Gastronomy
Cuisine
Florentine food is praised for its solid peasant traditions: It is
based on a few fundamental genuine ingredients: olive oil, tomatoes,
beans, herbs, ham and salami.
 Among
the first courses of the "poor style" cuisine worth mentioning
are "ribollita" (a soup based
on black cabbage, beans, and other vegetables), "bruschette"
(toasted bread with garlic and olive oil, sometimes covered with liver
pate, anchovy paste or olives), beans "Uccelletta"
style (minestrone soup with boiled beans, cooked in oil with tomato
sauce and sage).
 Among
the second courses, the most famous is surely the "beefsteak
Florentine style", cooked rare, without salt, flavored
with herbs. Among the less noble second courses the most characteristic
is "tripe Florentine style,"
covered with tomato sauce and an abundant sprinkling of grated parmesan
cheese.
Game dishes worth mentioning include boar and rabbit with their typical
sauces.
The most common cheeses are pecorino and
ricotta.
Desserts are simple, in Italian they are called "poor",
the most characteristic being "cantucci"
(cookies sweetened with almonds, for dunking in "Vin Santo")
and "schiacciata Florentine style"
(a pastry covered with vanilla sugar and flavored with lemon).
 Tuscany
is a region famous also for its wines,
reds and whites ranging from table wines to wines of great prestige
and universal fame. The most famous reds are "Brunello
di Montalcino", "Nobile di Montepulciano"
and Chianti produced in the hills and
bottled by the Sangiovese vineyards. Most of the white wines come
from Trebbiano vineyards, like the light and sparkling "Galestro"
and the simple "Tuscan white".
The "Vernaccia of San Gimignano",
obtained from Vernaccia grapes, is very flavorful, as is the "Montecarlo,"
from the Lucca region. Among the characteristic sweet wines is the
"Vin Santo" made with raisins from Trebbiano and Malvasia,
aged for several years in small casks and then bottled.
Restaurants
 Florence
is rich with restaurants, bars and cafes. Sip an espresso in the fashionable
cafes of the Piazza della Repubblica, once the site of a Roman forum.
Sample delicious Tuscan cuisine in the Oltrarno area and around the
Piazza del Mercato Centrale. Head for the bars of the Sant Antonio
area |
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