Archive for category Out and about in Florence
Tipping at restaurants in Paris and Italy ?
Posted by Pierotucci in Out and about in Florence on May 9, 2012
This is the type of question that everyone always has and since one of my favorite bloggers thought well to reblog a piece about tipping in Paris – I am going to pass it on as well.
Tipping in Italy – well, normally we just round off the tab. However I have found that when you are outside of the “touristy” zone it’s not really even expected. I remember once I went to leave a tip, and everyone at the table (all Italians) just laughed and said that it was the owner serving and they told me “you don’t tip the owner.” opps.
However, when you get into the bigger cities you will find that they have already started “expecting” tips and sometimes they will automatically add a service charge – you need to check the bill before paying. Cover charge ? That’s not a tip, that’s just a way of covering the basics . . . like a table, chair, silverware and a menu 
What has been your experience with tipping in Italy?
All the signs of Spring are in my back yard . . .
Posted by Pierotucci in Out and about in Florence on March 29, 2012
and not only in my backyard, but also in fashion. This afternoon for lunch I jumped in my car, dodged all the incredibly slow drivers and made a bee-line for my own private oasis . . . my garden. I munched down on some rather bland soup (the things we do for bathing suit season) and then moved myself outside to enjoy the signs of spring.
The first of which are the purple iris flowers that are blooming around the front border of my yard. In Italian these are called gigli (one of those very difficult words to pronounce) and in the Florence area tradition wants them to be purple – the official Florentine color FORZA VIOLA!!) They also come in yellow and white, but since I live with a die hard Fiorentine man, they had to be ALL purple. Here are the first courageous blossoms.
Tuscan Garden and the Viola Iris
Leather messenger bag in purple
Then there is my pear tree, just a wee little thing but with tons of flowers . . . all right tons maybe an exaggeration, but you can’t help but hoping that this years crop will exceed last years (1 pear). This creamy white bloom reminds me of one of the new FORTUNATA handbags that just arrived in a limited Edition series.
Fortunata Tote, Designer Handbag in color Bright White
If you look real hard – and with maybe a bit of imagination – you can see my blossoming rosemary bush. This makes the best ever roast potatoes. This plant is always admired by my envious neighbors because it is incredibly old and very prosperous. The blooms have a faint lilac color, reminiscent of the Chanel inspired handbag by Cosci.
Rosemary roasted potatoes and Chanel, now that's a strange match
Cosci quilted lilac colored leather
Then I have a cherry tree, which is just beginning to show its flowers – the thing about this cherry tree is that it looks adorable, has so many lovely flowers and even looks like it is going to stun us with a huge harvest only to end the season with 10 (yes, you can count them on one hand 10) cherries and even those are hard to come by if the ravens and sparrows have gotten up earlier than you.
I have two apricot trees, one is a lovely, sweet, docile domestic tree that has light pink flowers (about two weeks ago) and large plump apricots – its only a baby so its production is a little limited. Then I have a wild apricot tree that produces flaming pink flowers, grows like crazy entwining itself in the fencing for the dog area and producing a ton of very small but sweet apricots – perfect for making jam and salsa.
Apricot Blossoms in bright pink - vibrant and trendy
Fortunata Trendy Pink Designer Handbag for the Spring
I also have a fig tree, which doesn’t have any flowers – and at the moment it doesn’t even have any leaves. This tree always has fruit that becomes ripe as I am away for vacation – missing out on that delicious sweet delights.
Wild violets in my front yard
Posted by Pierotucci in Out and about in Florence on March 14, 2012
I always thought of violets as the ones you see in the florist shop with the thick fuzzy leaves yet I had to change my mind when I moved into my Chianti home about 4 years ago. One spring day while soaking up the sun, my neighbor invited me into her tiny little plot of land, saying how she hated to cut the lawn, though I couldn’t figure why it looked awful…until I saw the carpet of green and purple – wild violets. Wow! – I was ohhhing and ahhhhing, when she looked at me and said “you have them too.”
It is one of those things that sometimes you get so used to seeing something that it doesn’t even register. Four years ago there were little patches in my front yard and now (because they spread with an incredible deftness) they are decorating my entire corner. This afternoon DH walk out to soak up a little sun and he says, where did these come from (what did I tell you – they were there all the time but you only see what you want to see). With a little smile (yes I could say it was a smile with a smudge of superiority in it) I nodded and said they were always here.
I wanted to show you all – but my camera just didn’t capture the delicateness and tenderness of the flowers so I had to borrow an image – but I swear those that you see in my front yard look just like the photo – except that they are everywhere! It’s gorgeous and selvatico (wild) at the same time.
Not only is viola (purple) Florence’s city color – but it is also the color of our soccer team which, may the gods help us, needs to start winning! (FORZA VIOLA – which means go purple team!)
