It was so good that we came back here on our last night. To start off, we ordered a bottle of red wine. It was on the cheaper side for a bottle and tasted super good. Then, we got a soup, on the house. The first night we got some kind of a vegetable puree soup, which had great flavor and a creamy smooth texture. The second night, we got a minestrone, also good.

by Katherine

Key Words
Reasonably Priced, Large Variety, Daily Menu, Good Flavors
                 
Would We Come Back?
I would eat here everyday if I could -the menu changes so there would always be something new and delicious!         

          So Osteria Il Buongustai, or Little Women, as my friends who studied abroad called it, might possibly be my favorite restaurant ever. It's run by a few women who do all the cooking and running of the restaurant - basically, they are my culinary heroes.  I had eaten here the last time I was in Florence and had hands down, the best tomato sauce I've ever had; it tasted like fresh tomatoes, seasoned perfectly - it was amazing! My goal was to eat here as often as possible this time around. Unfortunately, we had stopped by here the previous day, but disappointingly it was closed due to May day. So that was one day less of eating here.

by Bradley

          While in Florence I had to get a Florentine Steak...I just had to! In my head I know that it's just a massive steak prepared very simply but prepared very well and that I could probably make it myself but I wanted to try it. It definitely did not disappoint, however, now that I've experienced the real deal I'm satisfied to just make it myself if I wish.

          A Florentine Steak is basically a giant T-bone that is rubbed with olive oil and salt. It is cooked for a very short period on each side over charcoal or wood and then removed from heat and left to stand upright on the cross-bar of the T-bone to rest. Once rested it is served with a charred exterior and a near raw interior.

by Bradley

          Katherine was looking up markets in Florence and while reading another's blog saw that La Giostra had pear gnocchi! If you know Katherine at all you would know that combination is enough to put the restaurant in the must go to category!

          When we got to the front of the restaurant we noticed that this place was on the Michelin guide, it doesn't have any stars but it was good enough to mention in their guide. We walked in and it seemed a little busy and we weren't sure if we'd get a table or not. Luckily they had one table for two open, and we made our way down the steps into the romantically lit dining area.