Trip Report: Food Lovers in Italy

Waiting for Piedmont!

Love your style---give us more.

Sampaguita: Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Piedmont. We really wanted to go to the truffle festival in Alba while we were there but decided that since it was our first time to Italy, that we should hit the prime tourist attractions (Florence, Tuscany, Rome, and Venice). But, on our return trip, the Piedmont is going to be at the top of our list!

Thanks Bob!

Okay, on to day 2:

Florence: Day 2
Overstuffed
http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/day2florence

See

Of all the cities in Italy, I had been most excited about visiting Florence. I fancied that when I walked the streets of Florence, I would be inspired, as the masters had been, to infuse my soul into creative works. I thought that Florence would be a city stuffed with art, beauty, and intellectual curiosities.

Instead, the city simply felt stuffed. Overstuffed, in fact. Everywhere we turned, we were overwhelmed by faces, bodies, and bags. The gray clouds loomed over us and the chirping of cameras followed us as we walked from the Duomo to San Lorenzo market. The solemnity of the San Lorenzo cathedral with its giant windows and high ceiling painted in gold and white was marred by the whispering women in the pews. Later, we jostled elbows against strangers as we stood in the market and passed a bag of roasted chestnuts, sold from a roadside vendor, between us. It felt appropriate, somehow, to be eating warm, buttery chestnut flesh on a day filled with people and clouds and cold.

And, then, we found a place to escape the crowds. We went to the Galleria dell' Accademia to see the David, expecting more of the same, and instead found that people just weren't that interested. Don't get me wrong --- there were a lot of people there and the line into the Accademia stretched almost one block. But, after bypassing the line with our pre-booked reservations, we walked past the Slaves, the haunting unfinished pieces by Michaelangelo, and met a mass of humanity. However, the crowds quickly melted. Most people stayed to look at David for five minutes or less and then moved on. We stayed for thirty minutes or more, enjoying the masterpiece from every angle, amazed by how the statue seems life-like from a distance but disproportionately scaled up close. I found a prime seat for a little while and chuckled over the statue's well-defined posterior. Patrick thought I was being silly. I was.

Sleep

We stayed at the lovely Relais Il Campanile for 100 E/night while in Florence. The hotel is on the block facing the Duomo and one block away from the Accademia. Our bedroom was large and comfortable with a king sized bed, small refrigerator, and two-person table. The breakfast included orange juice, pre-packaged croissants or muffins, and some crackers. The hostess, Sara, was incredibly helpful and gave us a number of restaurant and touring suggestions. When I booked our room via the Internet, she offered to make reservations for us at the Accademia and the Uffizi for free! Of course, we happily accepted her offer and, after seeing the lines at both museums, I am so happy we did. (For that reason alone, I would strongly consider staying there.) Our only complaint about the room was that the bathroom was a little small. Highly recommended.

Eat

* We had lunch at Buco en Giovanni, a small pizzeria right near the Duomo, and recommended by our hotel. We shared a mediocre margherita pizza. It sustained us but wasn't anything special.
* That night, we ate at Trattoria Za-Za. I hate to give a bad review because everyone --- from Fodor's message boards, Frommers' guidebook, to Sara at our hotel --- seems to love this place. Maybe we just ordered the wrong things or went on a bad night. Both of us felt that the decor was a bit tacky and aimed at tourists. My minestrone soup was bland. The eggplant parmigiana oozed so much oil that I started picking out the eggplant pieces and wiping them on my napkin. Patrick's spinach and cheese ravioli with creamy truffle sauce was the highlight of the meal with the rich truffle flecks speckling the pasta and the sauce. His carpaccio style beef with arugula and parmesan was good, cut to the right thickness and cooked properly, but overwhelmed by a honey mustard sauce that he scraped off. We finished the meal well, though, with a creamy tiramisu filled with a yolky custard and strong coffee liqueur. We toasted to our trip with Patrick's first grappa and my first limoncello. Now, that limoncello was good. It was the perfect mix of tart, sour, and sweet. In fact, it was the best limoncello I had throughout our entire stay in Italy. So, we would go back to Za-Za for a few dishes and lots of limoncello. Mmmm . . . limoncello.

akila- while we loved Florence, people and all (they were no distraction to us, as we were concentrating on the art/architecture/history)... we, too, found the Trattoria ZaZa overrated.

