Firenze (Florence)

Florence had the potential to be my favorite as soon as we arrived, but quickly became a cuisine nightmare.  Not because Florence offers poor food, but because we simply kept choosing the worst places. 

             Hercules                                                                                                    Neptune

Megs mentioned that with my beard I'm beginning to look just like Hercules in this statue

David

The first night we set out to find a good meal, but instead did some light sight seeing and shopping, and eventually, my stomach took command of my mind, and I was swayed by a sign that said LASAGNA, and the owner, who came outside to pressure me to come for dinner, reassured me that it was homemade (whatever that means), and I caved.  The worst part about this place is that it was in the tourist square, and I know not to eat in a tourist square!!!!!  We entered, and Megan looked horrified, and I knew at that moment what I had done.  Shame on me!  I couldn’t talk her into leaving (for embarrassment reasons), so we had to stick it out.  Needless to say, it was the worst lasagna I have ever tasted.  So we speed ate, and decided to wash it down with a good taste of gelato.  How could gelato be bad, especially in its home country?  Well, we found it, the bad gelato; poor Megs was so disappointed, and I was just pissed!

The next morning, we had a free continental breakfast at our hostel, we weren’t expecting too much, especially cause we just ordered eggs, bacon, and toast.  Simple?  Well……… if it were edible.  The eggs were not cooked, so we had toast.  Yum. 

Yep, lunch was another flop!

REDEMPTION didn’t come until about 3pm on day two.  We finally found gelato to sing praises about at a little shop called Neri down a small side street, and the glory shown from heaven after that.  We found another gelato shop, which Megan had been stalking but couldn’t seem to find until she had a sighting of the little cup with “Grom” written on the side of it. She asked the location; our luck was a-changing.   Then we ventured back over to Neri for just one more scoop (yep, 3 in about 2 hours) before finding a little café with homemade beef stew in bread bowls.  I took two and a cold beer and was very satisfied. 

The River Arno in Florence on the Ponte Vecchio bridge

 Redemption gelato from GROM

Redemption gelato from Neri (except this is a super small cone).  Sad!

Neri again

Beef stew and beer 

We left early the next morning with a sense of satisfaction that we had finally found some tasty eats and treats in Florence.  I believe in Florence and it's attractions, so I'll be back.

Cinque Terre here we come!