WE DID A WALKING FOOD TOUR IN FLORENCE WITH EATING EUROPE

Italy is a country with such a rich food culture, but the thing with Italy is, if you go where the tourists go, you will miss out on most of it. You will find yourself eating at the mediocre pizza and pasta joints. We did a walking food tour with Eating Europe while we were in Florence and the tour took us far away from these mediocre joints. Instead we enjoyed an unforgettable evening filled with authentic Florentine cuisine at some of Florence’s favourite local hangouts.

ABOUT EATING EUROPE

Eating Europe is a company that gives people visiting Europe a taste of Europe. Their goal is to expose people to real, local and authentic food. They ensure you experience local food, made by locals in authentic restaurants outside of the big touristic areas.

Doing a food tour like this was the best thing we could do while we were in Florence. It took us to areas we would have never explored ourselves and we ate food we would never have tried!

OUR TOUR

The tour started off from Piazza Santo Spirito, located in the area of Oltrarno. Piazza San Spirito is where all the action happens. During the day you will find markets, boutique shops and galleries. At night you will find all the restaurants have opened, as well as the trattorias and the night clubs have come to life! It really has so much atmosphere.

Once everyone had gathered at the meeting point for the tour, we introduced ourselves and then set off. It was rather fascinating to meet different people from all over the world doing this tour. There was a honeymoon couple from Laguna Beach, two doctors from Chicago, a lady from New York who was visiting Italy for the seventh time, a family from Australia and us South Africans. What I loved is how we all had something in common – the love for Italian food!

My favourite highlights of the tour:

• Tasting artisan cured meats and cheeses at the neighbourhood deli while the owner of the deli told us some of the most interesting stories of how the deli came about.
• Learning how to make Florence’s most famous cocktail, the Negroni and then sipping on one while nibbling on some delicious snacks.
• Tasting some of Chianti’s finest wines.
• Watching a live demonstration of how Steak Florentine is made and finally tasting it and absolutely loving it!
• Wandering down the cobblestone streets and watching the locals go by.
• Ending off the most delicious experience with biscotti and vin santo.
• Making friends with everyone on the tour.

This food tour was one of the most memorable experiences from our trip to Italy and I would honestly recommend it to everyone! The tour not only taught us about Florentine and Tuscan food but we learned so much about the Italian culture in general as well as the history of Florence.

We got back to our hotel so happy that we started planning an escape route on how to miss our flight back home and live in Italy forever 😉

A huge thank you to Eating Europe for hosting us on this food tour! You made our trip to Italy even more memorable than it was. Visit Eating Europe’s website over to find more tours to eat your way through!

Website: www.eatingeurope.com

♥