Frienze; A tale of four breakfasts: part 2

Well, happy with our little art cafe find we continued our wandering towards the central markets, then another side street and another glimpse of a possible something. Two old men and a puppet sitting either side of a doorway enjoying not-coffee at this early hour but a glass of wine.



We walked past and looked in a few more old men standing at the bar drinking, well we had heard that the traditional breakfast for the Fiorentini gentleman was the legendary tripe sandwich, so we decided to see if these Fiorentini knew where we could get one. In we went and in our best smashed Italian asked for the lampredotto, the guy behind the counter said something (that's the problem of only knowing a few words of a foreign language, people tend answer back with more than you know of the same language) and disappeared around the corner a few moments later he was back and some more was said, we were kinda like uuhh ok when a voice from behind us said "He says it won't be ready till 12 o'clock, where are you from?" Surprised we turned to address the elderly dude sitting in the corner.



His name was Max, we talked about Aus and living in Japan, he had been to both, he told us the traditional breakfast was and espresso, we said we'd already had one "so let me buy you a wine then" was the response. Sure why not a glass was produced and since we were here we had a little browse of the extensive crostini cabinet and selected a Nduja and butter crostini and a little bun with slices of fresh truffle and butter (YUM!!) as we were looking came Max's voice over our shoulder "let me be reminding you I'll buy you a wine but that is all" Heh heh yeah no worries Max.



We sat and talked for a while, enjoyed tasty snacks and good wine, soon we had to move on in search of the Lampredotto we said our goodbyes and made to pay, but a few words from Max and the barman said it was all taken care of. Really? Thanks Max!

Breakfast number 2 and yet another promotion for walking down strange alleys.
And later on that day when we stopped back in to a wee five oclock snacky we had the opportunity to do the supprising, a young Japanese guy looking for chicken liver crostini was super suprised to being spoken to in Japanese in a little out of the way osteria in Florence.

San Giamano, it's pretty pretty, problem is every one else thinks so too. The town is packed with people, for us the scenic views and picturesque towers are secondary to a good place to eat.



We wander through the maze like interior of the walled city heading for the far side to find Il Pino. Unfortunatly, they were all full up so we wandered aimlessly through the tourist aimed gift shops had a look at a few scenic sights, and then as seems to be the case with much of our wandering we came across a little something something.



A showcase full of cured meats and cheeses and a tres cool female cook in six inch heels and mesh top whipping out what looks like some tasty treats to a mostly local crowd, we grab a couple de-rigueur glasses of wine (it's Italy people) and order some snacks.



The carparccio of prosciutto is simply shaved proscuitto, parmasean, and rocket some Tuscan bread on the side and it's good to go and oh so good.



The first crostini of pepperocini and pecorino is spicy chessy goodness and the second of grilled eggplant and scarmorza is untious and very more-ish.





We even end up buying a bottle of one of the wines we started with to go along with our afternoon grazing. . . . . . .la vita è dolce.

The truffle madness begins.

On our first night in Tuscany we began our ridiculious attempt to scent ourselves from the inside out with truffles. Crostini of Lardo with truffled honey, and crostini of taleggio with fresh truffle was a great way to start.



How could we be in a new place for all of five minutes and already feel content??