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Tuscany restaurants
The area's culinary traditions reflect the gruff, no-nonsense Tuscan character, with its firm territorial roots and resistance to change. You'll find the same classic dishes in most trattorias and many more upmarket places too: bistecca alla fiorentina, the classic Tuscan T-bone steak, cut three or four fingers thick and grilled over a wood fire (preferably oak) for just five minutes on each side; or filling soups like ribollita (a rich vegetable broth with beans and bread) and pappa al pomodoro (another bread soup, this time with tomato, onion, garlic, and a touch of chili). Popular starters include crostini (small rounds of bread, sometimes but not always toasted like bruschetta) with olive paste, beans, liver paste, artichoke purée and other such toppings, while pasta specialties (not as ubiquitous in Tuscany as in some other Italian regions) include papparedelle alla lepre (thick pasta strips in hare sauce) and, south of Siena, pici all'aglione (hand-rolled spaghetti in a tomato and garlic sauce). Finish up with a panna cotta ("cooked cream," a sort of rich blancmange) topped with frutti di bosco (wild berries) or caramel, or opt for the classic Tuscan dinner wrap, cantucci con vin santo—dry almond biscuits served with a glass of dessert wine for dunking and drinking.
Perfect for a light lunch, tea, or just a rest stop after trekking through Montepulciano, the historic Art Nouveau café, with its balcony overlooking the...more
At first glance, this historic buca in Lucca's centro storico looks like a parody of an Italian trattoria, with copper pots and whole prosciutti hanging from...more
Fulvio Pierangelini, the moody but brilliant front man of the "Red Shrimp," is a real chef's chef, a man who is better known within the trade than he is to the...more
With its gray sand and not exactly limpid sea, the beach resort of Capalbio, south of Monte Argentario, may not look like much to those with Caribbean...more
High up above the busy sailing and fishing harbor of Porto Ercole is another, more rural world of olive trees and small kitchen gardens. It's here that you'll...more
Push past the loaves and cream puffs in this unassuming bakery in a Medieval hill town, and you find yourself in a tiny back room that hosts a...more
Arezzo has no shortage of worthwhile places to eat, but on recent visits it's this little osteria–wine bar just off Piazza Grande (one of the venues of...more
In the historic center of Pienza, this family-run trattoria has a pleasant, simple dining room and an outdoor terrace shaded by market umbrellas in summer. Of...more
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