The Food Lover's Guide to Florence: With Culinary Excursions in Tuscany

Paperback - May, 2003 - Ten Speed Press
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By: Emily Wise Miller
ISBN: 1580084354

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Reviews by readers

very good and helpful food guide for florence

We brought this with us, along with several other more general food guides, on a recent 5 day stay in Florence. This was, by far, the most helpful of the guides, since it was devoted exclusively to florence (unlike any others that i am aware of, although there are several tuscan food guides). Because of this, it was far more detailed and afforded many more options than any other guide. As an added perk, it was very up to date, again, unlike several others. There will always be some disgreement when it comes to food recommendations, but I found this guide to be quite reliable. It is by far the most helpful eating guide for florence itself, so if you are traveling to florence for more than a day or two, and eating is at all important to you, I would recommend it very highly, despite the following caveats.

As another reviewer mentioned, the organization in this book leaves a lot to be desired. It is arranged by type of establishment (pizzeria, gelateria, restaurant by expense-category). Since most of one's stopping into gelateria, pastry shops and food markets (if not restaurants) is likely to occur semi-spontaneously as one is walking around, it is crucial to be able to quickly locate stores in your area. This would have been SO easy to address with either a numbered map (preferably) or an index/ list by area. The lack of area-organization combined with the sheer bulk of easily accessible eateries requires one to spend a cumbersome amount of time looking in the guide beforehand and planning stops, not necessarily how one wants to spend one's time. Quite often we realized later that we had walked right near or by a place of interest, which was frustrating. We discovered the last day that there was a highly interesting restaurant right around the corner from our hotel, but we hadn't put that together. So organization is my major complaint.

A few minor complaints: although she does lodge some criticisms, by and large the tone of the entries is a bit glowing. That's probably stylistic as well as a reflection of the quality of establishments that made the bar for inclusion in her list, but more notes on the negatives (not so good for vegetarians; can be very loud; reliable X, but not among the city's top 10, etc.) would have helped narrow down a sometimes undifferentiated list of similar sounding restaurants. She also has a thing for chocolate and seems to recommend almost exclusively chocolate desserts at restaurants. A few times the basic information (e.g., about hours) was wrong, though I think that is unavoidable in this kind of guide.

A final note: the author recommends reservations at restaurants. Although this was not always necessary, it usually was, so take note.

Don't eat in Florence without it!

This book was the only book we needed in Florence. Emily's reviews were spot on and we never had a bad meal. We were often the only "tourists" in the eating establishment and garnered some looks from locals as in "how did you find this place!" We walked 2 miles outside the city to have the best pizza we've ever tasted and then 4 miles to spend Sunday lunch with Italian families eating "Spaghetti della Casa." I am extremely picky about food (being Italian and a chef for 15 years) so I cannot rave about this book enough...it made our trip!

AMAZING!

You cannot go to Florence without this book! I was in Florence for five days and I wore this book out; I ate exclusively at places from this book and have never had a better culinary experience in Florence! Emily Wise-Miller takes you to the hidden gems and out-of-the-way places that tourists dream about! Writing this review is making my mouth water and my heart beg to go back, just so I can eat more delicious Florentine steak, pasta, gelato and drink the wine!

If you are planning a trip to Florence/Tuscany or simply want to learn about the culture and history of of Tuscany's culinary roots, BUY THIS BOOK! You will not be disappointed!!

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