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We've compiled the best of the best in The Oltrarno - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
This wine bar on the way up the hill to Piazzale Michelangelo serves cured meats and cheeses, pastas, salads, and daily specials. Crostini and crostoni—grilled bread topped with a mélange of cheeses and meats—are the house specialty, and its grilled vegetables are divine. The lengthy wine list offers great options by the glass and terrific bottles from all over Italy and beyond. All this can be enjoyed at rustic wooden tables and seated outdoors when weather allows.
Though it has only four tables and four small stools at an equally small bar, Il Santino is blessed with a big wine list and superior cheeses, cured meats, and other delicacies. It's the perfect place to have a snack or a light meal.
An oenophile's dream, this spot—whose name translates as "the foxes and the grape" and is based on one of Aesop's fables—is off Piazza Santa Felicita. Here, affable, knowledgeable "volpi" (foxes), pour wines by the glass and serve equally impressive cheeses and bite-size sandwiches.
This little wine bar combines the best of Italian and French cheeses with wine from the same places to create true gustatory pleasure. The list of crostini is creative and offers some unusual pairings (like French Brie with Italian Speck, which is dotted with a spicy tomato chutney). Bottles of wine and artisanal foodstuffs are also available for purchase. All this can be enjoyed while sitting outside.
If you're brave enough to try lampredotto, get in line at this food truck. Popular with construction workers, the filling Florentine sandwich of a cow's fourth stomach, slow-cooked with tomato, parsley, onion, and celery, is served on crusty bread with a signature spicy salsa verde. Lasagne, tortellini, coccoli (fried dough balls served with prosciutto), daily specials, and trippa alla fiorentina (stewed tripe served with bread on the side), are also on offer. There are a few tables to eat outside.
At Pitti Gola you can order tasty tidbits to accompany your choices from the extensive and impressive wine list. The outdoor seats have a view of Palazzo Pitti.
