Eat Drink Sleep Explore: Florence on a Time Crunch
Simplifying things with shorter, more frequent guides to the cities I've visited recently, starting with The Jewel of Tuscany.
I love how all these publications and digital newsletters are doing their own version of eat-drink-sleep-stay-play-read-listen or whatever. The latest is Daily Skimm with its read.eat.go series, which debuted today and will go out via email every Saturday. It—you guessed it—will feature a book, a recipe, and a vacation destination. Like, hello? I’ve been doing this forever, but carry on. In reading through it, though, I realized theSkimm’s is a way more simplified version that I could learn from. Am I doing too much?
If I share just one restaurant, just one hotel, just one bar or coffee shop, just one wild card in just ONE place every week, wouldn’t that cut down my writing time a ton? It would probably also allow me to share more frequently. I’d still be giving you the insight for (practically) free, babyyy. It seems like a win-win. What do we think?
Let’s start with Italy! Florence, to be specific. I spent just one night in Firenze last September, sandwiched between visits to Capri and Rome. I don’t regret a thing and strongly suggest taking these types of trips when you want to get a little taste of various cities so that you can decide which you want to revisit and then really get to know them better the second time around. I’m a big fan of traveling to the same places over and over, learning their history, understanding their heartbeats, falling in love (with the food, the language, the streets, the people, the eccentricities). For me, it’s not so much about racking up destinations, but really staying for a while. You’ll never catch me being like “20 countries and counting,” or whatever it is certain people have the tendency to include in their Instagram bios. When I travel I want to make friends, catch up with old ones, feel, cry (i.e. flamenco shows in Madrid), laugh, dance—all the good stuff.
Eat
Osteria del Cinghiane Bianco is in a 14th-century tower, family run since 1984, small, cozy, and was walking distance from our hotel. I can’t remember if it was a place we stumbled upon randomly or if it was recommended by concierge. Had the spaghetti pomodoro, obviously (it was topped with ricotta), and a carafe of wine. Show up early, stay late.
Drink
Food and beverage kind of always blends together so although you can do both at both, this is why I’ve featured a restaurant above and a wine bar below.
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