FLORENCE, ITALY Food Tour!

Good morning friends. Thanks for joining me today. I'm in Florence, Italy a city of history and culture and Beautiful sights, but you guys know what I'm really here for I'm here for the food as you know We are spending one month in Italy based out of Bologna this morning We woke up bright and early and we took a train a high-speed train down here to Florence It only took us 30 minutes and I cannot tell you how Excited I am that we got here so quickly. I had to start my day off with an amazing coffee It's called Vita artiginale a coffee shop that sources sustainable product and makes Incredible coffee roast not to mention the actual building itself is beautiful and I Recommend anybody stop by and just check it out for yourself. I got myself a v60 brew It's a pour over style brew It takes a little bit longer to brew but it's totally worth it because the extraction you get from those Awesome coffee beans that they're using is totally worth the wait This is their cute little cup and I got the Colombian roast Amazing. It's got those chocolatey notes like cacao, you know right now We're at La Piazza della Santissima Annunziata You can already see how romantic this city is It's an overcast morning and you have the beautiful glow coming in from the buildings. It's so adorable There's people taking their wedding photos right now. All right, you guys know I'm already working up a hunger But I've got to make a stop at the Galleria dell'Accademia to see some amazing Renaissance art and the Statue of David. I'm not leaving here without seeing that. So let's go we just got done seeing the Statue of David and my goodness, it's more impressive than you can imagine it's Absolutely breathtaking when you walk into this hall and you look to your right and there it is standing in this beautiful elegant stand under this light just washing this Incredibly large statue you can't help but feel super Grateful and know that this may be the first and only time you'll ever see this in your life. It's truly impressive and Maybe a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. Honestly, I'm starving right now, but most Restaurants and places that I at least I have on my list don't open till about 11 or 11 30 It's only 10 o'clock right now. So that gives us enough time to head over to the Uffizi gallery. So let's go over there now It's amazing what you're gonna see when you walk from the Accademia to the Uffizi I'm standing in front of the Catedral di Santa Maria del Fiore Also known as the Duomo That is the huge dome that stands atop the city that you see in every single picture of Florence We made it into the Uffizi gallery So we just got finished up at the Uffizi gallery and there are tons of restaurants right there in that square But we just took a five-minute bike ride out of the way a little bit to Mercato Sant'Ambrogio There's a trattoria here that I want to take you guys to it gets great reviews by locals and they have some Tuscan dishes that I want to try. Let's go. So this is like a giant food hall We're looking for Trattoria da Rocco. Let's go find it Okay, it wasn't as hard to find as I thought it's right here let's go check it out Our first course we ordered the Papa al Pomodoro This is a classic Tuscan bread soup and it's got tomato Dale bread basil garlic and other herbs It's very thick as you can see, it's almost like a puree. It smells so tomato-y, like really good Wow That's so rich and tomato-y The bread gives it a nice texture and consistency And it's also got a light sweetness to it. It's really good One of their Saturday specials are the polpette fritte, which is the fried meatballs. They're actually breaded in this crust It's kind of like a almost like a panko bread A fine breadcrumb. Wow, look at that. Look at that inside How tender that meat is. It's not like your typical meatball that you've ever seen, right? It almost looks like a croquette, like una croqueta Whoa, that's good. The meat is very smooth like a paste It is very much like like a croquette The meat has been browned finely and then it has that breading on the outside with the lemon It's awesome. For my main course dish, I ordered the Arista It's a roast pork roll and it's seasoned with Italian herbs and wrapped in twine and then it's roasted Sliced thin and served with some of the jus on top. It's sliced so thin almost like like deli meat It's actually not served hot It's like a cool room temperature And you're tasting the the rosemary coming through really really well. We're having a quintessential Tuscan region wine, the Chianti So juicy Fruity and it just immediately complements all the dishes we're having here. I'm gonna try some of the fried meatballs with the papa pomodoro That's the combo. That pomodoro It's so Thick you actually can see chunks of the bread that was broken off into pieces and cubes and put in that soup And it's so saturated with the tomato flavor. It's amazing. This restaurant that's been in operation for over 30 years is run by Rocco Who the name of the restaurant is after and one of his specialties are the baked pears and this is it right here It's a beautiful caramelized baked pear And if you see them in the baking dishes outside of the restaurant, you're definitely not going to be able to decline one It's got orange. It's got a beautiful bay leaf a grape and then just all this beautiful caramelization, which is probably The Chianti red wine that it's baked in almost poached in the oven It's so soft as