Italian road trip! First stop - Florence. Guinea fowl and chocolate pasta anyone?

I have just got back from my adventure in Italy!

I may now be a stone heavier ( I drank and ate sooooooo much) but hey, what a trip!

We flew into Florence and arrived mid day.

Florence was beautiful. There were lots of designer shops and LOTS of tourists but it was still a lovely city to walk around.

After having a little pre evening nap at our hotel  (as you do) we headed out to find a nice restaurant........

It took us a while.

We went on the hunt for one that we had read about on Trip Adviser. We searched for ages, got lost and asked several locals who spoke no English which just made us even more lost.

FINALLY we found it ................and it was closed!!! Very annoying!!

Where to go now?

We had remembered seeing a cool place down one of windy streets so we re-traced our steps and found it!

RESTAURANT GUSTAVINO

It's so exciting discovering a new restaurant, especially when you feel you have found a hidden gem.

We were welcomed in by a very charismatic and friendly waiter who gave us a few seating options. 

The restaurant was pretty full ...always a good sign.

We chose to sit by the open glass kitchen area.

We started off with a glass of Prosecco and asked him to recommend a nice bottle of red for us........

 

 I never usually drink Chianti but as the saying goes - when in Rome! 

I  have been missing out, the wine was BEAUTIFUL and cheap!!! 

Starters!

I went for the grilled octopus with bur rata, crunchy celery and lemon  - DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really love octopus it always feels like such a treat when I have it.

Andy had the Foie Gras with apricots which he said was great (i'm not a fan)

For my main course I went for a pasta dish the waiter recommended - homemade black tagliolini with sea urchin and pesto sauce - oh wow I totally cleaned the plate!

 It was gorgeous!!

I was very happy.

Andy went for a bit of a wild card - homemade pici pasta with guinea fowl ragout, parmesan cheese and................ CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I was very excited to try this!!

I try and encourage Andy to order the really unique dishes, so I get to try them hehehe.

It was very rich but I really loved the strong flavours. Andy was full so I polished the rest off :) YUM.

We were both too full for dessert, rarely happens to me, so the waiter gave us two creamy lemoncello cocktails on the house.
Nice touch, lemoncello is one of my favourites.

A sweet end to our first dinner in Italy!

Well we had to get a silly photo, we were on holiday and a little smashed from the STRONG wine.

The waiter waved us off!  

Having a fun waiter really does bring your meal to life.

Great night!

We headed back to our hotel to get a good nights sleep. 

San Gimignano bound tomorrow yippie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TBC.........

http://www.gustavino.it/