Jewelry shops and luxury watch brands line the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, as also musicians and artists come evening time.
Artsy souvenirs in the form of painted ceramic plates and paintings of the Tuscan countryside adorn the steep streets of the hilly town of Montepulciano in Tuscany. These looked authentic compared to the (cheaper) ones we had seen in Florence’s Mercato Centrale.
Pienza in Tuscany is famous all over Italy for it’s Pecorino cheese, a hard variant of cheese made from sheep’s milk.
Europe has numerous cafes and in Italy, we found evenings to be a time when cafes would come alive with patrons sauntering in for their fill of ‘aperitivo‘ – drinks hour where the drinks were accompanied by finger food that was usually free.
How can you not have your fill of it, in the place that gave birth to the pizza ?
..Or come away without sharing the Italians’ enthusiasm for coffee ?
..Or resist falling prey to their pies, muffins and delicacies ?
A vintage car used by one of the restaurants attracts every eyeball that walks past.
A restaurant gets ready to welcome patrons as the sun sets in Rome
Once dusk sets in, the cafes and restaurants come alive with good food, fine wine, a general good cheer and most memorably for us, musicians serenading the dining crowd with mellifluous music.
In Trastavere, we had a jolly good walk along almost every street observing the crowd enjoying their food and drinks, before picking our own establishment to sit down to.