And keeping in with the theme of purple, here are two bags in nappa leather featured in this heart warming color:
Italian leather messenger bag, in puple colored nappa
and if you need something just a little bigger to carry around your stuff:
Italian Leather Handbag style satchel ion purple colored nappa
D.D.D. Digitally Day Dreaming
Posted by Pierotucci in Out and about in Florence on March 6, 2012
Will wonders never cease! I was home sick for the last few days and a bit bored. So I started fooling with internet and even though I know it holds endless wonders it just never fails to amaze me at what you can find on line.
I thought it would be cool to design my own home, y’know the one you will buy (or in my case build on a hillside in Tuscany) when you finally win the lottery. I found a site that we let you draw your own floorplans – and even better you can see it finished in 3D – now how cool is that?! So here I am building away thinking now all I need is to make my vision board with the interiors for each room – why of course, let’s use Pinterest. I am always getting blog posts with the greatest ideas and this is such an ideal way to organize them without having to print everything off. I can store decorating ideas, products, recipes and the latest fashionsand new 2012 collections that have caught my eye.
Do you have any favorite sites you would like to share? I am curious to find out what’s out there.
Un Carnevale Fiorentino
Posted by Pierotucci in Out and about in Florence on February 27, 2012
RE Blog from our guest blogger:
You know its carnevale in Florence when every time you wander around the city center you find tiny pieces of colored confetti scattered in the streets.
The Italians throw these brightly colored streamers and little pieces of wrapped candy in the crowds from the colorful, playful floats that they painstakingly prepare. Though many might think that this is just a type of Halloween in February they would be mistaken, because the outfits that are selected normally have nothing to do with warding off the evil spirits as in the tradition for All Hallow’s Eve. In fact when you mention Carnival, the image of scantily dressed Brazilians come to mind or maybe even the artistic and mysterious figures from Venice. However, for many regions it is simply a moment where the young and old are encouraged to have fun, laugh and be playful behind the anonymity of a mask.
To snow or not to snow?
Posted by Pierotucci in New Designer Handbags, Out and about in Florence on February 9, 2012
That is what we are all trying to figure out as we in Italy scour three different websites, Sky TV, Rai1 weather channels and our favorite radio station. I always find it slightly amusing and just about as frustrating that in an age where we can make incredibly small cell phones, buttery soft leather and delectable desserts with no calories – that we can’t predict the weather from one day to the next.
I can positively confirm that I have found a new plus in my recent interest in soccer and the local Series A football team Fiorentina – in the last two weeks we have gotten more info on the weather previsions from the “Lega” (the Italian sports commission) than from other news source. Since most stadiums are not covered in Italy, a little or a lot of snow can mean a cancelled game. So if I want to know what to expect on Saturday all I need to do is check out the game schedule…this weekend the game is in jeopardy thus I can deduce that there is a serious chance of more snow.
Not that this is good news, in fact my DH’s first reaction was “oh no what are we going to do?”. You might think that this comment means – we are going to be snowed in with no food, electricity and heating – but what he is really saying is “there is no game to watch on Sunday…I could just stay in bed and wake up on Monday morning.”
Well – stay tuned to find out if the promise of snow in the Tuscany holds true…
Every Once and a While a little bit of Nostalgia
Posted by Pierotucci in Out and about in Florence on January 30, 2012
When my Italian friends hear that I am from Miami, they always ask – well what are you doing here? As if to them it were a no brain-er – Florida equals sun and fun equals beach and relax. But we all know that when you “live” somewhere – and that somewhere is also where you work – then you have a tendency to skip over all the fun, sun, beaches and relax. I love Florida with its unique environment between the ocean, the gulf, the swamp, hammocks and everglades. I do miss getting up in the morning and not having to reach for a bathrobe because you will freeze your bum off with the first step out of bed and I miss eating all that good fresh fish. I happened to catch a glace of this video and it just brought it all back.
Skyline with Ponte Vecchio
It’s the same thing with all the Italians that live here in Florence Italy – they have these wonderful landscapes, beautiful artwork, great food and even better wine. So when I tell some one that I live and work in Florence, Tuscany and they say lucky you, (as an expat transplanted here) I just agree with them. I feel very lucky to be living here. In fact every time I go over the Arno river and get a quick glimpse of the Palazzo Signoria and Ponte Vecchio, I am reminded of how god it feels to be living here.
Oh my gosh!! A little bit of seismic movement going on here in Italy
Posted by Pierotucci in Out and about in Florence on January 27, 2012
This afternoon at approximately 4 pm local time I felt the office building crick and crack. If it weren’t for the fact that we just had seismic activity already this week in the region Reggio Emilia, I probably would have just shrugged it off as a truck passing or someone moving something on the floor above. But since my office overlooks the road – and I can attest there were no trucks and since there is no one at home on the floor above there were no obvious excuses. So a bit dazed and a little amazed, I thought “WOW, I just experience a real live earthquake!” It never occurred to me to run outside or that it was a scary thing (though my younger colleague was definitely on the nervous side when I asked her “did you just feel what I felt?” and confirmed her worse suspicions.)
News puts it at a magnitude of 5.4 – and it was felt all over the place. Some even wrote that pictures fell came tumbling down, things fell of the shelves, stucco decorations on buildings cracked and fell…I am glad all I heard was crick and crack!
Never ever really thought of Italy as being an area subjected to earthquakes when I started imagining my European travels, but my 14 years in Casentino (a lovely valley located about 75 km southeast of Florence) proved me wrong. I am a bit of a history addict – love to learn the story about any place, and it became quite clear to me that something was a bit fishy when church after church included tidbits of how it had been rebuilt after this earthquake or that earthquake. Thinking I would surprise my Italian friends with a little know fact I myself was surprised when then said, yup this is a seismic area!
Exploring the word delicious in Firenze, Italy
Posted by Pierotucci in Out and about in Florence on January 23, 2012
Saturday was a lovely day with a crisp blue sky, temps were incredibly mild for mid January and only a few cotton ball clouds floating along. All in all, it was just right for slipping on all my holiday wardrobe (a new handbag, a beautiful jacket and some boots with a heel to die for) climbing on the back of my handsome Hubby’s motorbike and going into town.
There doesn’t need to be a “reason” to go into town – especially in Italy. Going out is sometimes just all about getting dressed to go out and then strolling the streets in your finery…which I happened to do extremely well this Saturday. (My Hubby was looking quite charming as well.) Of course there was the added plus that everyone has a sale going on (even if after the hoildays who has money to spend on more stuff!!), but in any case the window shopping was well worth the effort AND since Uomo Pitti just finished up here in Florence there were lots of trendy “vetrine” showing off Spring 2012 New collections. Of course all of this ohhing and ahhing in the windows will work up an appetite, and I am not one to shrink at the thought of a plate piled high with pasta! Around 1 PM we could resist no longer it was either go home and cook (and who wants to do that when you are all dressed up and looking good) or find ourselves a little hole in the wall.
We opted for exploring some new culinary delights in Florence and it was well worth the effort. Hubby started walking with a purpose when we agreed that we were eating in town. We found this place via word of mouth, apparently when the “guys” are playing soccer on Thursday night they talk about more than just the game and girls. The menu on the outside looked rather typical, with all the traditional dishes: crostini, pasta, bistecca Fiorentina, cantucci – but there were a few chef specials of the day that caught our eye. Prices appeared to be within the norm and it was just far away enough from the “city center” not to be horribly touristy.
As we walked in we were immediately struck by the cosy environment, the walls were in gray stone giving a hint of history and the tables were close – but not too close. We choose a table for two and began to serious look over the menu. The waiter and waitress were attentive, friendly but not pressing – water, wine and then they left us to devour the menu. My attention had be caught by the chef special of burrata with trufles and Hubby had his eye on the wild boar cold cuts. We opted for a special platter of mixed antipasti for two (24.-Euro) and I for one was pleasantly surprised. The cold cuts were fresh and quality – the crostini were good (even if I would have preferred they used Tuscan bread instead of the frusta … but that’s a personal gripe and by no means indicates the quality was disappointing) and the burrata …. well, in a word perfect!
The wine was also a pleasant surprise, though it is hard to get bad wine in Tuscany. We were told it was a a Chianti red with 2 years of aging (1 liter 12.-Euro). In fact, I always suggest that people choose the house wine for this reason – but as in every case there are grades of good. This wine was an excellent house wine – and we drank it easily …. OK and willingly (Ha Ha) Nothing like window shopping to get you in the mood for a glass of wine. As for the pasta dish the portions were abundant – though not exaggeratedly so. I had a little more luck than Hubby, I ordered pici with capriolo (11.-Euro). The waiter assured me that they make the flour and water pici (like a super think spaghetti) there in the restaurant – and the plate was truly worth exploring. No need to add cheese because the flavour of the meat (capriolo is venison) with the pasta was a perfect match. Hubby choose paperdelle with cinghiale (10.-Euro) – a wide noodle with wild boar sauce. It was good but perhaps the pasta needed to be drained a bit more because the plate had a bit of a diluted taste to it – not so much that it stopped us from licking everything clean but enough to note.
We didn’t opt for a main course – however those that did all leaned towards the Bistecca Fiorentina, and if the smell and look were anything to go by it looked as if the restaurant could be proud of their offering.
If you are roaming the streets and need to rest your feet – I can enthusiastically suggest : Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco, Borgo S. Jacopo 43 r. (the r after the number means when you are looking for this address you need to look for the numbers written in RED).
The Italian Man for New Years Eve goes casual
Posted by Pierotucci in Out and about in Florence on January 1, 2012
If I had the chance to dress my Italian man . . . it would be a bit like this . . . and I would have just as much fun undressing him ….
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2012 Leather Jacket Collection
