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Italy waypoint:
comments: When it comes to travel, there are two types of people - tourists and travelers. The tourists will see the "highlights" of cities they visit and see a condensed version of what they could have experienced in a book. Travelers dive into the places they visit and want to experience it for everything it's worth. Travelers get the see the true colors of the cities and countries they go to. I consider myself a traveler. During a 3 week stay in Italy, our mainstay was in a gorgeous two bedroom apartment at 66 via l'africo. One of my roommates during my stay was as much of a traveler as I am and we spent all of our free time looking at everything the rest of our group was missing. During our wandering, we came across what ended up being our kitchen away from home. The first time we went to il Gatto e la Volpe, we fell in love with the feeling of the restaurant. If you are a tourist, chances are the restaurants you go to are meant to suit what you think you should be looking for and will overcharge you for an experience that doesn't leave you with a true feeling for where ever you have visited. il Gatto e la Volpe was not this kind of place! It was a restaurant on the corner on a line of buildings. We could see right away that it was very small and that was part of its' appeal. We walked in and the inside is, indeed, quite small (I would guess it can hold 30 people, maximum) but it felt like home. The walls and furniture were deep, dark wood. The lighting was soft without being so soft that you have to struggle to read the delicious menu. All of the waiters spoke English very well. It seemed to be a family run restaurant with dad in the kitchen and his boys on the floor. We got to know our friendly and fun waiter, he spoke of how he always wanted to visit certain cities in the US and had a slightly flirtatious attitude but in a way that was flattering rather than insulting. They have a large selection of wines and the food is unbelievable. Their service is second to none, as the person I went with needed some special meals. She is a vegan and asked if it was possible to get certain dishes to fit her food choices and they enthusiastically said that it was no problem. Also, once when we were there, the restaurant filled up but a group of 5 wanted to come in. There is no room for anyone to wait within the restaurant for a table to empty, so the waiters did something I've never seen. They asked the group if they would like to wait outside with a free bottle of wine for a table to open up. I was stunned! They gave the group 5 wine glasses and a bottle of wine on the house. Tt is in the middle of quiet streets so they were never bothered and had a good time chatting it up on the corner of backstreets in Florence with some fine wine. We went there three times within our stay. When I go back to Florence one day, I know that the first night I stay I will be heading off to this little "hole in the wall" family restaurant for fond memories. 
posted: 03/18/2008 03:12 PM by: Kismet |
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