FLORENCE FOOD + CITY EXPLORING - everything to see and eat!

I have to tell you guys, Italian food is so good. I'm contemplating turning into a food vlogger but the travel vlogger in me still prevails. I'm in the birthplace of the Renaissance. Welcome to Florence. I'm going to be exploring this place for the next three days and of course trying the Tuscan food. So let's go and eat our way through Florence. Welcome guys to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance and the capital of Italy's Tuscany region. I'm super excited to explore the architecture and the art over here and of course to try out the Tuscany food. So I got onto a train from Rome that took about two hours to get here and it was a 13 euro train. So cheap. I checked into my hostel and it's lunch time. So before the exploring begins, let's go get some food. So I stopped by at a place called I hope I've got that name right and I've ordered this. It's a panini and it's made with a bread called shashata. So this one's got raw ham, it's got a little bit of truffle and it's all been topped up with a layer of cream cheese. So I'm super excited to try it out. It's nice and warm. It was made fresh at the bar. Oh my god. Wow. The flavor of the ham is so good. My favorite is how crunchy this flatbread is. Even though it's crunchy, it's still so soft and easy to bite through. I give it a 10 out of 10. Oh my god. Walking through these streets, I really feel like I'm walking through history. It's so cool. It's like a giant open-air medieval museum. I have just made it to the Piazza della Signoria which is one of the liveliest squares here in Florence. It once used to be a place of political gathering. It has these beautiful sculptures. I swear the level of detail in them makes them look almost lifelike. And also that right over there which is the Palazzo Vecchio. I literally sat on my phone for about an hour trying to figure out all the history behind all the sculptures here and there is a lot of it. But I also learned that banking was a system that was developed here in Florence by the Medici family which is actually the family that influenced the renaissance. How cool is that? And also the renaissance sculptures full of nudity. Now that is graphic. You guys, what the heck? Oh my god. This is the building that you think of when you hear the word Florence. This is the Santa Maria del Fiore. You guys, this may as well be one of the most beautiful buildings I've seen in my entire life. So at its time, it was the biggest church that was ever constructed and it took just under 200 years to construct. And it's crazy, you can actually see the architectural differences on different parts of the buildings because of that. And if you look at it, it looks like an animated drawing that's just been dropped in the middle of this piazza. And through the detail and grandeur of all of it, you can really tell how seriously the Catholics took religion. All that history and all that beauty was just making me crave some gelato. My favorite flavors so far are café and stracciatella. Oh my god, I could eat this all day every day. Something I've noticed in Italy is that people walk their dogs everywhere. You'll find them in public transport, you'll find them in shops and some of these dogs are so cute. The great thing about staying at hostels, which is what I'm doing, is you get to meet friends. And this is Sam. Sam and I have come to this random restaurant to get some aperitivo. So this is an Aperol Spritz. Got some bruschetta before we head out to check out a really cool bridge. Man, I love the Italian life. Starting off with appetizers at like 6 pm and then just hanging out before you go for dinner. It's the best thing ever. I don't know how you eat this. Super crunchy, yeah. Yeah, we've been given the smallest table. I don't think you can get more authentic than this. Just drop it all over the place. Like we're literally seated on furniture that just shakes. That's the traditional way of sitting in Florence. It's fun, it's fun. We've just made it to the Ponte Vecchio right in time for sunset and it's this beautiful bridge that has these buildings lined all along it and this sunset. Can't get any better than this, can it? You can't. It's just so, it's just so beautiful. Wow. So we're walking through the bridge and this bridge is actually very well known for the fact that it has a lot of shops lined along it. It's one of the oldest bridges here in Florence. So all the shops once upon a time used to be either butcheries, tanneries, but that would cause a lot of smell and so they eventually shut down those shops and they were taken up by jewelry shops. Unfortunately, right now most of them are closed. Marriage. Yes, marriage. So we've just arrived to this restaurant called Bucalabi and it's very very fancy. I love the way it looks and we're here to have something called a Florentine steak. Oh my god, look at that. Thank you, thank you so much. So Florence is known for the Florentine steak. I wasn't going to have it initially but then when I arrived here, I was kind of like, I have to. Like how can you come to Florence and not try the Florentine steak? You can see how rare the meat is. So much red over there. I've never had meat this rare before. Wow. Wow. 60 euros, very very well spent. It hurts a little bit but... Buonissimo. Buono. Buono. This morning I signed up for a cooking class on Airbnb. So the thing is, I've enjoyed eating so much Italian food. So now I want to learn a little bit on how to make some and so we've been brought to this beautiful rooftop with a view of the Duomo which it's so breathtaking. You can actually see all of Florence from here. So this morning we're going to be learning how to make three dishes, a full lunch if you will and we've got all the gear, we've got the views, got some fresh ingredients. We actually went to the market in the morning to buy everything. It was so nice. We're going to learn how to make a bruschetta, a pasta and tiramisu. I love tiramisu. I