Our best meal of our entire trip happened to be in Florence. If you return, please do try Semidivino, Via S. Gallo 22/R. The beef carpaccio was amazing. The little pasta pockets stuffed with pears/gongonzola, topped with pinenuts and a light balsamic cream sauce... to die for!!!

Looking forward to the rest of your report, as I'm planning a return trip to Italy next spring!

Paula

Paula - I am glad to hear that we weren't the only ones who didn't get great food at ZaZa! That pasta at Semidivino sounds wonderful. Patrick and I are planning on returning to Italy next summer for one month as part of our year-long world trip so we will have to keep Semidivino in mind.

Wonderful! Keep it coming please! As mentioned in other posts, DH and I love Pisa and have made it a base for travel to CT, San Gim, Siena.

Thanks TDudette!

I also did not care for ZaZa or Buco en Giovanni - felt both were mediocre and catered to tourists.

It's a shame that Florence has become so overcrowded. For almost 30 years it was my very favorite city in Italy - but my visits in 2007 and 2008 were sad and disappointing. Florence now has so much graffiti and the streets are simply mobbed - even in late October when we were there the last two times.

BTW, every hotel I have ever stayed in (15 visits to Florence) has taken care of making museum reservations without charge so that is not a unique service.

Looking forward to more of your report...

I've had a couple of great meals at ZaZa, and a few not so great. I think the quality has gone down as their popularity has gone up over the years, especially since they expanded out into the ... parking lot. At least their prices have remained reasonable.

Looking forward to the rest of your report, akila.

kfusto and Holly, We have heard from others too that Florence is much more crowded than it used to be and, as a result, some of the previously great restaurants are now fairly mediocre.

Here is day 3:

Florence: Day 3
The Duomo
http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/day3florence

See

I have lived in the South nearly my entire life so I know about big churches. In Seattle, you can stand at a Starbucks and see two others; in my hometown in Alabama, I could stand at a church and see two larger churches. When we lived in Atlanta, we knew people who went to church in a converted Harris-Teeter. But, Italy takes the prize for really big cathedrals. The Duomo dominates the city of Florence. Every detail of the pink, green, and white facade is meticulously detailed and the interior dome designed by Brunelleschi is even more amazing. Of course, we both had cricks in our neck from staring at the ceiling for so long through our binoculars. If only they would let people lay on the floor with pillows to admire the ceiling.

Though, I actually preferred the smaller Baptistery. The exterior golden door by Ghiberti and the interior dome covered in gold are both masterpieces. Somehow, the fact that the exterior door was a copy of the original masterpiece did not bother us.

The climb to the top of Giotto's campanile was long and high. My calves screamed bloody murder and, several hours later, Patrick and I found ourselves in a pharmacy attempting to explain the chemical properties of "Icy Hot" to an Italian pharmacist. After we kept pointing to our legs and explained "hurt" and "pain" in Italian, the pharmacist gave us Momendol, an even better pain reliever than Icy Hot. But, the climb was worth it for the views of the Tuscan countryside and city landscape. Beautiful.

Eat

* Trattoria Le Mossacce - On Via del Proconsolo, this trattoria oozes Florentine charm with its rustic communal wooden tables and dried garlic strands hanging from the ceiling. Florentine business people and elderly men and women filled the restaurant. The portly gentleman sleeping in the corner against a wall, obviously sated from a good meal, only added to the decor. Patrick ordered the tortelloni, cooked perfectly al dente filled with a thick meaty mixture, with a simple bolognese sauce. My spinach and cheese ravioli in tomato sauce was also very tasty. Patrick's secondi of veal was a little tough but with an excellent gravy. I ordered a minestrone packed with vegetables and a contorni of spinach sauteed in lots of butter. Overall, a delicious meal at 25 Euros (and that included a liter of wine at 5 Euros).

* Il Dante di Rosso - My zucchini risotto was incredibly bland and the grilled vegetables con scamorza had no seasonings, not even salt and pepper. Unlike the scamorza at Osteria dei Cavalieri, this cheese tasted like the cheese used by Papa John's to make pizza --- and that's not a good thing. Patrick's salami was good but his lasagna was boiling hot and contained too much cheese. We would not recommend this restaurant because the food was mediocre and expensive.

Here is day 4 in Florence:

Florence: Day 4
Ready to Go
http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/day4florence

See

I was ready to leave Florence by the morning of our third day. We felt claustrophobic, worn down by the crowds, the gray clouds, and the narrow streets. But, then, there were parts of Florence we loved. We were shocked and impressed by the stunning brutality of the statues in the Piazza della Signoria. It is a strange thing, though, to stand in the open-aired palazzo with the horrors of Giambalino's Rape of the Sabine Women and Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa serving as background and children running through the cobblestone piazza to the Fountain of Neptune in the middle.

The Uffizi amazed us but not for the art that we expected. While Botticelli's The Birth of Venus was beautiful, we were enraptured by the depth and detail of his La Primavera. There were few visitors who made it to Rembrandt's self-portraits but we were so happy that we did.

Otherwise, we kept getting thwarted. We tried to go to the Mercato Centrale and the Medici Chapels and both were closed. We walked across the Ponte Vecchio and Pitti Palace was closing. We both kept telling each other that we were glad to be leaving Florence and ready for Tuscany.

Eat

* Ristorante Pizzeria Il Bargello - We should have known better because this restaurant lines the tourist-laden Piazza della Signoria but, by the time we left the Uffizi, we were starving and willing to settle for anything. Given that our stomachs were caving in on themselves with hunger, I expected that any pizza would taste good. Nope, I was wrong. Both pizzas matched fairly evenly with the microwaved pizza we ate on our Delta flight from Atlanta to Pisa.

* Rivoire - I had such high hopes for this place. For me, good thick hot chocolate is only a few steps removed from a higher calling and purpose in life. I want my chocolate to taste like it was churned by a waterfall and flow through my throat in a rushing wave of creamy liquid. My spoon should stick almost upright into a proper cup of chocolate. The chocolate at Rivoire while good did not meet those very high expectations. It was a bit too milky and thin. But, if you can't make it to La Sfizia in Pisa, then this is a decent option.

* Cipolla Rossa - The restaurant was half-empty when we arrived so we weren't expecting greatness. But, the food was, by far, the best we had in Florence. We shared a bruschetta, toasted to a golden brown and topped with sweet chopped tomatoes. Patrick had a filet of beef topped with porcini slices, all of which was cooked perfectly. I had a vegetable risotto in a bowl made of a parmigiano crust. As I dipped my fork into the risotto, the parmigiano crust melted into the risotto and over my fork. We drank lots of wine and enjoyed a lovely meal.

Have i told you lately that I love you?

Now, that is a nice compliment!

your post saved me during my 24 hour shift...

Now on to the next day - Tuscany, how we love thee (and this is when the pictures start to get good):

http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/day5tuscany

day 5: tuscany - moving forward

See

We left Florence in haste. We practically ran through the water pouring on our shoulders to the Avis rental agency on the outskirts of town. The Avis representatives seemed to know that we were in a hurry because we entered the agency and left with a car in no more than 15 minutes. And, then we were moving forward, away from the crowds, the rain, the gray of Florence. It turned out, though, that we were only going to move forward . . . and that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

The thing is that I don't know how to drive a stick shift. For years, we had a Mazda 360, a stick shift, which I refused to drive or ride in because the car literally rusted from the inside out; in the back seat; I could drop pennies through the holes in the carpet into the road below. But, in Italy, we couldn't swallow spending an extra $200 just so I could remedy my ignorance in the ways of manual transmission. I was a little worried about Patrick driving stick shift alone since we sold his Mazda five years before.

Despite our concerns, our little Fiat Panda, bright blue and full of character, seemed to fit us perfectly. After leaving Florence, Patrick zipped through hills and fields of Tuscany on the A1 as he reminisced about his old Mazda. He told me that driving a stick "just felt right." That is, until we passed the road to Pienza and needed to turn the car around and realized that he did not know how to put the car in reverse. We were outside a run-down restaurant, with no one in sight, and our only option was to move the car forward into the restaurant. I pulled out the manual for the car and realized that my minimal skills in Italian and Spanish would not help me decipher how to turn the car around. So, Patrick got out of the car, pushed it backward, and yelled instructions to me on how to move the stick shift.

We parked a good mile away from Pienza, knowing that even with Patrick's excellent parallel parking skills, we wouldn't be able to get into a spot near the city without going in reverse. I pulled the manual out of the glove box to take it into town with us but Patrick decided, at the last moment, to try fiddling with the stick shift again. And, then, ta da! It worked. The trick was to push down on the stick while pressing the clutch and then, and only then, pull it into reverse.

Everything about Pienza---from the cobblestones to the overhanging lemon and olive trees to the pots of flowers and bottles of wine sitting on windowsills---evoked love and beauty. We held hands like newlyweds and watched the couples walking under the vines of sweet white flowers. We drove to Montepulciano, certain that the city would not be as cute and charming as Pienza. And, it wasn't --- but, then again, it was. Montepulciano was larger, slanting on the hill, with stunning views from every direction, but it still had the character of a small village. We had been in the Val D'Orcia for mere hours and knew that we were going in the right direction.

Sleep

Montorio, set on the outskirts of Montepulciano, is one of the most beautiful hotels we have ever stayed in. The views of Montepulciano and the Sanctuary of San Biagio are unparalleled.

Our apartment, the S. Agnese Segni, was a little gem with a lovely kitchen and a large, comfortable bed. The terrace had stunning 360 degree views and we plucked rosemary from the bushes lining the property. Our sitting area with a television and small library kept us entertained on quiet evenings while we did the laundry in the laundry room. The only negative to this hotel was that the water temperature frequently fluctuated. Highly, highly recommended. A jewel in the Val d' Orcia.

Eat

We tried to have lunch at Latte de Luna in Pienza but it was fully booked. We then wandered to Buca del Fatte further in the city of Pienza. I started with a bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and slivered basil and Patrick had a good selection of cured meats. My gnocchi with pomodoro was okay but Patrick's pici with ragu was good and made with a thick homemade pasta. At the end of the meal, they brought out a huge cart of desserts and we shared a lovely amaretto cake. Inexpensive and reasonable food.

Our first priority in Tuscany was experiencing the wine. Montepulciano was empty in the evening and we wandered through the silent, dark city until we found Vineria Bistrot Spazio Arte at the edge of town. We shared the vineria with a few other locals speaking Italian in their lilting tones. We drank a Camigiano 2002 Brunello di Montalcino, a Podere Sanvinego 2003 Nobile Riserva, a La Ciarmama 2004 Nobile, a 2004 Chianti Classico, and a Valdipiatta 2003 Nobile. All of the wines were excellent, but we enjoyed it all too much of it to take notes. We shared a giant plate of cheese, cured meats, and salad. We laughed, talked, and shared wine and thoughts with the wonderful wait staff. Great find in Montepulciano.

Great report! I absolutely adored our stay in Pienza.

Thanks marigross! Isn't Pienza wonderful? It was my favorite town in Tuscany and one of my two favorite places that we saw in Italy (the second being Rome). We were surprised that there weren't many tourists in Pienza because it is so picturesque. Maybe there were less tourists because it was late October? It was a bit chilly (in the high 50s every day) in the Val d'Orcia while we were there so maybe the weather detracted some of the visitors.

I am working on the next segment of our Tuscany report but, in the meantime, wanted to post a link that we just put up on our website. We are incorporating recipes adapted by or inspired by Italy (and all our travels) on our website. I just put up the first one: white whole wheat pasta with dried porcinis. We missed Italy while we were eating it. If you are interested, you can check out the post here:
http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/homemadepastawithporcinis

Here is day 6:

day 6: tuscany

happy stomachs

See

I stood in the parking lot of the bus station with my arms in an awkward position, my elbows touching each other, the wrists jutting out, and the tips of my fingers meeting together at the top. Patrick was behind me, shaking with laughter, as I tried to explain to the portly gentleman (and his flock of hens) exactly what I wanted. I had begun my conversation with him, slowly and carefully. "Avete uovo?" Do you have eggs? The man, dressed in the uniform gray pants and button-down shirt of every farmer in the Montepulciano market, looked at me curiously. He responded, "No. Pollo," turning and pointing to the cages and cages of chickens behind him. "Si," I struggled to find the words to explain that eggs came from chickens, "pero uovo descendente desde pollo." I had combined Italian with my college-level Spanish and left this poor man even more confused. I tried again but with visual help by fixing my arms into an egg-like shape, and asking him again, "avete uovo?" "No, no. No! Pollo," he said roughly pointing to all the chickens behind him, "No uovo! Pollo." I walked away shame-faced, certain that I had not improved the image of the American tourist by this encounter with the Montepulciano citizenry.

But, our excursion to the Montepulciano farmers' market was not a waste. Patrick found thinly-sliced prosciutto and pungent pecorino romano from the butcher wearing white in the white cart filled with meats, cheeses, and one dark brown roasted pig. Why is it, I wondered, that the merchants with the bloodiest, messiest products only wore white to sell their goods? The mountains and valleys of the Val d'Orcia stood behind the fruit merchant as he handed us a bunch of green grapes telling us that they were "dolce." Those grapes were the closest I have tasted to the ones C.S. Lewis described as being grown by Bacchus and the Maenads: "[A]nd whatever hothouses your people may have, you have never tasted such grapes. Really good grapes, firm and tight on the outside, but bursting into cool sweetness when you put them into your mouth."

We bought red, red tomatoes and porcini mushrooms larger than my hand. The mushroom merchant gently lifted two giant handfuls of apricot-colored chanterelle mushrooms, placed them in a bag, and then charged us the appallingly low sum of 3 Euros for this slice of wonder. After our egg-buying fiasco, we walked to the neighboring Conad grocery store and searched high and low for the eggs, unable to find them anywhere in the refrigerated section. Then, finally, we found them --- unrefrigerated and sitting on a shelf like we would find loaves of bread. Perhaps it was this lack of refrigeration that led to the vibrant color of these eggs The yolks were not yellow, nor even orange, but an orange-red to rival the sinking sun. They were delicious in the morning, scrambled with onions, chanterelle mushrooms, and topped with slivers of pecorino cheese.

Our morning venture to the market left us hungry. So, we made our way to Pienza. Lovely, lovely Pienza. We could not get enough of this town --- the cobblestones, the fading yellow houses, the miniscule shops filled with multi-hued pasta and wine, and the flowers peeking out from every window and door. We ate a truly sensational meal at Latte de Luna, the popular trattoria, and then made our way through the Val d'Orcia following the famous itinerary of Fodorite Stu Dudley.

We strolled through San Quirico and Montalcino. In Montalcino, we drank wine in a little taverna and watched groups of retired men play chess. We carefully timed our arrival to the Sant' Antimo Abbey but missed the chanting by just a few minutes. We did not quite make it to Monticchiello before the light grew dim, so we turned around and made dinner in our apartment. All in all, a lovely day with two very happy bellies.

Eat

Latte de Luna sits at the corner of a street with ivy above the doorway and flowering shrubs lining the patio area. Oh, the food. Wonderful, wonderful food. We both started with the tagliatelle with truffles. It was our first time eating fresh truffles and we were not quite experienced for the culinary sensation. When we placed a sliver of the truffle on our tongues, it felt like cardboard and had no taste. But, mixed with the perfectly al-dente pasta and truffle paste, the truffle imparted a strong flavor. The flavor was not quite mushroom-like, but more intense and earthy. The pasta was luscious, indulgent, and everything we expected and hoped of our first truffle experience.

For his main course, Patrick had the roast duck with the olives. He practically licked his plate clean. The duck was tender and succulent, and the purple olives were plump and oily. I had the zucchini souffle which was soft and light; however, the zucchini flan at Osteria dei Cavalieri was a bit better. We finished with a very sweet cantucci con vin santo. One of the best meals of our trip - a must eat destination.

For dinner, we tackled the produce we found at the farmers market. We had a tagliatelle with tomatoes, onions, and chanterelles and we sauteed porcinis to a golden brown for our side dish. We sat back in our little apartment and patted our bellies while drinking glasses of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.

I forgot to post the link for the last segment with pictures. Here it is:
http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/day6tuscany

You were in Tuscany about the same time as we were. We got the car the morning after we arrived at the same garage. Fortunately we asked about reverse in the garage. We also found Florence just jam packed with people. I've been there several times and have NEVER seen it so crowded. It was also HOT HOT HOT and was a bit ruined for me.

Great photos!

Thanks grasshopper - glad you liked the pictures! It was actually the opposite when we were in Florence and we both were freezing. Our first purchase was one of those "pashmina" scarves from the San Lorenzo market and a cheap hat.

I have a pix of Montepulciano ("Montepulciano View") at the following flickr address:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32219995@N07/

It was takent between the bars of a fence at a cafe near the main square. So beautiful. Thanks for "taking" me back there!

TDudette - What a beautiful pic! I am so glad I brought you back there. I just never wanted to leave.

Here is the next post on our wine-filled adventure to the Avignonesi winery and Cortona:

Pictures and post here: http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/day7tuscany


day 7: tuscany
the vino, the vino

See: Cortona Etruscan Museum & Avignonesi and Poliziano wineries

In the morning, we drove to Cortona, the town made famous by Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun. The town stood perched on steep hills with a carpet of vineyards below it. We found respite from the dark gray fog floating over the town and the rain splashing on the cobblestones in the Cortona Etruscan museum (Cortona MAEC).

The bottom floor of the Etruscan museum contained one of the---for lack of a better word---coolest exhibits we have ever seen. The museum recreated the archeological process using life-size visual displays behind glass windows. We learned about how to find an archaeological site, then the careful digging process, and the preservation of the small household and clothing objects discovered at the sites. The upstairs rooms were a hodge-podge of Roman, Egyptian, and many Etruscan artifacts recovered from farmhouses and barns in Cortona.

And, then, we finally got to the vino. The wine tour at the Avignonesi winery was simply a steal. For 15 Euros, we were given a two hour tour of beautiful grounds and the stunning rooms in the winery. We focused on the rooms the winery used to make their famous vin santo. Vin santo is a very sweet, almost syrupy Italian dessert wine, often served with cantucci --- an almond or hazelnut biscotti.

We walked through a room filled with aisle after aisle of green and purple grapes hung on their vines and laid across shelves. Because we arrived in November, the grapes had been just harvested and looked so plump and round that I immediately wanted to pop one in my mouth. The room had the residual smell of sugar and sweetness, like a kitchen that had been used to bake sugar cookies the day before.

The grapes are dried for many months until they become raisins. The raisins are pressed and the resulting must is placed into a cask with a bit of the madre, the dark jelly of concentrated wild yeasts developed in their 50 years of making vin santo.

Then the casks sit, sealed and unopened for years. Six years later, a 40-liter barrel is opened to produce only 10 liters of vin santo. Avignonesi only sells its vin santo at Easter for several weeks.

We were six months too early to try their vin santo. But, we enjoyed several Nobiles and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and brought home a wonderful 1997 Grappa de Vin Santo, made from the reduced musts in the vin santo barrels. Afterward, we drove to the Poliziano winery and kept drinking the fine wines so carefully extracted from the ubiquitous Tuscan grapes.

Eat: Caffe la Saletta, La Grotta
We had lunch at Caffe la Saletta, a small enoteca, in Cortona. Patrick had a prosciutto pizza and I had a crepe with mozzarella, tomatoes, and olives. We shared a crostini with pecorino and balsamico. The food was fine --- nothing to write home about but reasonably priced and in a convenient area in Cortona.

We splurged for dinner at Ristorante La Grotta in Montepulciano. This gorgeous restaurant sits immediately before the Sanctuary of San Biagio, one of the most recognizable sights in the Val d'Orcia. We walked through a beautiful garden but the rain kept us from sitting outside that night. Our amuse bouche was warm ricotta topped with sauteed spinach and tomatoes. Patrick's fried porcini mushroom starter, sauteed to a golden brown in butter and garlic, simply highlighted the earthiness of the mushroom. My pecorino cheese soufle was creamy and soft and complemented by spinach and fresh tomatoes. Patrick's primi, a fettucini with rabbit sauce, was made with homemade fettucini pasta and a delicious rabbit sauce. My vegetable lasagnette was our only disappointment. Vegetables and tomato sauce were layered between thin slices of potato "pasta" was slightly bland. Patrick's secondi, a steak, was perfectly cooked (and coming from Patrick, that is high praise indeed). The grape must sauce that coated my pecorino cheese ravioli was so good that I wanted to lick the plate. We finished with excellent chocolate napoleons, light but, at the same time, dense chocolate cakes with homemade pistachio gelato. A fantastic meal in a beautiful location. If you are willing to spend the money, you won't regret it.

The grape shots were great! The food, the food! Making a note of the restaurant.

Thanks TDudette. You definitely should go to Ristorante La Grotta. It was wonderful.

What a wonderful trip report...I'm really looking forward to our upcoming trips to Pienza and Montepulciano, at the same time regretting my reluctant agreement to spend one night in Florence.

I vowed I would never go back the last time I went and being reminded of the crowds made me realize why I don't want to go back.

Unfortunately our reservations are non-refundable.

Maybe we'll go late in the day and get out ASAP the next morning...ugh.

akila - very much enjoying your trip report. We spend a month or more in Tuscany and Venice each year, always staying in apartments so that I can cook and my husband can pursue his interest in choosing the appropriate wine to go with the meal. We'll be in Montepulciano in October, studying at Il Sasso, the Italian language school there, for the 5th time. We never miss La Grotta - probably our favorite restaurant in all of Italy. Please keep the recipes coming on your beautiful website!

Thank you nina and roamer! Nina, we felt like the crowds were much less in the evening. In fact, because we were staying near the Duomo, the entire area emptied out around 6:00 p.m. If you head there around 2 or 3, you may miss the worst of the crowds. Roamer, I can't believe that you get to spend a month in Tuscany every year! I am so envious. Thanks so much for the kind words about the recipes and our site. I am getting ready to post a new recipe in a few days, so I will post the link here as well.

I will be looking for the link - thank you!

For roamer (and any others who liked our recipe posts), our most recent recipe post is up: http://www.theroadforks.com/offtheroad/goatcheesestuffedtomatoes
It's also featured on Tastespotting today. I am working on our next post regarding Orvieto and should have it up in the next day or two.