Florence Day 2 Dinner at Ristorante Il Latini

This is a restaurant that is hard to find and located in an obscure street. It took forever to find. A lot of locals hadn't even heard of the street. Finally, I smartened up! Instead of asking, "dove via del palchetti?" I asked, "dove il Latini?" and immediately, the local faces lit up and they knew! Once the restaurant decides to reveal itself to you, you'll see how busy it is! From the store front, you can see whole prosciutto hams hanging from the ceiling. And it didn't gross me out the way it does back in the States! It was quite beautiful - like art work. (I would never describe meat hanging as art work by the way!) There is no menu here. No prices. Only specials of the day. You come in and plates of food start coming to your table. The waiter will ask if you want house wine - say yes (very good). They will give you a carafe of delicious red wine. Then they'll ask if you want antipasto. If you say yes, they will bring you an assortment of cured meats and bread. Then once you're done with that, they'll ask if you want the primi piatti, which consists of pasta - ravioli or gnocchi. Both are hand made and delicious. Then they ask you what you'd like for secondi, which is a meat extravaganza. You can choose chicken, steak, pork, lamb, etc. The veal* chop is excellent. By now you know the ritual. They ask if you want dessert. If you're completely stuffed by the endless plates at this point as I was, you will politely decline the dessert. But the waiters will still bring out Moscato or a Vin Santo and a sampling of several pastries, cakes, and almond biscotti. Very good! When you ask for the check, the waiter simply looks at what you ate and how much you drank, and will hand you back a tab. It is reasonably priced and quite the experience.

Ristorante Il Latini

Via dei Palchetti, 6/r  50123 Florence, Italy 055 210916