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Florence Eating And Drinking, Italy

The region that is home to Florence has one of the most versatile and varied-form cooking traditions in Italy, that we have already mentioned in our tourists’ guide to Tuscany. We are going to try and provide a more specific view, limiting ourselves to the city of Florence and the area immediately around it.

Florentine cooking is linked to a tradition of simple dishes prepared with genuine, tasty but plain ingredients, which has recently been reconsidered by the world of more sophisticated cuisine. Cereals, bread, vegetable and oil (which must be extra-virgin) are the basis of many recipes that just have to be tried in one of the many restaurants in Florence.

Simple food, such as cannellini beans and other vaguely repulsive ingredients such as tripe and livers are transformed into pleasant, tasty dishes, served on both stalls and in local inns and also in luxury restaurants.
We can therefore find: fagioli all'uccelletto (beans), boiled and then fried in oil and tomato sauce; trippa alla fiorentina, (tripe) covered in tomato and grated parmesan cheese; lampredotto, the darkest part of tripe, used for soups and risottos, but also liked by many locals as a filling for a sandwich; crostini toscani with liver paté. And the unforgettable "fiorentina" steak, a thick cut of meat from the Chianina cow to be tried in any restaurant in Florence.

The area surrounding Florence is famous for being the birthplace of Chianti, the most famous Tuscan wine. Four different types of Chianti are produced from the vines on the flourishing Florentine hills. Chianti "Classico" is produced between Florence and Siena, while the other names come from the geographic areas that the province of Florence is divided into: there is Chianti "Colli Fiorentini", Chianti "Rufina" and Chianti "Montespertoli".

Other wines from the area are Pomino, which has been appreciated since the beginning of the 1700s, and which owes its name to one of the smallest DOC vineyards in the world, and Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine that was already known in the fourteenth century, and which is closely linked to Florentine hospitality. The people offered it to guests accompanied by the traditional cantuccini biscuits.