soon as I put in the knife look at that it was like effortless to cut into it Wow That juice is so decadent looking Wow. It's like a beautiful red wine syrup Perfect bite to the pear. It's not too soft Soft enough where it's easy to eat easy to slice and it still has the skin on which has got Gives a lot more texture to it. I love how they left that there This syrup is fantastic. It's sweet. It's got some depth of flavor There's actually like caramelized candy chunks in the dish I didn't expect that and I just bit into one and it was like roasty Caramelly and just like that burnt sugar flavor in a good way Chasing that pair with a cafe cafe espresso The combination is ideal and it's the perfect pick-me-up and this is the second one I have today And I promise you it won't be the last Like many places in Italy you're trying to get from point A to point B And it's almost impossible to be interrupted by something that catches your eye And as we were on our way to the next place, we came across this wine on tap store and they actually sell wine by the cup Francesco the owner of the Establishment gave us a suggestion to have the blend of the Sangiovese Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It's a young wine and He highly recommended this for what we normally drink That's lovely it definitely has that young wine flavor to it You're getting a little bit of the tannins, but you're still getting berries and dark Just almost ripened fruit. It's delicious You can't come to Florence without trying a sandwich in sketch at that bread similar to focaccia But it's more flat and it's also Seasoned very well on the outside with olive oil and salt one of the ones we're trying is the pomodoro fresco and mozzarella Di bufala and the bread is nice and warm. It's crispy on the outside But you can already feel how soft and doughy it is on the inside. We've got two sandwiches one of them is mozzarella di bufala with fresh tomato and the second one is Lard with prosciutto a sun-dried tomato and pecorino cheese Miquel who owns the shop is actually there making the sandwiches himself Super nice guy and helped us out with the description of the lard sandwich and it's such a quick and easy Exchange we just go in the sandwiches are ready in two seconds and each one is five euros So ten euro total for these giant sandwiches Michele called me over and he wanted to make sure that I know exactly what he's talking about when he says Lard, so he cut two more slices and he put it just threw it right on top of my sandwich This is the lard. It is this wonderful pork fat with just a sliver of the meat It's like the total opposite of what you would find in bacon or a bunch of that or anything like that This is mostly the lard of the pork and it's so soft and creamy Wow salty Fatty creamy decadent the lard Immediately melts as soon as it touches the warmth inside your mouth. That is high quality It doesn't even taste like pork to be honest. It's just like its own thing Wow salty fatty the acidity from the sun-dried tomatoes I have Olive oil all around my mouth From the bread and the olive oil that's drizzled inside the bread before the sandwich is put together You see this gachata how it's saturated in the olive oil before it's baked so it's got this golden color and that's from the olive oil sitting in there while it's baking and just Infusing into the crust of the bread. Let's try the mozzarella with fresh tomato Wow two different worlds Totally different. This one is like a summer salad almost That mozzarella di bufala is mild in flavor but creamy and milky and the tomato Just adds that punch of freshness to it these fresh tomatoes Oh I do see a little bit of the olive oil bubbles in there be the lingering flavor of the mozzarella Like I taste I feel like I just took a sip out of a glass of milk. It's so milky and creamy Those tomatoes are so fresh. Look at this wad of mozzarella sitting right in there my god I'm gonna take a bite right out of that Oh, yeah you have the freshness and simplicity of this tomato and Mozzarella bufala and then this lard with the sun-dried tomato and the olive oil and I see like some Rosemary in there. Look at my hands. It's like I have olive oil hands right now I could make a painting with this. Give me a piece of cardboard paper and it's I'm gonna look like Leonardo da Vinci out here Incredible You must not leave Florence without having one of these sandwiches It will change your life In the 17th century Florence was hit hard with the bubonic plague and that led to the advent of these little wine windows They're called bucchetta del vino Literally a little wine window and they were initially mostly started by the wealthy families that lived in the city That also produced wine and it was also a way to Actually cut taxes from their properties. I just ordered two glasses of red wine. It's called a Caliche is a cup. So do a caliche de vino rosso Okay, that may be the coolest wine transaction I've ever experienced in my life Definitely cross that off the bucket list I've got two glasses of red wine that I just ordered through a tiny little door We've made it to Mercato Centrale that is the central market now It's after five o'clock when we walked in We were kind of surprised because we saw on Google that the market is open till midnight But everything downstairs was closed all the vendors and the butcher shops So we thought maybe we misunderstood but in fact It's the second floor that is open until midnight and that's