Other Side of Florence Food Tour - Great introduction to Oltrarno,
We did the Other Side of Florence Food tour with the lovely Esther as our guide at the end of March. Everything was well organized with communications before the tour, informative and prompt. The group size of 12 was ideal for the tour and everyone was chatty and sociable.
Starting off at around 10 am we walked around Oltrarno and enjoyed visits to local family-owned businesses including a deli/ cheese shop where we sampled lovely cold cuts and the wonderful pecorino cheese with truffles. Next stop was the Lamprodotto stall where Esther explained the history of this unique Florentine "delicacy " to us and samples were passed around - what can I say!! Moving on we visited a beautiful
bakery in Santa Spirito where the lovely owner / host shared samples of their wonderful cakes including Colomba Pasqua. Next stop was a wine window where we all partook in receiving our wine at the window by the lovely host and then this was followed by more wine accompanied with samples of freshly made Riboletta and Boar stew with Polenta -all delicious! Last stop was the real gelato shop – another local business with the little shop in Santa Spirito and one nearer Pinterest Vecchio -so good. I chose Lemon and Sage sorbet and Pistachio - the real deal! We returned for more later during our time in Florence. Esther was so generous with her knowledge of the food and also lots of lovely little bits of information about the Oltrarno neighbourhood and history of Florence in the wider context. We thoroughly enjoyed this tour - it was a great start to our holiday especially as we stayed in Oltrarno this time. Before we returned home, we also returned to the cheese store to buy some lovely cheese and fennel salami to bring back to Scotland.
Esther is a fantastic guide - such good fun and so enthusiastic about everything. We would recommend this tour to any visitors - a wonderful way to learn about the culinary traditions of Oltrarno - thank-you!
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