Falling for Florence
I must confess, my trip to Florence was not the most cultural of excursions.
I was the only one who hadn’t been before and as a result, there was less time spent exploring and marvelling at the sights, and more time catching up, eating great food and drinking wine. I can’t say there were any complaints.
Friday lunch took us back to Osteria Santo Spirito as the late arrivals hadn’t had their fill yet. This is the remains of the four cheese gnocchi, so scrumptious but incredibly rich. Thank goodness I listened to the advice and ordered the small portion.
The afternoon saw us ambling around the streets of florence, enjoying the weather and the odd gelato. We definitely didn’t get starter portions of these as you can probably tell, beware the cups, they hold more than you can possibly imagine.
After a few hours exploring the vintage shops and one of our number getting a tattoo we began to amble home. Just in time to see the sun begin to set over the Arno.
Friday night’s feast took place at the famous 4 Leoni which was happily located a mere 10 second saunter from our apartment. Order of the day was something that everyone must have at least once in Florence (vegetarians aside). A Florentine steak.
We started off with the most delicious little artichoke fritti.
Before moving on to the main event, queue lots of jokes about everyone enjoying their giant slabs of meat…
Order one each at your peril, we all shared between two and still Annabel and I were defeated, forcing us to start trying to smuggle bits of steak onto the boys plates.
Even my phone ended up getting some
Unsurprisingly no one could manage dessert but we all agreed we could probably handle a cocktail or two.
And, apparently a bit more twister.
Quite clearly, Coco is a little more graceful than the rest of us. That is quite a twister pose.
The next morning everyone was unexpectedly perky and the decision was made to go for a picnic by Piazzale Michelangelo as the weather was amazing and the views spectacular.
Cleary Harry was enjoying the view.
Whilst Olly and Rupert were a little more focused on the backgammon.
And the girls just lazed in the sun, no photo of this I’m afraid, we were too busy laaazing.
Early evening consisted of the girls piling in mine and Annabel’s bed and gossiping for a few hours before taking ourselves off for a cocktail at Colle Bereto, home of the best Aperol Spritz we tried.
We arrived at dinner only to be told our table wasn’t quite ready, luckily we were easily placated with some prosecco.
And I must say, the food was most definitely worth the wait.
These little fritters with soft cheese and prosciutto were to die for.
And the Steak Tartare was some of the best I’ve ever tried, done the Florentine way with a shaved fennel salad on the top.
After dinner the boys were very sad to discover that they were too full for one of these.
Yup, that is vending machine lasagne, totally unbelievable.
Sadly that was our last night and so the next day all that was left was to gather our things and head to the airport.
Although we did manage to squeeze this little beauty in before we left. Well, it’d be rude not to wouldn’t it?
Huge thank you to the lovely Polly who was amazing with her camera (unlike me) and to whom I owe most of these photos xx
Tales of a London Girl 
