Street Art: Florence #24 (Part 2 of 2)

Our Florence Street Art (& Food) tour continues with food. 

During our tour, we stopped at three local eateries:  a café, a gelateria and an osteria. 

Our guide Lucia talked about Florentine eating habits and customs, such as breakfast at home is often very light because there will be a mid-morning break to enjoy coffee and a fresh pastry.  So, our first stop during the tour occurred mid-morning and we enjoyed a macchiato (espresso with a little hot milk) and fresh baked croissant in a café filled with locals.  The coffee and pastry energized us for the next leg of our walking tour.       

After some exhausting viewing of street art, we stopped for gelato.  We enjoyed a very basic cream gelato, which was delicious.  The photo below confirms the gelato caused much happiness.   

Near the end of our tour, we made a final food stop at Il Magazzino, an osteria, where we enjoyed a glass of red wine and polpette.  Polpette are a sort of fried and breaded ball filled with potato and another ingredient.  Typical ingredients include cheese, spinach or a type of meat.  You will remember that Susan had said she would eat anything on the tour except tripe.  Tripe is prevalent in Florence, with tripe sandwich stands all over.  Even the Four Seasons serves tripe.

Well, you know what was in the polpette.  Of course, it was tripe (known as lampredotto in Italian).  It turns out that our guide Lucia had taken us to an osteria that was also a tripperia.  Before serving us, Lucia asked if we had any food restirctions.  Since we said no, she surprised us with tripe polpette.  They were delicious.  Plus, the large glass of red wine made the experience all the more enjoyable.

At the osteria, we had the good fortune to meet the owner.  It turns out that he is a local celebrity.  Earlier in his life, he played Calcio Storico (Historic Soccer in English, an ancient form of Florentine soccer with very few rules).   He played for San Giovanni known as the Verdi (the Greens).  The photos below depict a sort of now and then.

Now

Then

One of the best parts of our tour was seeing more Clet road signs, many of which we had never seen.

We also visited Clet's shop, where we met and talked with Clet's lovely, charming girlfriend.  Clet happened to be in the shop.  One thing led to another, and we had a photo taken with the artist and obtained his autograph.  He was gracious and kind. 

Lucia, Clet, Susan and Greg. 
If you look closely, you will see that Susan is so happy that she is crying. 
Clet noticed her tears and was moved by her emotion.

Thanks for joining us on the Florence Street Art (& Food) tour.  We hope you enjoyed as much as we did.