Today we took a day-trip from Florence to Siena. Siena is impressive, even on a drizzly fall day. We had an excellent lunch in Siena, but that was hours ago. We’re ready to have our first real dinner in Florence.
Yesterday, when we were exploring the neighborhood around our hotel, one particular restaurant beckoned us to come in. We decided to try it for dinner tonight.
By dinnertime the drizzle had turned into rain. The streets here look different on a rainy night, but after walking around for a while, we managed to find the restaurant tucked away on a small side street.
Buonasera!
I opened the door and peeked inside. It looked like they hadn’t opened yet, but I heard a cheerful voice say, “Buonasera!” (Good evening!)
“Buonasera,” I said back to the voice.
“Entri! Entri! Prego!” said the voice. (Come in! Come in! Please!)
We went in. A cute girl and a huge guy came out from somewhere to greet us. My guess was that they were the little restaurant’s owners, cook, server, and dishwasher.
“Come state?” she asked. (How are you guys?)
“Molto bene. E voi — come state?” (Fine. And you guys – how are you?)
The big guy replied, “Bene, bene, se il tetto non perde più.” (Fine, if the roof doesn’t leak anymore).
“Scusa. Il mio italiano non è molto buono.” (Sorry. My italiano isn’t very good).
The cute girl said, “No problem. He say the roof leak.”
I said, “No problemo – abbiamo gli ombrelli!” (No problem – we have umbrellas!) They both laughed and the girl showed us to a table.
Settling In
Looking around inside, the place appeared to be ancient. An amber glow pervaded the dimly-lit dining room. Giant beams crossed the ceiling. Tables and chairs were made of dark, heavy wood. They weighed a ton.
I could imagine Florentine guild members meeting here back in the day, downing flasks of vino and tossing chicken bones over their shoulders as they ate. A goose probably would have been turning on a spit in the gigantic fireplace.
We took off our coats and settled in. Italians don’t start eating dinner until 8:00 pm at the earliest, so as usual, even though we try to wait as long as we can, we were the first ones there. Not for long, though. The small room filled up quickly.
The girl brought menus. They were huge, with numerous items in tiny print, in italian, and impossible to read in the dark interior. Ordering would be challenging.
Voi avete deciso?
In no time, the girl returned. “Voi avete deciso?” (Have you decided?)
“Uh… Voule cominciare con un antipasto. C’è qualcosa che Lei raccomanda? (We’d like to start with an appetizer. Is there something you’d recommend?)
“Si, si. Ci sono li calamari, portobello con polenta, prosciutto de Parma, la pasta e fagioli, una selezione deliziosa di formaggi…” (Sure – We’ve got calamari, mushrooms on polenta, prosciutto, bean soup, a nice selection of cheeses…)
Well, she said something along those lines. I caught about half of it. I answered with, “Un po’ di formaggio e vino, per favore.” (A little cheese and some wine, please).
“Partirlo a me. Mi occuperò di lei.” (Leave it to me. I’ve got you covered).
She brought us a bottle of wine, and later, a cheese plate that could have fed four people easily. She carefully told us a bit about each type of cheese, speaking slowly so we could almost understand.
There was something that looked like strawberry jam on the cheese plate. “Che cos’è questo?” I asked.
“Mangiarlo!” she said. “È molto buono!” (“Eat it! It’s very good!”)
She showed us how it was done. It WAS good! Cheese with a little bit of jam – who knew? Not I. But I know now.
Bistecca alla Fiorentina!
We started talking to a group of Americans at the next table. They had ordered the famous Bistecca alla Fiorentina. The thing that showed up was one massive piece of cow. (That’s it in the pic at the top of this post). It was more than they could handle, so they gave us bites. Amazing! We had such a good time in there that night.
By the time we left, everyone in the place seemed to be one, big, happy family, all having a good time together. We left to a chorus of ciao’s, arrivederci’s, buona notte’s, and bye-bye’s.
Now the question was, would we be able to find our way back to the hotel? Boy, these Florentine streets sure look different at night.
To be continued…
Good article but name of restaurant would be even better.
I know. I apologize. I didn’t write down the name at the time, and I could not find it when writing the post.