Italia: Day 3a - A Taste of Florence

Day three was one of our favorite days.

We woke up with a fresh start and our first day starting and ending in the same city.

We began our morning at what became our very favorite cafe in Italy. We returned many times.

The lady who worked there was so sweet and so classic Italian, and everything tasted amazing.

And her caffe lattes were delish.

After breakfast, we headed off to our food tour. 

[haha. We ate before our food tour. 

But we pretty much went to the cafe as many times as we could come up with a reason to.]

The food tour we took was really fun and a great way to start out seeing and tasting the city!

We started at a local coffee shop and sampled some [terribly bitter] espresso.

Then we stopped at a truffle shop... the only place in Florence that makes/carries true truffles. 

We sampled amazing little sandwiches with truffle spread on them.

You can bet we each bought a little 27 euro jar of that. :) Which I still haven't made!

Who knew Emma originally sought out, dug up, and brought back the truffles??? :)

 Then we stopped at a local wine bar where we sampled a red and white with meats and cheeses. 

I brought home a bottle of the red. :) Waiting for a special occasion to bust that out!

After wine tasting at 11am [haha], we went to the central market. Coolest market ever!!

I'll spare you the photos of the pig head. Most of it was pretty, like this.

In the market, we sampled olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

We also sampled Italian dessert wine. It was awful. I will never recommend that.

they say it 'cleanses the palate' ...... you bet it does!

We walked further through the market to this super famous shop that makes a special soup.

[I'm not a very good tourist/local. I can't remember the names of very many things!]

Me with our sweet food tour guide

 Carly's response to "give me your first reaction"... ;)

{i think this is kinda how we felt about a lot of things... but we were glad to try new things!}

And finally, it came time for the grand finale... gelato!!

I was SO excited!! We definitely liked this part.

 So that is the detailed version of our food tour. 

Here's the short instagram version {guess I shoulda given that to you first!}

{san fran/san jose}: All you can Eat

Besides drinking coffee and shakes, we did manage to eat some {yummy} real food!

{although I consider a white mocha frapp a food, and if stranded on a desert island with one option of food type,
I would absolutely choose ice cream if I could survive on it... but that's another story}

Clam Chowder in bread bowls on Pier 39, just me and my baby

Chipotle in union square {not exactly unique but one of our faves}

breakfast buffet Saturday at Urban Tavern

lunch on Main in Los Gatos with J's parents

Greek for dinner with everyone at Opa!

{his} euros & {her} chicken souvlaki

while at Opa!, we celebrated a few special occasions:

J's 26th birthday on 6-23

J's dad's 60th birthday on 6-26

and Sam and Valinda's first anniversary on 6-26

breakfast/dessert Saturday at Icing on the Cake and Great Bear with J, S&V

lunch with everyone at California Cafe

{his} strawberry lemonade & {her} peach lemonade... mmm

{his} fish tacos

Happy 60th birthday, John!!! So fun to have the family together to celebrate you :)

Happy anniversary Sam and V! Thanks for sharing your first with your entire family... you are troopers ;)

On a more serious note... love your marriage and how you love each other.

dinner with the McGovern clan at Black Angus

breakfast Monday with the McGs at the charming Southern Kitchen

my {not-so} awesome idea of a group photo

our favorites...

{his} french toast with syrup & {her} pancakes with strawberries and whip cream

and a trip to Powell's Sweet Shoppe... mmmm!

Sixlets, anyone??

thanks for showing me, V! you're the greatest candy buying buddy :)

 We each gained 9 pounds in four days... haha... just kidding... sorta...

All that to say, we ate well! Good food, fun places, and great company :)