Delicious Treats in Florence

Putting the pizzas together before going intp the wood-fired oven in Yellow Bar

Yesterday early morning we were woken up by loud rumbling of thunder and heavy rain. This did not bode well for our trip to Florence, but we bundled up, and armed with umbrellas we took the train from Montecatini Centro to Florence, which took about 50 minutes.

Inside the oven there are pizzas baking on the left

I'll write another post about Florence itself, but we were basically walking in the rain for most of the day which made it hard to take photos and hold our umbrellas at the same time.

By lunchtime our guide felt bad that the day hadn't turned out so well and suggested taking us to a little restaurant she usually goes to that makes fresh pizzas and pasta.

It's called Yellow Bar and it's homey inside, with wooden tables and chairs, an arch brick ceiling and in the back has a wood-burning oven.

Upon our guide's suggestion we ordered the ravioli a la pomodoro, which came out as large relatively flat ravioli, not completely stuffed with ricotta and spinach, and then smothered in a tomato sauce. The ratio of the filling and pasta was perfect -- and of course the tomato sauce very fresh.

A yellow-ish picture of our proscuitto cotto pizza. Yum!

We also had the proscuitto cotto pizza -- fantastic with the thin crust pizza and mozzarella cheese. The pizza was light and crunchy. And paired with a mixed salad was a nice and relatively light lunch.

By now the rain had stopped and sun was breaking which was encouraging.

While waiting for the washrooms in the back we watched the man making the pizzas, throwing the thin dough in the air, then covering them with tomato sauce, adding tiny bits of cheese, then other toppings, a good dash of olive oil and then using a giant spatula to put them into the oven.

About two minutes later the pizzas were basically done -- amazing.

We did a bit more sightseeing at Santa Croce and then it was gelato time. Again our guide introduced us to the best gelato place in Florence called Vivoli which was nearby.

Every spoonful savoured of fig and lemon gelato at Vivoli

And remember the ice cream with bits of ham in it that I tried in Greve the day before? The gelato was also from Vivoli.

But here's it's just the straight flavours, nothing too crazy. I had the same flavours as I did in San Gimignano -- fig and lemon -- and found Vivoli's far better.

The fig flavour was more intense, as well as the lemon for a more satisfying (and memorable) taste!

Yellow Bar

Via del Proconsolo, 39

50122, Florence
+39 055 211766

yellowbar.it

Vivoli

Via Dell'Isola delle Stinche, 7r

50122, Florence
+39 055 292334

vivoli.it