Florence is basically awesome.

Last night we went to a restaurant near the central market. It’s called Ristorante Pepo. We had a mutli-course tasting menu of regional Tuscan specialties. My instructor had arranged it with the restaurant beforehand so we could be sure to try some of the dishes mentioned in the books we read. There were the most beautiful bruschetta I’ve had. I didn’t love the pesto one because the parsley and capers just didn’t speak to me, but the tomato one! Wow. I could have had several.  There were also pasta dishes passed around (fettuccine with mushrooms and cream and gnocchi and gorgonzola), but the highlight for me were the bread stews—one was in a pomodoro sauce and the other had black kale in it. They also passed around some cold cuts and cheeses and grilled chicken and steak. Dessert was this biscotti-like dry bread (forget the name) dipped in a sweet wine.