The flavor of Florence: An Italian adventure leaves an unforgettable after-taste

We are jet lagged and so everything carries a dream-like quality to it. The lush green countryside of Tuscany unfolds outside our car window on our first full day in Italy. Tuscany is breathtakingly beautiful and I’m happy that I agreed to spend our first full day here in the care of a private car and driver, bouncing from one Tuscan village to another. We taste wine, sample olive oil and learn about sumptuous aged balsamic vinegar. And, every chance we get, we devour gelato.

We have broken away from Yakima for seven days for our second annual ladies trip to Europe. Last year we enjoyed Paris and this year, Italy. We chose Italy because our friend Liz was a Rotary exchange student here in the year between high school and college, something that my husband and I feverishly hope for our own children — to reach out into the world before they get too settled and try on different cultures and lifestyles, to gain some cultural capital of their own.

Italy is harder to get to than Paris, with connections in other major European cities. My friend and I tried a new-to-us-airline and flew from Seattle to Frankfurt on Condor, with a four-hour layover. We all met up in the Florene airport on a Saturday night.

Seven days away from our children and husbands, our homes and careers and projects, is restorative in a way that I can’t describe. We miss our families while we’re gone, but we reconnect with ourselves in their absence. Seven days away, after travel and time change, only means four full days on Italian soil, but for four full days, we really dove into the culture, the art and the food.

I could write an entire article just on the food of Tuscany — the simplicity and extravagance of it. How the pasta can be both simple and elegant, yet exploding in our mouths. How the sauces were four or five ingredients, but the mélange always seemed something we’d never thought of yet can hardly wait to recreate. Our friend has celiac disease and Italy revealed herself to be one of the best places in the world to safely eat gluten- free food — delicious gluten-free food.

We found entire restaurants with dedicated gluten-free menus that had deep-fried bread dough, drizzled with truffle oil, crusty gluten-free bread, rich sandwiches layered with salamis and cheeses, as well as pizza and pasta for days. All gluten-free, all delicious.

I had resisted committing an entire day to Tuscany, but our private driver Georgio made Tuscany come alive for us as he wove history and stories and anecdotes into each spot, wildly gesturing out the window with jokes and memories.

Our first stop was the tiny and quaint village of Montefioralle, where it took us less than 30 minutes to wind through the one and only cobblestone street. Next, we visited a bustling outdoor market and out-of-this-world meat shop in Radda in Chianti where we had our first of many espressos that day. Georgio gave us an hour to just wander and enjoy the sites, the smells, the simplicity of a Sunday morning market full of flowers and antiques.

For lunch, we stopped at a local farm and tasted their balsamic vinegar and wine and then enjoyed a three-course meal of bruschetta, pasta, and strawberries drizzled with their 60-year aged balsamic vinegar.

After lunch, Georgio slowly drove us to our last hilltop village of the day, San Gimignano, a name our American mouths had a hard time pronouncing. This town is known as the Town of Fine Towers. While only 12 remain, this UNESCO World Heritage Site once boasted 72 towers as rivaling families built higher and more elaborate signs of prestige. We are the happy consumers of their competition.

Jet lag is a beast, but we kept moving all day long in a dream-like state, fueled by espresso and gelato.

Gelato. Everywhere we went we had a bit of gelato. We tried the fruit kinds, the chocolate kinds, in a bowl, in a cone, with toppings, without. I wish I had recorded the look on my friend’s face after her first taste — there is simply nothing else in the world like Italian gelato.

We had read a Rick Steves’ article ahead of the trip so we could seek out the “true” gelato — no bright colors, gelato hidden under covers, transparent staff when you ask questions. We were delighted when our friend with celiac could also safely enjoy gelato and even gluten-free ice cream cones!

Our first full day in Florence proper was spent wandering cobblestone streets that were narrow and helped us easily imagine living in Florence in another century. We also spent an hour climbing to the top of Giotto’s Bell Tower at the Duomo. We spent much of the day marveling at the unique architecture and history of the Duomo, exhausting ourselves with stairs and stairs and stairs, followed by more gelato.

We ate several times at S’Grano, a dedicated gluten-free restaurant that had so many delicious choices we easily over-ordered and shared and laughed late into the night. Other evenings we ate pasta and pizza with fresh ingredients and unique combinations.

We booked tickets for Academia Gallery to see Michelangelo’s The David, opting for skip-the-line tickets because we had so little time for lines. Unfortunately, the day we went, there was a small strike at the museum, so everyone was standing in line still. When we finally got into the museum we were awestruck by The David, easily spending an hour wondering at the masterpiece from several angles. It rained hard all day, so we were glad to be tucked away inside amid world-class art.

We spent a large part of day two at a gluten-free Italian cooking class. We arrived sweaty and late and were admonished in true Italian style. Thankfully, our hostess/chef quickly forgave us and moved on to teach us how to make three different kinds of pasta, with three different accompanying sauces.

We were stunned. In just two short hours we had helped prepare a feast that we felt we could easily make at home. (Last year we learned how to make French macarons — so easy and delicious. Sadly, we haven’t yet carved out time for the two-day cookie making extravaganza). This year will be different! One of us has already conquered homemade gluten-free pasta!

Last year we started the tradition of travel but also the tradition of splurging on Michelin three-star restaurants. So, for our last evening in Florence we enjoyed another, Enoteca Pinchiorri. Again, the restaurant easily and safely accommodated our friend with celiac.

We had a four-hour dining experience of seven courses. In addition to a renowned cave and sommelier, Enoteca Pinchiorri has a water menu, a book with several dozen pages of both still and sparkling mineral waters, with varying descriptions and tastes. We first selected a “firm bubble” sparkling mineral water and then later switched to a “mild bubble” sparkling water. The food was extraordinary, but not fussy, and the environment was gorgeous in an old Italian building.

We left Florence full of dreams, could we return some summer with our families and rent out a Tuscan villa? Where else in Italy could we venture next? How often can we recreate these gluten-free pasta dishes?

For an extraordinary adventure in architecture, history, food, wine and GELATO, I encourage you to try Florence, with a side of Tuscan villages.