Dinner

I've heard it's impossible to have a bad meal in Florence. As in any city, I think it can be very possible. I like to try and find places that aren't touristy which can be tricky because a) as S pointed out, I am in fact a tourist b) sometimes it seems touristy fare is all that is on offer. Florence is flooded with tourists, tourists that demand cheap Bistecca Fiorentina with chips or dayglo gelati. The exceptions are our wonderful panini shop across the road. They do panini and wine or water. That's it, and they do it very well. They are also warm, funny and entertaining. Our local gelati shop is also very good. It's lucky they don't have loyalty cards there as we would be up to our tenth free gelato. The signorina that works there thanked me for ordering everything tutto italiano which made me very happy as my italian is patchy at best.
Jack and I found some likely candidates on our wanderings yesterday. I boldly made a book for 7.30 (the earliest I could) which is way past our normal Garn & Pa time for dinner. My grandparents always ate very early, as do we usually because we have kids. Here though this time is called Happy Hour when you sip an aperitivo like aperol and prosecco and nibble on lardo on bread. S and Jack had a nap and armed with a new Lego book we headed off feeling optimistic.
Things started well when Jack was greeted as 'the prince' and ushered to a table. Our host was highly amused when Jack said his name is Giacomo. There was a slight theatricality to our evening, great people watching of course and the food was good, not the best we've had here, but very good. We started with a mixed platter of cheeses and salumi. I liked that this came with honey to srizzle on teh pecorino. We also had baby octopus and Jack had potato ravioli with ragu. Then S and I shared scampi, lobster and prawns (that we'd already met) which was served with fruit and vegetables. I'm not normally a fan of fruit with savoury food, but this worked. Dessert was of course variations on the theme of chocolate. Era Squisito!
We walked back past the floodlit duomo to our apartment and that view.