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CAFE LIFE, GELATERIA

Where to drink and people watch. Where to buy ice cream.

Italians will stand at a bar in the back of a cafe for a quick shot of espresso, but most tourists will want a table with a view, which usually means an outside cafe in one of the squares.

The Rivoire from the roof of the Logia of the Uffizi

The Piazza della Signora is the main square and the Rivoire cafe on the west side is the best place to enjoy the view whilst sampling a Vin Santo with cantucci. Vin Santo is a local dessert wine drunk as an aperitif or after dinner. Cantucci (or cantuccini) are hard almond biscuits which are softened by dunking in the wine. You could also try an amoro (digestive) with ice. I like the liquorice flavour of Averna, an amoro siciliano (from Sicily). For a refreshing soft drink order spremuta d'arancia (fresh orange juice).

Giouble Rossi - where the Futurists used to hang out

The bleak Piazza della Republica was built over the Jewish ghetto when Florence was briefly Italy's capital. Most of the mediaeval city walls were pulled down at the same time. Much else would have been destroyed as well were it not for protests led by an Englishman. The square's Giouble Rossi cafe was a meeting place for Futurists, presumably taking refuge from so much history. The cafe takes its name from the uniforms of its waiters, echoing Garibaldi's famous thousand followers - the Red Shirts.

GELATO

Bar Vivoli Gelateria (tubs only) receives publicity but I prefer Festival del Gelato, Via del Corso. There's also a good takeaway gelateria on the Oltrano side of the river, either near the Ponte alla Carraia or the Ponte San Trinita but I can’t remember which or what it’s called…

Rik - 26 March 2003