where all the food Restaurants and where you want to go if you're looking for somewhere to eat is located. Okay, they have samples of steak I'm gonna go try rare cooked steak that they're serving sample of here. Wow. Look at that in there That's a piece of steak that is amazing that was only a bite This is only at the beginning of the market I'm gonna do a round and see what's going on, but I think we might have to come back here All right, guys I think I may have found the perfect place to enjoy the classic Tuscan dish of the steak Florentine we have been scoping out all through the city all day trying to find the perfect spot and I think we found it It's here in this market on the third floor. They don't open for about another 15 to 20 minutes So in the meantime, it's the perfect moment to enjoy a spritz right here I have a Campari spritz. Sometimes you might have the Aperol spritz, whichever you're liking But it's meant to open up your palate to cleanse your palate and to prepare your stomach and your appetite for dinner So this is the ideal moment to be enjoying this I love this. This is the Campari spritz as you can see it's more red than the Aperol spritz that we also know It's a little bit more bitter. I enjoy that personally If you like something a little sweeter the Aperol spritz is gonna be your way But the Campari is used for the same function both aperitifs We're at La Bistecca alla Fiorentina and this is on the third level of the Mercato Centrale It is a full restaurant up here and it is a fantastic place to get the Bistecca alla Fiorentina Or the steak Florentine. We got the traditional Tuscan beef of the Chianina Cattle and we're gonna have the ribeye portion. I cannot wait It is a 1.5 kilogram piece of steak and we're getting it cooked rare So it's cooked to rare but since it comes on a hot plate, it'll keep cooking if you leave it sitting So if you want your meat more rare The best thing to do is move it to a higher ground so that it stops the cooking process on the actual meat so what I did was move it up to sit on the bone and on top of the potatoes to Stall the cooking process. All right, I'm going in for my first bite of Bistecca alla Fiorentina The char on the outside of that steak is so good You can taste that oven that it came out of with the wood fired grill and The rare it's the that beautiful like irony tender Rare texture that you get in a rare steak the saltiness from that salt that the chef let me put on there is Phenomenal, that is beautiful smoky clean salt It's delicious. I'm gonna rub this into the juices and the fats of the cut of meat This is as good as you're ever gonna get a steak Florentine I'm having steak Florentine in Florence right now. This is incredible It doesn't get any better On the table, they'll place you a bottle of balsamic vinegar from Modena you get the vinegar You have olive oil and you even have balsamic glaze. They give you everything here. I put some Balsamic vinegar on my plate and I'm gonna rub some of this roasted rosemary potato in there. Oh, yeah The marriage of that yellow potato with the vinegar the vinegar here Sure, it's vinegary. I guess you could say but it has this subtle sweetness to it that I don't find elsewhere Normally you find this on aged balsamics. This is just standard Baseline balsamic vinegar. It's awesome. We finished our steak Florentine. And of course, we are left with the bone I'm gonna channel my friend Benny from San Sebastian when we did our food tour there. I'm gonna take this bone Make it a harmonic to make one blues All right, our last stop before we jump on the train back to Bologna is gelato Florence is the home of this wonderful frozen treats and we came to my sugar to enjoy it This place is special to me it's the first time I've been here but it's already special in my heart because it is owned by a husband and wife duo who sourced their products directly from the Mercato Centrale that we just were at having our Bistecca la Fiorentina and today I got the pistachio flavor and the mandarin a yuzu That is mandarin and yuzu citrus and pistachio Look at the beautiful colors of this how natural that yellow with just bits of what looks like the ride of the zest As you can see this is a wonderful place to be and they're making strictly gelato here there is nothing else They focus solely on this wonderful product. I can't wait to try it. Oh my goodness Wow That's unlike any citrus you're ever gonna try it's creamy But the taste of the citrus has a slightly kind of the the rind But then the sweetness of the citrus it's lightly sweet It's not too heavy and this wonderful iciness gelato if you don't know, it doesn't have a lot of air incorporated into it It's actually a denser product. So you're getting more of the true flavor instead of a aeration and it's very soft And it's just just a wonderful treat and here is the pistachio Look at that color. That's what you want to look for the greenish brown. That is the true natural color of pistachio Wow Wow, that's so good I got it in a cup because honestly, I don't need the cone. I just want the gelato straight You guys we are almost out of here. We have about 15 minutes for us to catch our train I cannot thank you enough for joining me today It has been a wonderful day enjoying and eating through Florence with you guys If you like this video, please don't forget to Like and subscribe to support our channel We are headed back to Bologna and I will see you guys very soon on the next video. Bye