In Florence, I saw what is quite possibly the single greatest thing I had ever seen in my life:
Porchetta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And not the half-ass porchetta I’ve made by wrapping a pork loin in a large sheet of skin-on pork belly, but a honest-to-god whole deboned pig body with the head still on rolled up in its entirety like a huge, pig-headed torpedo. Boom!!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty tasty, too. Note quite so impressive, however, was the steak Fiorentina. It was pretty much a plain, not particularly high quality steak. My expectations actually weren’t all that particularly high, but I figured it would be a crime to have come to Florence twice and still never had it. All my Italian peeps had always said that while lots of our vegetables are bullshit, we do have better steak than in Italy, and I can see why. It wasn’t bad, but when you’re 22-euro steak is significantly outshined by the bruschetta with cavolo nero and white beans you had for antipasto, you’re not really getting your money’s worth. Other meal highlights were a tripe salad, porcini soup, and grass salad I had for lunch on Saturday, and the pizza that Caterina’s cousin Guiseppe took us out for Saturday night.
San Gimignano, was a pretty cool little place, but lunch there was a disappointment. I was jazzed to hit this fancy-pants restaurant my gourmet travel guide had written up, but it didn’t quite live up to the billing. The town definitely did though—very picturesque, and very, very touristy. The bus ride out there and back was also a nice way to check out the Tuscan countryside and to help out a group of Malaysian tourists with travel trip for a future trip to the US.
Aside from not coming through on the bistecca alla Fiorentina, Florence also failed to deliver on the shoes. I basically had two high-level objectives for this trip. 1: eat and drink and much good stuff as possible. 2: get some stylish Italian shoes. I’ve been looking in every major city I’ve been to so far, and nothing. They’ve got lots of nice stuff, but not items that are my style and what I’m looking for. Leather goods are big in Florence, so that may have been my best shot. Only Rome left at this point.
Porchetta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And not the half-ass porchetta I’ve made by wrapping a pork loin in a large sheet of skin-on pork belly, but a honest-to-god whole deboned pig body with the head still on rolled up in its entirety like a huge, pig-headed torpedo. Boom!!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty tasty, too. Note quite so impressive, however, was the steak Fiorentina. It was pretty much a plain, not particularly high quality steak. My expectations actually weren’t all that particularly high, but I figured it would be a crime to have come to Florence twice and still never had it. All my Italian peeps had always said that while lots of our vegetables are bullshit, we do have better steak than in Italy, and I can see why. It wasn’t bad, but when you’re 22-euro steak is significantly outshined by the bruschetta with cavolo nero and white beans you had for antipasto, you’re not really getting your money’s worth. Other meal highlights were a tripe salad, porcini soup, and grass salad I had for lunch on Saturday, and the pizza that Caterina’s cousin Guiseppe took us out for Saturday night.
San Gimignano, was a pretty cool little place, but lunch there was a disappointment. I was jazzed to hit this fancy-pants restaurant my gourmet travel guide had written up, but it didn’t quite live up to the billing. The town definitely did though—very picturesque, and very, very touristy. The bus ride out there and back was also a nice way to check out the Tuscan countryside and to help out a group of Malaysian tourists with travel trip for a future trip to the US.
Aside from not coming through on the bistecca alla Fiorentina, Florence also failed to deliver on the shoes. I basically had two high-level objectives for this trip. 1: eat and drink and much good stuff as possible. 2: get some stylish Italian shoes. I’ve been looking in every major city I’ve been to so far, and nothing. They’ve got lots of nice stuff, but not items that are my style and what I’m looking for. Leather goods are big in Florence, so that may have been my best shot. Only Rome left at this point.
