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In upcoming posts, I’ll be talking about tourist sites and gorgeous artworks in Florence, Pisa, and the surrounding area, but the first couple posts in this series are more in the way of public service announcements. They provide the answers to questions I wish I’d known enough to ask before I traveled to Italy. The first, on planning, packing, and flights, is here. The second, on car rentals and driving in Italy, is here. This week: Italian restaurants and our hotel.

Restaurants

We walked out of the car rental place at Florence airport at 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve (see this post), starving. We knew nothing of Florence, not even where the central area is in relation to the airport. Via Google Maps, we found a restaurant rated 4 stars, but once there, we couldn’t find street parking anywhere nearby. Shortage of street parking is, it turns out, typical in Florence.

Eventually we decided to just take the first parking spot we saw, and then choose a restaurant near it, based on the number of stars on Google Maps. Had we known about city parking garages (this post) we’d have been sitting down to dinner a lot earlier. As it is, I suspect the spot we took was residents-only parking (more info on that is also here) … but we were lucky enough not to get a ticket.

We ate at La Forca, near Sant’ Ambrogio, and (spoiler) it was a fantastic meal. La Forca is a local place: the staff spoke little English and the menu was entirely in Italian. Fortunately we’ve eaten in enough Italian restaurants in the US to handle that.

The maitre d’ almost turned us away at the door because we had no reservation. On New Year’s Eve, they were booked. Fortunately Italians tend to eat rather late. The maitre d’ decided we could stay if we finished in an hour. No problem: we were so tired from flying at that point that only hunger was keeping us awake. I suspect we looked it, too.

Note: If we’d been aggressive, the maitre d’ would probably have politely but firmly refused to seat us. Aggressive isn’t our normal style, and we were far too exhausted to be rude … We tried to communicate hunger and desperation politely, in broken Italian, and we were seated.

Once we were seated, the restaurant staff was fantastic. They gave us each, gratis, a pink champagne cocktail. We ordered an octopus appetizer on mashed potatoes, a Florentine steak (a giant T-bone), and a pork fillet. All were perfectly prepared and delicious. The waitress brought us, again gratis, the yummiest ever pistachio cheesecake. Prices were very reasonable.

Getting the check at the restaurant

This was our first experience with getting the check at an Italian restaurant. We tried 3 times to have our waitress (who spoke minimal English) to bring us the check. It turns out that if you want to pay with a credit card in an Italian restaurant, you go to the front desk rather than waiting for a check at the table.

The tip was included in the bill: we didn’t even have the option of adding it to the credit card. If we’d had any small-denomination euros, we would have left some cash on the table, since the food and service were so good.

Hotel

We stayed at Borgo alle Vigne, a Hilton time-share in Selvatelle, about 20 miles south of the autostrada that runs from Florence to Pisa. It’s a lovely location in the Tuscan hills. Driving to Florence took about an hour, driving to Pisa somewhat less.

Had we thought about that, we would probably have flown into the Pisa airport. Florence has only one runway, and if there’s a strong crosswind, it shuts down.

I give high marks to Borgo alle Vigne: the staff, amenities, furniture, appliances, maintenance, and maid service were all top-notch. The front office has a rack of extraordinarily useful flyers on attractions within driving distance, including driving times and recommended restaurants. I wish Hilton had similar time-shares in Paris, London, or elsewhere in Europe!

One minor drawback – which I suspect applies to a lot of Italy – is that the clothes dryer was so energy efficient that it took more than 3 hours to dry a very small load of laundry. We learned to start the laundry as soon as we walked in the door in the evening. Still, having a washer-dryer meant packing far fewer clothes, so we were happy to have access to one even if it took a long time.

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