2024 Food Kick-off: Florence
Three words eased me into 2024: travel, explore & taste. I know that I want to explore Europe, not only to experience the different countries, meet the people, open my mind by other cultures but to taste the countries. To be ignited by their passion for their local food, learn about their traditions and broaden my taste vocabulary not by thinking and talking about food but by tasting it and taking in their rich foreboding smells and the vibrancy of their colours.
Where to start? The year had already started and I felt a clock ticking in the back of my mind, like a kid in a theme park that wants to do ALL the rides but only has a day to do them. It was a familiar moment of my mind when the the excitement is high but without clarity of where to start or feeling drawn to one particular place. Given that one of the themes of the year is food I looked at food festivals. Bingo. One of the earliest one in the year was Florence: Taste.
I had been to Florence before and it was a place that now thinking about it, I had wanted to go back to. The flair of the medieval; the old pavements with the sandstone coloured buildings, history at every corner and yet the feeling of coziness in the here and now. Clarity was unfolding, the next step simple: looking for accommodation, flights & checking if they matched a budget that would allow me to fit in more travels this year to clench my thirst for Europe. It matched. I gave it another day or two to digest and allow any questions to surface and then booked it. Relief. I had taken the first step to my first food adventure for this year.
#Coffee & #Culture
I like to adventure, for me that means at times not to plan and allowing myself to stumble across places. It opens up the opportunity to discover what my mind could not imagine and as there is no expectation there can only be a positive surprise. It allows me to be open and to be drawn to places, following it without my mind interfering with "yeah but, I was going to go to ....".
My AirBnB host kindly had shared a list of coffee and food places that she recommended. I had a quick lock and it didn't resonate as it seemed we had a different taste. So the first exciting thing when I woke up was to get ready and dressed to then have my first cup of coffee at whatever place I would stumble upon. I checked Google Maps for the direction to where the food fair was taking place which was at the Fortezza de Basso, how long it would take me to get there walking, grabbed my keys, closed the thick wooden door of my apartment, headed down the stone stairs in the dark corridor and stepped on to the Via Romana. I felt excited. A day of newness and exploration was in the air.
I walked towards the bridge. Two Italian Senioras half my size first curiously looked at me and as we kept crossing paths they started chatting to me, in Italian. Wearing a woollen dress with bare legs, whilst themselves covered in a puffy thick jacket and wrapped up completely, they wondered if I wasn't cold. "Not really" I said - and it made think how we all define 'cold' differently. Once we stopped to say our good-bye's I could see an open shop that said 'bar' and headed towards it, having a feeling that this might be the first place for a coffee.
I entered & I smiled. To my left was a grape of elderly Senioras sitting at a table talking passionately, smiling, waving their hands, having an uplifting banter with the bar man. Another lady was sitting with her back to them at the bar enjoying her croissant chuckling away and giving her loudly comments to the conversation. I didn’t need to understand what they were talking about, sitting in the midst of it, I felt part of the whole and felt happy and energised. That was the cup of coffee I was looking for.
I went to the fair which was mesmerising, met beautiful people and made discoveries along the way.
Food Fair Take-Aways
Hidden Gems
Apart from my known destination, the Taste fair & getting lost in Florence I had the desire to learn more through other people about the city. I came across free walking tours and was astonished that the tour guided by a local would be free and you only tip for what you think it was worth. My guide was Armando, a born and bred Florentiner who over the course of two and a half hours showed us his Florence, a combination of history, local legends and food places.
Aperitivi
Il Cabria
Cafe Il Verone
Sant'Ambrogio Cafe
Helados
Gelateria Alpina
Sieni Toscanos
Vivoli
Paninoteche
La Nichhietta in Calimaruzza
Il girone dei golosi-Ghiotti
I maldedetti Toscani
Restaurantes
L'arte di Dory
Casa Toscana en Santa Croce
Osteria delle belle donne
Pizza
Le antiche carroze
Toto
Osteria delle belle Donne
