Relaxing Halloween in Florence


Late breakfast in the Hotel della Signoria’s breakfast room with great rooftop views kicked off our relaxing Halloween in Florence.

View over Florence from the Hotel della Signoria's breakfast room
Even overcast, it’s a nice view

We meandered through the nearby streets, visiting a market that appears each morning, and is taken down every night. Do these people start setting up at 3 am?

Leather goods at a street market
Leather goods at a street market
Me … pondering seemingly endless choices

Later, we met my daughter and her husband for lunch at Gustarium, an interesting pizza shop that cuts as much from the whole pizza as you’d like, with a pair of scissors, and then weighs it as they charge by the kilo.

Gustaarium la Bottega sign
Piece of pizza with cheese on top
Small piece of pizza
The last piece of avocado, mushroom pizza

After wandering for a bit, we did a little shopping and checked out the fruit and vegetable shop…

Fruit market or frutta verdure

While meandering, we felt the call for the requisite mid-afternoon capuccino…and of course, cookies at La Loggia Deglia Albitzi!

Caffe Pasticceria La Loggia Deglia Albizi sign
Cup of cappucino with pastry in background
Italian pastry
Many different types of cookies

Then it was nap time. I’d gotten 13,447 steps in the previous day and was still feeling it.

After refreshing naps, we ventured out for dinner.

We window-shopped and wandered a bit, dipping into a bar for spritzes.

Spritzes on the counter of a bar

Italian children poured into the bar in groups of four or five, holding out bags for treats and returning to their waiting parents in the alley.

Their costumes were remarkably complex and of good quality

We were told that the Florentine specialty was steak…funny, for some reason I always thought that it was spinach. Our hotel bartender recommended a couple of steak restaurants, and so for dinner, we visited Trattoria dall’Oste Chianineria.

We ordered a mixed antipasto platter as an appetizer, and it turned out to be about four times the food that we’d anticipated.

Antipasto dishes

Fortunately, they cheerfully boxed up half of it, which we used for our lunch the next day (more about that in a later post!).

The main course was astounding. A very hot iron rectangle was provided, that we used to heat/cook each piece as we ate.

Florentine steak

Dessert was panna cotta with chocolate sauce …

Chocolate covered dessert
The chocolate was so delicious…

And biscotti to be dipped in vin santo.

Biscotti with dessert wine

We passed through the Piazza della Signoria on our way back to the hotel and viewed the statues there.

The Rape of the Sabine Women at night

The effect of the statues at night was stunning.

What an incredible end to a relaxing Halloween in Florence!

Now it was time to get some sleep to be ready for one last full day in Italy.


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