Special Edition: Lunch in Firenze
Andrew Asks:
“I am going to be in Firenze this Thursday afternoon with my entire family and need a place to go to lunch… any suggestions?”
For those of you that don’t know, I spent about six months living in the glorious city of Florence last year…learning Italian, studying film, and eating my way all over Italy. As one would expect, I know plenty of places to eat in the little city of Firenze and I usually give a few options in my responses on this website. However, when it comes to lunches in Florence, there’s really only one answer to me… my second home there, where I ate lunch 5-6 days a week.
Trattoria Mario, which is located across the square from the Mercato Centrale. It’s all communal seating and it’s packed with locals that work in the market (along with a fair amount of tourists at this point). It’s completely family run…the menu changes every day, depending on what’s fresh in the market that day and when they run out, they cross off the item on the paper menu taped to the wall. It’s fresh, rustic, purely Florentine food… and it’s unbelievable. They are only open for lunch, from about 12:00-3:00, but get there early before they run out!0
UPDATE: Upon checking their website (who knew Mario’s had a website?!) they are on summer vacation until August 27!! AGHHH! It’s ok… it’s ok… I’ll get a backup plan…
One of my other spots that I would go to (the one or two days a week that I didn’t eat at Mario’s…) was Antico Noe, located IN A TUNNEL at the south end of Borgo Pinti (Volta di San Piero 6/r). If you’re on the run, there is a window on the side that makes the best sandwiches in Florence. If you want to sit, the pastas are incredibly fresh and delicious and the sandwiches are also available inside. The raw artichoke salad is really interesting and great, too.
My other suggestion is a little touristy… and may or may not be open for lunch…but the food does actually hold up. Acqua Al Due (Via della Vigna Vecchia, 40/r) is a nice little restaurant with some great people running it. They are known for their ‘samplers’ of a few different items for each course. The pasta sampler is great… I don’t know if I would do the other courses as a sampling. You can start with everyone sharing a sampler pasta and then try their blueberry or balsamic steak - both are great.
Phew… well enjoy Firenze… give it a big hug for me. If these suggestions don’t work out (I don’t know about their holiday schedules…) it’s pretty hard to have a bad meal in Florence as long as you use your instincts and stay FAR, FAR away from the Duomo. Ciao!
