Archive for 'Restaurants & Cafés'

The pretty and historic centre of Lucca is a lovely place to wander and explore if you have found a villa with pool in Lucca and are getting to know the area but, as you stroll around, you may soon find yourself quickly working up an appetite. If you are in need of refuelling while discovering the ancient and picturesque core of the city, then we highly recommend a visit to the charming Osteria Tosca, particularly if you happen to be headed to the nearby Puccini Museum that is a mere stone's throw away from the restaurant.

Osteria Tosca is located right in the centre of Lucca, in the Piazza Cittadella, next to the statue of beloved composer and lauded Lucchese son, Giacomo Puccini, who was born in a house only a few yards away. Cosy and inviting, the restaurant has a small garden area and an intimate interior and serves up the best of the tasty and wholesome home cooking from Lucca. Grab a seat inside in the pretty and romantic interior or relax at a table outside and take in the lovely surroundings and people-watch as typical scenes of Tuscan life unfold before you. Once you have settled in, you can then sit back, unwind, and enjoy a pleasant lunch or a relaxing evening tasting the menu of delicious local classics, paired with some great local wines, all at extremely fair prices.

Siena is a city in Tuscany famed for its mad-dash annual historic horse race in the main square in its core, for beautiful surroundings, and for delicious pastries. Some of the region's most enduringly famous and popular traditional treats were born or popularised in Siena. And, while there are plenty of places to buy tasty baked goods in Siena, from local supermarkets to cafes to traditional bakeries called pasticcerie, there are some must-see spots that food enthusiasts visiting the city would be wise to make note of. If you have found a villa with pool in Siena and you have worked up an appetite wandering around her picturesque medieval streets, then we highly recommend heading to the oldest pasticceria in town, the Pasticceria Nannini.

Foodies often choose to vacation in Tuscany as there is a wide breadth of different culinary experiences to enjoy in the region. There are lots of local delicacies to be tried, famous gelato shops, bakeries, and restaurants to visit, specific food festivals to attend, traditional markets selling the freshest produce, and much more besides to experience in Tuscany. In fact, one could readily (and happily) spend a whole holiday in the region just going on a foodie road trip around Tuscany to try it all! However, if you were considering a villa with pool in Volterra and you are looking for a highly unique, inexpensive, and fascinating dining experience, then we have just the thing for you: a visit to the restaurant in the Fortezza Medicea.

Florence is one of those cities that, somehow, keeps surprising and delighting us all the time with new finds. Whether it is long-forgotten historic gems or new openings, there is always something new to uncover every time you find a luxury villa in Florence, which is why it is a perfect destination for both first time visitors and repeat offenders alike. One new discovery in our office that tickled everyone’s fancy has to be the buchette del vino, which were once-ubiquitous wine windows through which one could, for a long time, pass a few coins and receive a flask of wine in return. Most are now long gone and have been out of use for even longer but there is one that has been recently reopened. If you’re planning on spending time in Florence and want to try out this unique and historic resurrected foodie experience, then head to the neighbourhood of Santo Spirito and see for yourself!

Santo Spirito is where you will find a new restaurant called Babae that opened back in August and, along with its culinary offerings indoors, brought back with it one of Florence’s buchette del vino and the Florentine tradition of buying wine through a window. These date back to the Renaissance, when many noble families of the city, who lived in the grand palazzos that still characterise the centre of Florence, had their own vineyards either just outside the city walls or off in the Tuscan countryside.

Tuscany is world-famous for her hearty cuisine, which is based on peasant traditions but is now synonymous with being tasty, comforting, and utterly irresistible. There are endless excellent places to eat all over the region if you have found a vacation rental in Tuscany, in fact it often feels like you could stumble into any given eatery and have one of the best meals of your life. However, if you are a more discerning eater or, especially, a foodie, there are some particular restaurants that you should check out: Tuscany's 2019 Michelin-starred and listed restaurants. With one three-star option, four two-star restaurants, and a whopping thirty-three one-star eateries, there is plenty of choice all over the region for foodies looking to taste a slice of the Michelin lifestyle over the course (or multiple courses, as the case may be) of their holiday in Tuscany...