Veni, Vidi, Pluo - Part II

As I promised, here is part two.

The resteraunt where I had this cup of excellence (:p) was the Rivoire, in the Piazza della Signoria. The food was tremendous (in fact, the main reason we even came back to Italy was because my mum fell in love with the Panacotta last time), and the service was without peer. From start to finish we were looked after by one waiter, who really could not have been more helpful.

This morning, I decided to sample the hotel's coffee. We're staying in the Hotel Davanzati, near the centre of Florence, only a short walk from the Piazza della Republica. The food, again, was great. A full buffet service with everything from cereal and croissants to cheescake. They had both drip and espresso based drinks, so my dad went with an espresso, and I a cappuccino. Tragically, it was not what I had hoped for. The milk was uneven, with two cones of milk froth in the centre of the cup, and the foam was seperate from the body of the milk, suggesting it hadn't been spun properly. This, I knew before I was even served the drink, simply by listening to the woman behind the bar making the milk, frothing it even as she switched off the steam wand. The espresso too was mildly overextracted. To its credit it was served in an eight oz. cup at a drinkable temperature, and was made by hand, on a double group machine.

Having said this, it may have been the worst coffee I have experienced in Italy, but it is still better than the average UK cappuccino. The milk was the same quality as some of the drinks I've had from Costa or Starbucks, and the espresso was only mildly overextracted, but still drinkable.

We also visited the Gilli, in the Piazza della Republica. With it being the middle of the day I only drank water, but my dad had an espresso. The smell of it was lovely. It smelt only slightly bitter, and my dad agreed that, while the Rivoire's espresso was better, the Gilli was still an excellent cup of coffee. We are hoping to back there later this week, so I'll give you a more detailed review then.

We're off out again later, so I'll post again later. And I'll try to keep the posts short, cos the last thing you want is to read two full length essays a day.

See you again soon,
Seamus.