Italy Archives - Curious Appetite

Meat Trends and Bistecca alla Fiorentina in Florence

August 28, 2026 / Florence, Italy, New Openings / 3 Comments

Apologies for the second hand embarrassment but this is my job

ICYMI: I’m a food blogger, certified Italian sommelier and culinary guide living in Florence since 2012 via Seattle. Apart from the blog, my writing appears on sites like Eater, Conde Nast Traveler, Infatuation and Wine Enthusiast. My food tours are recommended by Forbes, Frommer’s and Lonely Planet.

I’ve left this original 2016 post untouched for blogging nostalgia purposes—it captures one of the last golden moments of wholesome blogging innocence before AI, deep fakes and viral TikToks from parachute influencers started leading the current state of Idiocracy and the complete abandonment of thinking for ourselves and having an attention span longer than the blink from a pair of surveillance cybertruck sunnies. Long live messy run on sentences!!!

🏃🏻‍♀️ For an updated, comprehensive guide- here here: Understanding and Finding the Best Florentine Steak in Florence

In this guide on my food tour’s site Travel Tips corner, I do my very earnest best to break down what la bistecca is, common mistakes tourists make when ordering it (for respect’s sake please stop asking for medium or well-done this isn’t BK also why eat hockey pucks?) and my updated list of where to find the most authentic representations in the city today.

The guide covers everything from the “doneness” rules to some of my favorite restaurant recommendations. For the ultimate Florence restaurant deep dive, join one of my small-group Progressive Dinner Crawls where we tuck into the steak tradition together!

This (Florence’s first & original) evening dining food tour designed by yours truly includes a family-style (feasting) stop of one of the best steaks in town.

NB: If you have an issue with raw meat, I’m not here to judge you and honestly respect appetite diversity but please why come all the way to Italy and attempt to alter centuries-long traditions? Just order something else? I’m a bit soapboxy on this one as red meat waste is one of the most tragic and unfair things that can happen on this planet. Most people who are not into steak cooked to rare end up wasting it. It’s a travesty deserving of a wag of the finger.

Feel free to read on for a little blast from the past before the most recent global inflation, the TikTokification of Firenze and when blogs were Queen…

If Florence had to choose to be renowned for one thing food-wise, it would definitely be this thickly cut, grilled to a bloody char La Bistecca Fiorentina. Mention these 3 words to any Florentine or Florence transplant and assuredly a debate will ensue.

There are many opinions on what is important for a steak, where to get the best steak in Florence and most of all, what breed of cattle la bistecca fiorentina should come from. But restaurants in Florence are evolving to cater to meat connoisseurs, offering more than just a mystery meat variety grilled in the Florentine manner. My biased allegiance would be to the steak stop on my social progressive dinner crawl in Florence. 😉 Continue Reading →

A cheat sheet to the best restaurants in Florence, Italy

July 29, 2026 / Florence, Italy, restaurants in Florence, Where to Eat in Florence / 0 comment

There is so much noise on the internet and social media that finding legit places to eat without the hype has become a literal obstacle course. If you’re reading this, it means you actually care and are still doing research besides blindly trusting a parachute influencer list on a TikTok or Reel. To reassure you,...

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Where to drink wine and enotecas in Florence, Italy

July 15, 2026 / Florence, Italy, Where to Drink in Florence, WINE / 1 Comment

You’d be hard pressed to throw a rock and not hit a wine bar or enoteca in Florence. Yet, so many places are- to me- mediocre in terms of wine selection. The struggle is real to drink beyond the Sangiovese obvious in this Chianti-laden city. Not only are Florentines fervently loyal to their local wine landscape rarely exploring beyond their province, but much of wine served (especially in restaurants) leaves something to be desired in terms of quality and uniqueness. This to me is unacceptable in a country which produces such fascinating wines and is home to hundreds upon hundreds of indigenous grapes!

I find to drink interesting Italian wines/discover new varieties, I need to be pretty much anywhere else but Florence with the exception of a handful of places. Consider most glasses poured and wine lists more often than not are predictable and limited. This is of course speaking from my personal tastes. To understand why I bemoan the wine scene in Florence, I invite you to read this post I wrote last year. Continue Reading →

Where to find the best gelato in Florence

July 11, 2026 / Florence, Gelato, Gelato in Florence, Italy, Popular / 23 Comments

(original post in 2015, updated annually with additions. Last update July 2026)

Where oh where does one find the best gelato in Florence? Anywhere, right? It’s Italy! It’s Florence- the birthplace of gelato! You can’t go wrong! No- WRONG!

Finding quality gelato in Florence is more difficult than you think. Italy has a plethora of quality raw ingredients- yet establishments in touristic cities like Florence continue to favor business/profit margins over preserving gelato’s integrity.

Finding a worthy cone in the historical center is tough but not impossible. Florence has a particular fondness of gelato because it is said to be its the birthplace.

On my gelato tours in Florence, or gelato making classes not only do we taste some of the city’s best scoops- we chat about the key figures of gelato’s beginnings: Cosimo Ruggieri, Bernardo Buontalenti and Francesco Procopio (Francesco was actually from Sicily and this is where the gelato origin wars start to ensue).

As one of my guests once said “basically we’ve learned that Florence invented everything.” Exactly. I mean, how can you not boast a city that gave the world the (standard) Italian language, gelato and the negroni? Continue Reading →

Curious in Italy on Substack

April 26, 2026 / Florence, Florence, Italy, Updates / 0 comment

Hello dearest eyes, friends, family and the odd troll readers/lurkers!

I wanted to provide a little short update that I opened a substack and what to expect from Curious Appetite here on out. As usual, you can always catch me for food tours in Florence and various culinary experiences in Italy.

If you’ve been reading here for a while or follow me on IG, you already know this space is about life in Italy as a food & drink obsessed Americana, curated dining guides to Florence, Bologna and straight up honesty.

As the culture of blogs has changed, I too have to adapt.