Jessie´s Blog

To begin my story, here is a quick video of the things to see in Florence! I had originally recorded my own video, but unfortunately, I deleted it off my camera and my computer recently crashed.

A few weeks ago I began a long trip to go visit my best friends in Florence, Italy! I had been there once before when I was 14, but obviously things are different now many years later. I had to leave my apartment at 4 in the morning to catch my flight and didn’t get into Florence until about 11 in the morning. It was a long day to say the least.

Although Florence is one of my all time FAVORITE cities in Europe (I could see myself living there one day) I wasn’t going back to see the sights again. I went back to Florence for two main things: food and fun! Obviously I was starving after traveling all morning so my friends took me to the best thing I could ever imagine, a bagel place!! After being abroad for 3 months I have really come to miss my bagels with cream cheese.

They are really hard to find in Barcelona so I have yet to have a bagel since being abroad. The place they took me is called Mama’s Bakery. According to my friends, it was opened by a couple from San Francisco, California. They moved to Italy and the one thing they missed the most was bagels, so they opened a bagel shop in Florence. I got two everything bagels and cream cheese, and they did not disappoint!

My next stop was that night for dinner. We went to a place called Pizzeria Dante. It is right down the street, literally a block away, from my friend’s apartment.

They know the owners since they go there so much! We walked past it earlier in the day to make a reservation and the waitress and owner, named Dante, immediately wrote down our party with enthusiasm. I really enjoyed the atmosphere that it felt like they were home there. We all got pizzas to split as an appetizer. This was my first time having pizza in Florence and it blew away the pizza I had recently in Rome. After the pizza I decided to stick with Italian and go for a pasta dish. I got pasta with seafood in it. It was delicious! I was so thankful I didn’t study abroad in Florence because I would gain 100 pounds within a week from all the food!

The next day my friends decided to take me for lunch to a place called Gusta Pizza. They were raving about how it was the best pizza in Florence. I love that every place in Florence has a small and personal feel to it. The past week my friends had all went for one of their birthday’s and the owners brought her out a nutella pizza in the shape of a heart! When we walked in, again, the owners recognized my friends and took our order. My friend told me that if they like you, they will cook your pizza in the shape of a heart. As I heard number after number called of normal shaped pizzas I was beginning to think they didn’t like anyone there! Than, once our number was called we got three pizzas in the shape of hearts.

It was such an exciting moment and made me feel so special! As my friends said, it was the best pizza I had ever had in my entire life. The mozzarella cheese was the best thing I have ever tasted.

To follow up from the exquisite pizza, my friends wanted to impress me for dinner by taking me to a place called Acqua Al 2, called Acqua for short. Acqua is a place best known for its steaks, which recently opened a restaurant in Washington D.C.!! I have been meaning to go at home but haven’t gotten a chance to, so I was really excited to try the original restaurant located in Florence. To start, we all ordered a pasta sampler appetizer. The pasta sampler brought us 4 different kinds of pasta, each better than the next. We had a cheesy kind, a normal meat sauce kind, a spinachy kind! Every kind of variety so we all had our favorites! Mine was the cheesy kind! I couldn’t decide which of the famous steaks to get when it came time to order: the two most known are blueberry steak and balsamic steak. I recently have become addicted to balsamic, but blueberry has never really been my thing.

Instead of making a choice though I decided to try the steak sampler! It brought me out 3 different types of steak: the blueberry and balsamic included! I didn’ t like the herbs on the other kind of steak so that one I didn’t enjoy, but it came in a delicious bread bowl. The blueberry steak was better than I imagined. It had the taste of blueberry but not too strong. The only problem is it turns your mouth blue! The balsamic steak was one of the best steaks I have ever had! It was covered with delicious balsamic and melted in my mouth. To end, we had the dessert sampler! It came with a fruit tart, cheese cake, chocolate cake, and tiramisu. Each dessert was delicious and we finished every single bite of course! The bill ended up only being about 30 euro each, which is an expensive meal, but for all the food and the wide variety we got I thought it was very reasonably priced!

The following day was Saturday, so the girls took me to get an American breakfast! Along with my bagel issue, finding a big American breakfast has been difficult too! We went to a place called the diner, in Florence, which is located right next to Acqua. It also has the same owners as Acqua so the waiters who were there were all the same from the night before! To start, I got a chocolate milkshake.

I haven’t had a milkshake since coming to Barcelona so I figured I’d go crazy! After that all 6 of us ordered an egg sandwich on a bagel! I got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich: my breakfast favorite! The sandwiches came with fries and hit the spot perfectly! We all completely cleared our plates!

For dinner that night we took a walk to a restaurant called Yellow Bar. We made a reservation but the restaurant was so busy we still had to wait about 15 minutes to get our table! Again, we ordered pizza to start.

My new favorite thing to do! The pizza was delicious. What I love about Florence is every pizza we had was amazing in its own way, but they all tasted different. I ended up having pizza 4 times in Florence and wasn’t even close to being sick of it! After the pizza, again, I got seafood pasta! The seafood in it was great! I love clams and mussels and they tasted so fresh. Dinner at Yellow Bar was only about 15 euro a person! Not bad at all for all the food we got!

To end my experience in Florence, I got pizza again from Pizzeria Dante’s quickly before I had to leave for the airport! It was just as delicious as the first time! I think the reason the food in Florence is so great is because of all the fresh ingredients they put in. The dough for pizza is great, the pasta is great, but more than anything their cheeses and sauces are exquisite. They definitely have the most fresh and best quality of ingredients that all come together to create a perfect meal. While in Florence, we past in the main square a market on Saturday selling all different types of foods.

At the market they had bread, cheeses, wines, jams, etc. This definitely confirmed my thoughts of having such great ingredients. Even for sale in the middle of the streets is the best cheeses I have ever tasted! I think the Italians have really gotten it right when it comes to food. I can’t wait to go back and spend all my money on food again!

To end my post here is a video from one of my best friends who has visited Florence! She thinks the food there is as great as I do, as she says in the video!