Zibibbo

The best meal we had in Itally was at Zibibbo in Florence. A true dining experience. I read about it in the May issue of Gourmet magazine. The article was about the writer's (Flavia Schepmans) experience going to Florence and taking a week long cooking class at Zibibbo with Benedetta Vitali (shown in picture with me) the restaurant's owner and chef.

We got on a city bus in Florence for a 30 minute ride up the hill to Careggi. We were the "early" Americans, but Benedetta couldn't have been more welcoming. (Italians eat dinner around 9pm) She sat us down with some Prosecco while she went to print out the evening's menu. Then she came by to translate the entire menu for us and offered half portion sizes of some of the courses so we could try more dishes. She also knew her wines and made a wonderful recomendation for our meal. We were the only Americans there all evening.

I started with this wonderful smokey eggplant spread.

Then it was on to our homemade pasta course. One was orecchiette with a spicy sauce and then a tagliatelle with wild mushrooms. Really good!

One of our main courses was Florentine Stewed Calamari with Swiss Chard. So flavorful.

And the very regionally prepared pidgeon! It had a stuffing of liver, pears and orange zest. Mark said he liked the little bones and Benedetta said "Oh yes, zee little bones are our favorite part".

We topped it off with amazing dessert. Zibibbo is a restaurant that should have a wonderful write up on Trip Advisor.