While in Italy, my friend and I tried to eat outside of the main towns in order to avoid touristy food and prices. Below are the delicious, (and of course edible), meals with some pictures and descriptions!

Florence

On the first day, we ended up eating at a “wine bar restaurant” near the Baptistry. We had the daily special of lasagna, patates, bruschetta, and vino rose.

The second day, we ventured more into the villages around Florence.

LUNCH – (ate the daily special of primo, secondo con contorno, caffe). I ate the insalate di torro, coroto, grenz, rucola then the crostone, coroto, porri.. These were amazing dishes! The salad was made of something like quinoa with carrots and chesse, and the bread had cheese and something like squash on it 🙂 And the espresso has been superb in Italy!

DINNER at Trattoria da Tito. This was a place recommended by Rick Steves for he fun atmosphere and great food. We had a bottle of the house red wine, then my friend had steak and I had zucchini pasta with cheese. Part of the fun was that the waiter did a shot of lemoncillo with the customers at the end of their meal 😮 It is meant to be a digestive. We were very happy on our walk home, thanks to the 3-4 glasses of wine each and 2 shots of 25% lemoncillo ha.

Rome

WEDNESDAY

– started with lunch of mozzarella balls and meat at my friend’s aunt’s apartment

– dinner of pizza at their local eatery! (basically margherita with pesto – very yummy dough)

THURSDAY

– spaghetti

– gelato at local place (Fabbrica di gelato, had chocolate forente and flor di latte)

– FRIDAY ravioli with cheese and spinach (near the Pantheon)

– SATURDAY (in Trevoli – a nearby medieval hill town) 3 different cheeses (mozzarella, ricotta, and goat?) with bread and tomatoes then meatballs, vino rose for dinner