can't believe I'm going to be learning how to make it. Let's start cooking. I put up a whole audience here, So first off we're going to start with the tiramisu. Oh my god, I'm actually making tiramisu. You never make a tiramisu in your life? No, never. But it was everywhere. You traveled everywhere. Yeah but I would order my tiramisu. Tiramisu done. And this you must cut like this. In small pieces if you can. You guys keep in mind I've only cooked like five times. Oh my god, you cut like my mom. Could you like cut all the tomatoes for us? Yeah, okay. I love chopping. It's cool. Nice. It also smells so good. I will think it's better to start with just one spoon. Then if it's not enough, we put slowly. Otherwise it comes too dry or too soft. So back at home when we start the pasta making, it starts from buying pasta in a freaking packet. So I am actually excited to be making pasta from scratch. Now it's really easy. You have just to roll in this way the, how it's called? Rolling pin. Ah, rolling pin. Mattarello is a little crazy. Why? Because the women beat you with it? Yes. Yes, Indianapolis. You guys, this is like the most eureka moment for me. Look at this. Tagliatelle. I have made tagliatelle. What even. We're done with the prep and the brusetta is ready. It's time to taste what we've cooked. Phenomenal. That right there is literally four ingredients. So you've got cherry tomatoes, a basil. I'm so excited to try this dish out. I love how you can put the simplest ingredients together and just make the most mind-blowing dishes. All because of just how fresh these ingredients are. It's so good. Finally the tiramisu. So good. I thought there was more that goes into making tiramisu, but it's such a simple dish. Cooking was super fun and we're back to exploring the city and we like literally just walked into like a medieval art shop. Like everything here looks so cool. Loads of cool things that you could take back home. 800 euros. It's like a little mini library thing. Here's a fun fact for you guys. So Pinocchio was actually based in Florence and so you'll find so many shops that are selling like Pinocchio themed masks and dolls. Some of them are so creative. When you're walking through the streets of Florence, you'll actually find that you smell a lot of leather. You'll see loads of leather good manufacturers and shops selling all sorts of leather items. I actually didn't know this until I came here, but Florence is one of those places that produces some of the best leather products in the entire world. These are some solid shoes, man. Actually, I think I'm gonna try that on. Just take it off. That's a beautiful jacket. No, seriously, take it off. I want it. Okay, nice. Oh my god, the feeling. It's insane. It's so nice. Oh my god. I feel like an Italian man. 680 freaking pounds. Am I reading that correct or is it 68? 680. I can't afford this. This is a place that you've probably seen on every Florence vlog. It's called Antico Vinaio and I know why everyone recommends this place. I ordered this panini that a local guy, like he just came in and said he orders this all the time. So, I was like give me the same order. This is like the best sandwich I've ever had. It's got ham. It's got this like chili inside and lettuce and tomatoes. Oh my god. And everything is like literally just being brought in fresh. Bread is fresh. The ham is fresh. Oh, that is so good. Good morning guys from day three here in Florence and I'm starting off my morning at this very popular gelato place. It's called Venchi. It was quite pricey though but so good. Like it's so insane. They have a display with a chocolate fountain at the back which has the name Venchi. One of the coolest things I've ever seen. I feel like no amount of licking can stop a gelato from melting and my shirt seemed to love it more than I did. So, Tuscany is a region that's known for its wines. It has some of the best wines in the entire world. So, I've driven out of Florence towards the countryside to an area called Chianti for a wine tasting experience. It was about an hour long drive and we had to use a taxi because unfortunately the bus services were on strike and this experience is going to be a super fun one for me because I have no idea about anything about wine and these are all the wines that we're going to be trying. So, for about an hour we were taught about the history of the different wines, how wine is produced. We were even taken to the cellars and shown how wine is stored in barrels. Such a super cool process. Half of it flew over my head but I have a little bit of an understanding, just a little bit of an understanding on different wines here and wow, the art that goes into producing wine is mind-blowing. So, we're going to be served I think 12 wines and different cheeses as accompaniments to try with them. So, here's a fun little fact for you guys. When you have a wine, it has either a primary or a secondary like scent to it and when it's younger you have this sort of cherry fruity smell to it and then over time that starts reducing. So, when the wine gets older then the fragrance turns into a secondary fragrance and those would tend to be more of like a chilly or a spicy fragrance. Very interesting. And these cheeses, they're so so good. So, I haven't really understood how to pair the cheeses with the wines but what I'm doing is I'm having a sip of wine and trying a bite of cheese. It's like every sip of wine like completely changes the flavor of the cheese. It's so interesting and we made it to a viewpoint where you can see all of Florence during sunset called Piazzale Michelangelo. That right there is my dude David. Oh my god, wow. What a way to end off my final day here in Florence watching a sunset over the beautiful city. So, with that guys, thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to hit that like button and if you want to see the rest of my journey through Europe make sure to hit that subscribe button and I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace!