In Italy there are many art cities that can boast both excellent typical food. Among them there are some known and appreciated worldwide cities, such as Florence.

Florence is the capital city of Tuscany. This town is famous for being considered the cradle of the Renaissance, an award conferred by the many masterpieces that were created in Florence by the greatest masters of the past.

Many great artists have found in Florence ideal conditions to be able to express their talent during the Renaissance. All this was possible thanks to the enormous economic resources that governments and important Florentine authorities spent to make this city a true artistic masterpiece.

Apart from the major artistic works, Florence excels in other areas such as the traditional Tuscan cooking, which is still part of culture and daily life of this important Tuscan city.

The typical food of Florence and of Tuscany are also very popular outside the Italian borders. This is possible thanks to the large influence of tourists from around the world.

Tourists visit Florence for the whole year so they are tasting the traditional cooking in the many taverns and restaurants to be found in Florence: in the Old Town which is the most frequented area by tourists and in the hills that border the city.

As well as in restaurants and taverns you can taste Florentine and Tuscan food even walking the streets and squares in the typical open-air stalls. At these desks you can taste the bread sandwich with the lamprey or the traditional tripe Fiorentina style This street food is much appreciated by the Florentines and by foreigners visiting the city.

In many cases the current gastronomic tradition in Florence was inspired by recipes and popular foods, a tradition that has used inexpensive and very popular food, even in the less wealthy social classes.

Although Florence has been for centuries a rich and important, the majority of the population will have access to expensive foods it had to optimize their food resources to be able to meet their nutritional needs.

Over the centuries in Florence we have the practice to spare what remains of the previous meals. So the Florentines created dishes such as Ribollita, bread and vegetable soup, Pappa al Pomodoro (tomato soup) , the panzanella, all traditional dishes that still give levies a huge success in those who taste them for the first time.

The main protagonist of many typical dishes of Florence is definitely the bread. Bread in Florence has a feature that distinguishes it from the one of the rest of Italy for the total absence of salt.

Today the lack of salt in the bread of this area might seem like a deliberate choice to balance the salty taste of many kinds of food of Tuscany, in fact this particular feature of the Tuscan bread is a logical explanation in the high price that the salt had reached at certain times of the past, thus making salt a luxury not available to all.

The high price of salt in Medieval Florence finds its explanation in a historical context associated with the old rivalry with Pisa. This Tuscan city situated on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea was a powerful maritime republic . Because of disputes with Florence for a certain period of time it prevented the salt trade to the rival city.

In the past, salt was not only used to flavor and give flavor to food, the most important role of salt was to preserve and store food. Being expensive and not promptly available Florence people chose to limit its use by deleting it from the bread.

A choice that was widely shared, so that the unsalted bread spread from Florence to many other areas of Tuscany and it is still the most widely used bread in this region.

In addition to the most popular food derived from ancient tradition, there is other typical Tuscan food now highly appreciated by tourists visiting Florence: salami and meat that in this area have a great tradition and is the main food during the famous Tuscan aperitivo time. Meat is a dish that is generally consumed at the beginning of a meal.

In addition to Tuscan salami you cannot miss the typical crostini made with chicken liver pate which are perfect with all kinds of cured meat such as salami, finocchiona, soprassata and ham.

Another great typical tradition of the whole Tuscany is the excellent Tuscan wine.

Tuscan wines are considered among the best in the world and are served in most important restaurants either in the area and all over the world. The excellence of Tuscan wines is due both to the special care of production processes and to the excellence of the vine Sangiovese.

Sangiovese is a very common grape in Tuscany. Grapes are harvested and processed and then fermented in oak barrels in the traditional way, a preservation method that gives Tuscan wine the typical fruity taste that is so popular all over the world.

One of the most prestigious and well-known typical food of Florence is the Bistecca alla Fiorentina, a rich dish made with a particularly soft beef.

To obtain a typical Florentine steak meat they cut into very thick slices cook them moderately. In this way you get especially tasty and soft meat. The Florentine steak is usually accompanied by a classic roast potatoas or a plate of fresh salad. Despite this food appears quite expensive the Florentine steak is one of the most ordered dishes by those who visit Florence.