We love food tours. We try to do one in every city, whenever possible. We’re on this trip with Mark and Jan, my brother-from-another-mother and his wife, and they were food tour virgins. I’m glad they took this one, as it was a really good one. Our guide, Gaia from Eating Europe, lived in the neighborhood – Oltrarno – basically the left bank of Florence. It is south of the Arno River and quite near our VRBO apartment. We met her at Piazza Santo Spirito, a quintessential Italian working class neighborhood with a church, fountain, charming ristorantes and caffes, children playing, and families strolling. Our tour was 11 people; well, 9 ½ as one was an adorable, happy and very entertaining 7-month-old Brit named Robin. Our tour had six stops, and we were told the tours differ by the day based on open hours of their partner restaurants and their levels of reservations. We had the good luck of a stop only on Mondays, and the misfortune of missing the Wine Wall that Stanley Tucci made famous on CNN’s Searching for Italy – it’s closed on Mondays!

Our first stop was Alimentari del Chianti, a small Mother/Daughter caffe across from the Pitti Palace, home of the Medici. The owner, Laura Conforti, is also the chef, and she makes all of the food. She is one of the few who still make Lambredotto in the old style. Most people would pass, as Lambredotto is cow stomach that looks kind of like Lamprey eel, but once chopped and simmered in her amazing tomato based sauce was actually quite tasty, and was one of Mark and Steve’s favorites on the tour. She also showed me a new way to use the copious amounts of truffle sauce I’m bringing home – atop crusty bread and burrata. It’s a swoon worthy combo. She also makes a homemade ragu, carrots, celery, onion, garlic and tomato with ground meat that is cooked down so the vegetables melt into the sauce. We enjoyed these treats with a glass of Prosecco.

The King of Cheese is selling him the prosciutto leg AND lending him the holder for the week as, he said, Mark has “a trustworthy face”. So now Mark has to go buy a prosciutto knife.

Next we moved on to meet the King of Cheese – the owner of Formaggio e Salumi. He and Gaia are great friends, and their banter was endearing and joyful. We learned about the Florence and Tuscan cheese that is made from sheep’s milk, pecorino. The young pecorino is softer and milder than what is found in the states called Pecorino Romano. That is from Rome, and is a hard and salty cheese for grating. The young pecorino is made using milk from spring grass fed sheep, so in order to make it all year long they have to freeze some of the milk from the spring and summer to use to make the cheese in the winter. We also tasted a pecorino with truffles. Did I mention I love truffles? And a salami heavy with fennel seed, which was served with bread with no salt. Salt was an expensive commodity back in the 1500’s as it was the only way to preserve food. So Italians made their bread without salt. Salt is “sale” in Italian, and our word “salary” comes from the Italian, as men were paid their wages in salt.

We are heading to Sansepolcro for a celebration of Mark and Jan, and he wanted to buy a whole leg of prosciutto for the event. The King of Cheese is selling him the prosciutto leg AND lending him the holder for the week as, he said, Mark has “a trustworthy face”. So now Mark has to go buy a prosciutto knife.

Our next stop took us by one of the many wine walls in Florence. While only one is still operational the others remain as visible as the religious iconography used for basically the same purpose; to keep apart during the plague. These wine walls and icons allowed people to stay out of churches and ristorante; the social distancing of the plague.

Our next stop was the Food Studio, where cooking classes and private events are held. Giogio Pinto made cantucci, true biscotti (as biscotti in Italian really just a cookie), twice baked with whole almonds and served with Spirito Santo, a sweet wine that you dip the cantucci into. Divine. And Spirito Santo was used in the church, as a red wine didn’t last as long once opened. The barrels were marked with a cross to signify the “Holy Wine”.

Giorgio also gives pasta making classes and has a beautiful herb garden in a courtyard above the kitchen which has a glass roof so you can look down into it from the garden. The Food Studio  is on the street that is the most photographed street in Oltrarno.

We then stopped at a neighborhood bar where people would stop on the way home from work for a snack. A glass of house wine and a crostini. The wine was like a box wine, a bag in a barrel wine no Denomination of Controlled Origin. There are some winemakers who don’t want to get all crazy with the DOGC, they just want to make wine, and they sell it to these bars. We call it “The Rascal of the Vineyard”. And it was great. We ate it with lardo with pecorino on toasted bread. Lardo is the pigs back fat seasoned with rosemary and sealed in a Carrera marble case over the winter, then sliced paper-thin. It’s a melt in your mouth experience.

Our next stop was a ristorante called La Fiaschetteria. A Fiasco in the US is a disaster, in Italy it’s a really good time. Here we started with an Aperitivo  – which means to open the stomach for food. It needs to be bitter, not sweet. Ours was a Negroni – 1/3 Campari, 1/3 red vermouth, 1/3 gin.  Or if you want a Negroni sbagliato, or a Negroni mistake, it’s Prosecco instead of gin. It’s a beautiful drink, the color of a beautiful sunset.

We had two courses here, Pappa el Pomodoro, a delicious peasant dish made with stale bread, tomatoes and broth, and a wild boar stew. Both delicious. During this, our longest stop, we had the pleasure of entertaining and being entertained by Robin, the 7-month-old. What a sweet boy and absolute pleasure.

Our last stop was Gelato – and a lesson on good vs. evil. There are gelato shops every 50 feet in Florence, most of them with gelato piled high and in colors not known in nature. These, Gaia told us, use artificial flavors and colors, not the real thing. Banana gelato should be whitish beige, pistachio greenish brown, not bright yellow and green. A good gelato shop covers their gelato with lids and serves the real thing. My pistachio gelato was a pale green with brown flecks from the real nuts. Delicious.

Enjoy the slideshow of the tour!

When we wrapped up we asked Gaia how many tours she does. She is working 7 days per week and two tours per day; a morning one to the Mercado Centrale and an evening sunset one in Oltrarno. Her days are 12 hours. But their season is spring thru fall and they have to work when there is work. So if you go to a foreign country please support workers, tip generously when you can and remember they’ve just gone through a pandemic with no work. I hope you travel soon and have a Buon viaggio!

Deborah