I have made a Florence google map guide to my favorite places and picks for accomodations, shopping, restaurants and wine bars in Florence along with extensive notes for each marker and some suggestions for what to pair the stop with. I hope you’ll find it useful!

I first learned about these Tuscan-style crepes while living in Florence, studying food and wine (both formally and inevitably informally) at Apicius. I rediscovered them when a pleasant little article popped up in the NY Times recently about them.
I made a pilgimage to Rainbow to get chestnut flour and good quality pine nuts (often rancid [...]

I’ve posted about my favorite Italian comfort food before, but I’ve decided it’s time to wow you with its deliciousness in a way that will allow replication. This dish was the very first recipe (and demonstration of technique) I learned in Marcella Ansaldo’s introduction to Italian Regional Cuisine course at International Culinary School Apicius in [...]

Something sharp is LODGED in my foot after several days at the beach in Levanto. Yesterday the surf was really rough (2nd day of red flag) and i took a beating along the rocky sea floor and as I came out must have hit a sharp rock or a peice of glass or something that [...]

I had a wonderful weekend via smart car in less traveled Italy only to have my purse and everything possibly very valuable to me inside it at the time on the bus ride from the car drop off to my apartment. Mostly I was in Castagnetto Carducci and Bolgheri, but hit San Gimignano and others [...]

Some moments since I’ve been here, all within Florence as I’ve written seperate entries about trips.

I’ve had two weeks of classes at Apicius now and will leave you with some pictures of what I’ve cooked.

There is a Piazza literally 10 steps accross from my front door that I like to go to because there is a good restaurant with nice value there. I went to it the first time and had mini lobsters (I really need to find out what they are called) and shrimp all whole with head [...]