Gluttony under the Tuscan Sun

After we had had our fill of Rome, we hopped on the fast train to Florence. Upon arrival, we stowed our bags, and headed to forage for lunch. We had a highly recommended panini place on the agenda, but due to various map difficulties, we ended up winging it again, and again found a gem. The owner was a jolly fellow (in the Santa Claus sense), and the food was delicious.

We got some bruschetta for an appetizer:

In the above picture, I am just finishing saying the name of the topping: lardo!

I had the spiced beef with olives, which was sublime, and Sarah had the salt cod.

Liam was being his usual charming self, and the owner dramatically sliced him a hunk of cheese that lasted the rest of the day.

You may have noticed that I haven't said much about dinner. This is due to the incompatibility of a certain somebody's bedtime with going out for dinner. Here is an exceptional evening in, enjoyed with ravioli stuffed with walnut and truffle paste, and octopus and potato (seems to be a typical dish in Florence). I guess the waitress thought I was going to eat all of it myself, because she only gave me one set of silverware. Luckily we thought Liam wouldn't mind if we used his stuff.

Day two in Florence was steak day, and what a steak it was:

That's a little more than a kilo of perfectly rare T-bone, and things got a little crazy:

I don't recall eating anything else the rest of that day. So it was on to a couple of small but interesting Tuscan towns, on the way to Pisa. After getting completely turned around and disoriented, and walking across the entire town of Pisa, we stumbled into this unassuming pizzeria. Again, gold! I had a pizza with artichoke, ham etc... Sarah and Liam had the carmelle filled with ricotta and spinach, with some beans and potatoes. They somehow don't look like much, but they were really perfectly prepared.

Oh, yeah, and hot!

Well, that took a while to write.

Here is a bonus Liam video: