A Steak to the Art

Tuscany and Florence in particular are justifiably famous for their cooking. Perhaps the most famous dish is bistecca fiorentina. This is a vast tranche of steak, taken from a specific Tuscan breed of cattle, the white chianina. It is supposed to be the absolute bee's knees of the steak world - only maybe rivalled by Japanese kobe or wagayu beef. Pie-master friends of mine had raved over Florentine bistecca - so much so that I could actually hear them salivating over the phone just talking about it. Obviously I thought that I had to get me some of that!

You will find bistecca on the menu of most reputable restaurants in Florence - or indeed throughout Tuscany. There are hurdles to overcome. You generally won't find it for lunch. Nor do I think you'd particularly want it for lunch - it generally gets served in one kilogram chunks! You can maybe find it served in smaller portions, but don't bank on it. A plate is generally dished out to serve two (oh, those romantic Italians!). Which left a solo traveller like me in the lurch. So do not be afraid to ask for it. The concept you will need to grasp here is that of the 'etto'. An etto is 100g. So if you were looking for a portion for one you might ask for something around "quattro, cinque etti?" I found that the answer to this question was often in the negative, though you might be offered an alternative piece of steak, as I was at Da Il Latini. Indeed, it was only on my last night in Florence, at La Colonnine, that I finally managed to get my half-kilo slab of meat.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that this steak is the be-all and end-all of Tuscan cuisine however. I would say that the tastiest single dish I had in ten days in Tuscany was actually my first - the Porchettino al'Olio al Fromaggio del Grutto I had at Osteria delle Belle Donne. This was an absolutely stunning concoction of wafer-thin strips of suckiling pig, coupled with artichoke hearts and mushrooms in oil, and a few slices of cave-aged cheese.

And of course, what is a trip to Italy without a sampling of Italian gelato? Some places let the down side a little; happily I can state for the record that Vestri is not one of them. Technically this busy little store-front is actually a cioccolateria, but they sell some really good gelato here. Of course, all the flavours are somewhat chocolate intensive... The place is well worth walking a minute or two east from the duomo to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Quick Tips:

You can eat very well in Florence. But it comes at a price. For an evening meal, do not budget on spending less than €40 (£30). You can find the odd bargain, but you need to look for them - and generally get out away from the heart of Florence.

You will find set lunch-time menus displayed. And you will pick up at least one flyer for the Ristorante / Pizzeria Uffizi - they seem to employ an entire army of leafleters to hand out promotional material. I can't say I went there, but these set menus can be decent if not particularly exciting. For those on a budget, you may want to think about self-catering for lunch, picking ingredients up in a supermarket. You don't need to over-indulge here since you will find it hard to get away without at least three courses for your evening meal!

Despite the number of students - and in particular international students - in Florence, it can seem pretty quiet in terms of nightlife. Maybe, I thought, Florence is just a bit too genteel for all that? Maybe, all the students are in their rooms, reasearching Botticelli rather than birra, da Vinci rather than vino nobile? Well, I finally managed to track down some relatively central options on my very last night in town. There seems to be two distinct areas where a number of joints provide some atmosphere: the area along Via dei Benci - Via Giuseppe Verdi west of Piazza Santa Croce, and along Via dei Renai, east of the Ponte alle Grazie in the Oltarno district.

One last thing... I'm sure I don't need to say this, but there is more to Florence than steak and wine. Do not neglect to make the most of all the artistic wonders that Florence has to offer. There's nothing like a worthy afternoon spent immersing yourself in culture at the Uffizi, or a bracing walk up to San Miniato al Monte, to make you feel that you really deserve that bottle of chianti...

Best Way To Get Around:

Florence is easily walkable. The 15th century core of the city is fairly small, and even the walk from, say, Santa Croce to Santa Maria Novella should take you no more than 30 minutes. From the Duomo to the Ponte Vecchio it is less than 10 minutes. Much of the city centre is pedestrianised - though the traffic around the Piazza del Duomo and along the Lungarno can be irksome.

Florence has its own international airport, served by the larger carriers such as Alitalia and British Airways. However, I think most Europeans these days will probably be flying in to Pisa, which houses budget airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet. Terravision coaches connect directly with Ryanair flights and will ferry you from the airport to Florence and vice versa. Pisa itself is only 80 minutes by train from Florence, and hence makes a good half-day out. In fact many trains from Florence actually run all the way to Pisa Airport.

Like all Italian trainstations, Florence's Stazione Centrale S. M. Novella (don't get off at one of the suburban stations!) is easy to use, with automated ticket machines in English. Just ensure you get your ticket stamped in one of the yellow machines before you board the train.

The coach station is just to the west of the train station. It is much easier to travel onwards to Siena by bus than by train, and I would encourage you to take a diversion there. Florence’s historic rival is stunning, preserved in aspic and yet missing all of Florence's crowds. In many ways I was unable to relax until I hit Siena. And you can certainly dine well there – check out Hosteria Il Corroccio or Antica Osteria da Divo. The journey takes 80 minutes each way, but you really need an overnight stay to make the most of Siena.

Another restaurant I can recommend is Osteria delle Catene in San Gimignano. This is another easy day out via bus, though you will probably have to change at Poggibonsi. The town itself is quite stunning with its incongruous medieval towers, and well rewards a day trip.

I suppose Hotel Chiazza is proof of the maxim ‘you get what you pay for’. Yet I don’t think €40.00 (£30.00) a night is exactly skimping. However the exceptionally basic lodgings I had here cost the same as a pretty lovely en suite room I had booked right in the heart of Venice on the same website (www.venere.com), and was only 25% less than what I paid for another equally nice room in Siena. I suppose this is evidence of the price inflation prevalent in Florence – you try getting a room for a reasonable price!

Location-wise, the Hotel is faily well situated. It is at the southern end of Borgo Pinti near Piazza Salvemini. From this small triangular square stright roads will take you directly to San Lorenzo, Piazza del Duomo, or Piazza della Repubblica in roughly five minutes’ walk. Chiazza is on the second floor of a block. The generally helpful owners will give you keys and a door code in case you return late at night. There is also a good inclusive breakfast of cereals, juices, coffee, cakes and pastries.

However, the room itself was a shoebox. A narrow (yet strangely high) room with dull wood panelling, a monastically thin undersprung bed, a sink, a bidet, and a bit of a weird aroma. It was the presence of the bidet that confused me. The actual toilets were down the hallway. The toilet room also held the shower head. No cubicle, just the shower head and a tiled floor. I had opted for a ‘shared bathroom’ to save on money, but I failed to realise this would include sharing the one toilet. This caused me some great concern one morning when I awoke and needed the loo, but found that someone was already in there having a shower. Cross-legged I staggered to the reception desk, and was ushered up a rickety flight of stairs to a combination staff toilet / wardrobe / DIY site with no lock.

My advice is to avoid. There are no such things as bargains in Florence. If you think you have found one, you’re wrong.

I had not intended to come here. I only found the place while waiting for Da Il Latini to open for evening trade. But I certainly don’t regret my visit. As it was, it was a great introduction to Florentine cuisine.

The osteria is located on the ‘Street of Beautiful Women’ (strange how I gravitated here, isn’t it?). It has one cramped room, the bar piled high with marrows, magnums of Vino Nobile de Montepulciano, and an inflatable Spiderman sat in an ‘Emmanuelle’-style wicker chair. One wall was coated thickly with postcards that must have been there for 25 years. I guess that it could seat around 36 people at the adjacent tables at a real push. It is certainly not the place to come if you value your privacy or personal space.

In Florence you are used to menus in practically every language under the sun; Osteria delle Belle Donne has one menu, written in Italian on pink paper. A pair of poor Japanese students didn’t have a clue – they just pointed hopefully at pictures of meat in their guidebook. Fortunately I had an actual phrasebook in my pocket. As such I showed no fear in confidently ordering Porchettino al’Olio al Fromaggio del Grutto.

If I have ever said that pork is my least favourite meat, then I hereby apologise. This was strips of suckling pig (I don’t know if the diminutive ‘porchettINO’ meant either little strips or little pig – i.e. piglet). But my God it was good – marbled with fat, crispy on the outside, but totally melt-in-the-mouth. I didn’t chew, just pressed with my tongue and sucked. It says something that just writing this I can remember the taste coming flooding back to me some five months later. It came with a collection of different mushrooms and artichoke hearts preserved in oil. I had never had artichoke before. Turns out I like it. I know, I’m surprised too! And mushrooms are always to my taste. The final bits of the plate were four firm, slightly rubbery bits of cave-aged cheese. In terms of taste the cheese didn’t really add anything other than a change in texture.

It was a good thing I had decided that I liked artichoke, as my main course was lamb stuffed with artichoke, served with roast potatoes. Frankly, after that starter I was a little disappointed with the size of my main course. The three lamb chops were on the small size, bulked out with spuds. The lamb was tasty though, and the potatoes were freshly cooked and almost scaldingly hot. They were a touch more salty than I make them, but I decided that this was not necessarily a Bad Thing (over-salted food turned out to be something of a leitmotif for my dining experiences in Tuscany for some reason).

I finished off with a panna cotta. This was not over-salted. I suppose I was expecting a wild-berry sauce (in March! What was I thinking?) and so I was a little put out by the chocolate sauce I got, which I’m sure would have been prefectly good if I hadn’t had odd expectations.

And so, the bill. €10.00 for the porchetta (an absolute bargain by the way!), €14.00 for the lamb, €4.00 for panna cotta (which is a pretty decent price), two bottles of beer (Nastro Azzurro) at around €3.00 each (again, a good price for a restaurant), €1.50 for being there (i.e. cover charge and bread – which incidentally wasn’t up to much), and 10% service charge. Personally I think it is cheeky charging cover AND service. In total is amounted to €40.30 (around £30). Which on the whole I have to say was an acceptable price for three courses and beer. I would certainly return, if only for the porchettino, which I think was the nicest single course I enjoyed in ten days in Tuscany. And also next time I’ll try to use the condiments. The balsamic vinegar on the table was practically maroon in colour, and it seemed to have nettles growing in it!

It was after reading reviews on IgoUgo that I decided that Da Il Latini looked like a good restaurant to try out due to all the positive reviews. Well here comes another to bolster their reputation. This is an absolutely top-class restaurant. Great food, good service, a pretty decent price for what you get, and some quite remarkable theatre.

Da Il Latini is set on a tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it alley. A review had said to get there at 7.15. I did, but the place was closed. It does not actually open until 7.30. I didn’t want to hang around and look desperate like the other two people that turned up while I was there, so I wandered off to have a look around. I eventually ended up at Osteria delle Bella Donna, where I had a really nice meal.

Anyway, the following night I thought I’d try Da Il Latini again. I intended to get there around half-past, but I made better time that I anticipated and arrived at 7.20. The scene that greeted me was completely different. There had been one couple waiting on the Wednesday; on the Thursday there was already a queue of about one hundred!

When the doors opened, the queue surged forward. There must be a system, but I’m dashed if I know what it is. The maitres d’ syphoned us all off to separate areas in the ground floor rooms or upstairs. There must be quite a complex of rooms! I wouldn’t know. I was sat right on a communal table by the main bar, facing the door. Whole hams hung overhead, and one man at the bar had the job of using a manually-operated slicer to cut off wafer-thin slivers of prosciutto. He kept this up for the entire two hours I was there.

In terms of the grub you are not presented with a massive amount of choice. You eat what you’re given. The Japanese couple to my left went a la carte (they had Japanese menus!), as did the lady in red sat opposite me, who did not look terribly overjoyed with her meal. But the Mancunian blackbelt to my right had eaten here three times previously in the last fortnight. She explained that in general the staff preferred you not to use the menu – particularly on weekend evenings. What this meant was that I felt a little bit worried in that I never really knew what the cost was adding up to.

First off, drinks. I asked for and requested a bottle of water. There was a two-litre carafe of red wine on the table. The wine is "for the table… by the glass", the waiter explained, somewhat obliquely. This confused me. They charge you by how many glasses you have? How do they know? I shrugged and poured myself a tumbler full.

The first question came. "Antipasti?" Sure. So a plate of the wafer-thin prosciutto and a bit of sausage was plonked down before me. Then a second plate of salami and some fat-marbled meat (Tuscan sausage) was put down to my right. And then a third plate appeared to my left with bruschetta, one with chopped tomato on top, one with a mushy chicken liver pate. The pate I could not finish – it tasted fat too liver-y for me. Everything else I gobbled up. Everyone got exactly the same combination.

Second course. "Pasta or soup?" Pasta. Okay, pasta with cheese and spinach, penne with beef, or pasta with wild boar? Always lured by the most exotic, I went for boar. Plus I was planning on beef for the main course. The dish arrived straight away, stamp-shaped pieces of slightly al dente pasta, and a rather grainy-textured ragu. There is clearly a reason why beef is usual meat of choice in pasta sauces.

When it came to my secundo, I asked for the famous bistecca fiorentina. Oh no. At Da Il Latini they only sell it in sizes of a kilogram or more. I really didn’t think I’d be able to stomach an entire kilo of beef (particularly not at €45 per kg), so no. The waiter then offered me two other beef options – filet mignon or prime rib. I went for the latter, with potatoes.

I must have ended up with well over a half kilo of steak! A good five centimetres thick, it was still a vivid red at the heart. I had to get a photograph of the hefty chunk o’meat. But how did it taste? Well… It. Was. Delicious. I had to chew a bit, but the middle was so liquescent that squeezing it with my tongue was pure joy. Annoyingly, I found that the more-cooked edge was a bit too salty for my taste (I found this throughout Tuscany – a rash of over-salted dishes. Heaven knows why!). The side-dish of potatoes were seasoned exactly right however, with rosemary I think, a bit like a German pfannkuchen. To be honest, I was a little bit surprised (and impressed) with myself when I looked down at two polished-clean plates.

Stuffed, I said no to a dessert. However, my waiter presented me with a glass of marsala and a biscotti to dunk. Despite the fact that there were about twenty people queueing outside the staff seemed in no hurry to see me leave. Maybe that’s the attraction – always leave ‘em queueing, restrict access, create a demand. Mind you, trays of aperitifs were occassionally taken out to keep the queue warm.

Throughout the meal, my attention had been constantly attracted by the individual sitting beyond the black-belt and her Swiss friend. A rather crumpled old man with a nose like a fungus sat there with a glamorous Ukrainian blonde. Everyone who came in shook his hand. Very Italian. Very Mafia. Except that he sat with his back to the door. We hypothesised that he was the padron. No. Eventually in conversation with him it came out that he was Salvatore Ferragamo, of the shoes fame. He was a cheerful sort – when he saw that the two women were keeping their receipts for expenses he freely offered to let them have his too!

When the bill came I had to double-check with my waiter. I was not sure whether it said €40 or €60. It turned out that it was forty. Only one line was filled in: ‘fixed price menu’. So for €40 I got a bottle of water, three or four tumblers of red wine, three plates of antipasti, a bowl of pasta, a 5cm thick steak with potatoes, and biscotti. How much more could I have got away with? Impressed, I left €50.

I would return here without the slightest hesitation. And this time I would be a lot more confident with my ordering, knowing that the final bill would not be extortionate. It is by no means an unknown destination in Florence, but locals as well as tourists dine here, and it is a great experience. Just sit back, help yourself to the table wine without guilt or fear, and enjoy the show!

Ciro & Sons is located not far from the San Lorenzo and the Cappelle Medicee, and so is ideally placed for a lunch-stop. As long as you do not miss the opening of the Capelle as a result, as I did. Inside it is very plush – brilliant white table cloths, gleaming cutlery and glasses. According to their website (www.ciroandsons.com) the patches of fresco on the walls are not merely for show – this restauarant is located in what was once the palace of the papal Aldobrandini family. So far, so swanky. And as the name (‘Ciro and Sons’, not ‘Ciro e Figli’) show, they are used to catering to tourists.

However, as the name also suggests, this is very much a family concern. The flat-screen LCD on the wall introduces ‘the next generation’, actually the fifth generation from this culinary family – babies sat in stew-pots, kids sampling the wine etc. The slide show also shows Ciro himself, in chef’s whites trawling the fresh fruit markets, plucking live lobsters from tanks, and weighing up cheeses the size of a car tyre. And then of course there were images of the dishes themselves. Absolute food porn. Meanwhile the mellow soundtrack was sax-intensive early ‘90s smooth jazz covers of tunes such as Michael Jackson’s ‘Rock With You’, or Gladys Knight’s ‘Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)’.

They have bistecca here, per 100g, and resonably priced. I hummed and hawed, but frankly that is just too much for a lunch. However, they advertised themselves as an ‘antica pizzeria’, so I went for a pizza. Mine had white Alfredo sauce, cherry tomatoes, slices of Tuscan ham, black truffle, and arugaula (which I had heard of before, but never had. Or so I thought – it turned out to be rocket). The pizza was actually jolly nice, a wide thin crispy Neapolitan concoction. Sizewise it was good value for money. However, my view is that the addition of truffle probably added a couple of Euro to the price, but added nothing to the taste. The little black flakes did not really taste of anything at all. This cost be €14.00. I also went for dessert, a sliver of apple pie with vanilla gelato. Again, very nice, but I felt that at €7.00 it was a tad overpriced for the size of portion I got.

Touristy it might be, but Ciro & Sons is a nice place with very high standards. And I wish them well in training up the fifth generation of the family. Just keep them out of the stew-pots!

La Colonnine is a narrow wedge of a building between Via dei Benci and Borgo Santa Croce. It is hence pretty near Santa Croce. They advertised bistecca fiorentina so I went in to check that they could do me one around 4 or 5 etti. The bearded waiter said that the smallest one they did was 600g. I looked dubious. He could take it off the bone for me? Okay. At last, on my last night in Florence, I would get to try the famous bistecca fiorentina.

First impressions? Well for starters, over half the customers here were Italian, something I always take as a good sign. Inside the awkward space was very modern, almost like a Japanese restaurant. I took my place and scanned the menu. I didn’t have to think much about what to have as an appetizer: Tuscan sausage with porcini sott’olio. Tuscan sausage is much wider than the humble British banger, and comes sliced, showing off its fat-marbled texture. The porcini were bursting with flavour – you really can’t go wrong with mushrooms in Italy!

Then came my bistecca, a thick ol’ chunk of chianina beef, lovely and pink inside. Even better, it was not too salty. Result! If I’m absolutely 100% honest with myself, I think in terms of steak I preferred the rib I had at Da Il Latini the day before, but that should not be taken as a negative comment on the meal here. To complete the experience I had chianti – they did a half-bottle of 2005 vintage for €7.00 so I opted for that. It was smooth and peppery.

I felt that I – maybe- had room for dessert so I threw myself open to the waiter. What would he recommend? So for an additional €4.00 I got a pretty sizeable slice of chocolate torte. He seemed to know what he was about, so as I paid the bill I asked a further question – where was good for a birra? As it turned out, the place he suggested, Moyo, happened to be right across the street. And you can’t get much more convenient than that!

I was directed to Moyo by a waiter after I had dined across the street at la Colonnine. This is a trendy place; indeed in my experience the Via de’Benci is one of the few places with a nightlife scene in sedate Florence. The chairs have backs in the shape of the letter ‘M’. And at the window the ‘M’ is joined by an ‘O’, a ‘Y’, and another ‘O’. It has dim lighting with prisms in the shades. I got myself a glass of draught Nastro Azzurro (€6.00) and found myself a seat in the corner to watch the nightlife. This is where the beautiful people of Florence come. Mostly students, and principally Italian, but you can spot a few international types – much like myself, they were the scruffier ones!

They have an entire menu of cocktails for €7.00. You could probably guess as much by looking at the bar-top, which was liberally covered with containers of limes, lemons, cherries, straws, and Tabasco sauce. The music policy was nice and chilled – a sample tune would be Gotan Project’s ‘Tango Cancion’. Sadly at 10:30 a different DJ took over and swapped to generic chart R’n’B, whereupon I left.

What is a trip to Italy that does not include gelato? Whether you are an ice-cream maniac back home or not, Italian gelati is so often so completely out of this world it really does not deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as it. So sorry.

I am very pleased to report that the gelato at Vestri well and truly hits the spot. At heart it is a chocolate shop, an offshoot of the original store in Arezzo, and in March the store front was decorated with Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. However, it is certainly no slouch when it comes to the gelato. A good sign – as far as I’m concerned – is that the tubs of ice cream are covered and not open to every passing fly. Another good sign is the brisk trade – generally there are two are three people in the little queue, and primarily they are Italian-speakers. And Italians know gelato.

As you might expect from a chocolateria, the speciality flavours all tend to involve chocolate – chocolate with orange, chocoalte with ginger, chocolate with hazlenut, chocolate with chocolate – take your pick. I went for chocolate with Sicilian orange, two scoops of dark devilish choc, with the lighter orange flavour perfuming it. Real bits of candied orange peel were buried in there. Yum.

Prices are pretty reasonable. My two scoops (big scoops!) in a cone cost €2.10, but you can get a taster for as little as €1.50. And of course you can go up the scale as well until you get full-on death by chocolate gelato.

To get here head east from Piazza del Duomo along Via dell’Oriuolo until you reach the little square at the end. Vestri is on your right-hand side.