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Wolters World for Food! Our videos focus on helping travelers know what to eat when they travel, the traditional food that you always want to eat when you travel.
Copyright Mark Wolters 2026
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0:00
Hey there fellow hungry travelers! Mark here with Willjus Rooms. Hey we're here in Florence
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Italy. We've got the Ponte Vecchia right behind me and today we're going to talk about what you
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should eat when you come here to Florence because this is one of the great eating cities in Italy
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I mean they're all great eating cities but some are a little bit greater than others
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and Florence is definitely one of them okay. What I've tried to do in this video today is give you
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kind of the really traditional food of Florence and this region of Tuscany so you know what you
0:24
should eat when you're here that's truly from here because since it's such a popular place you have a
0:29
a lot of uh italian food that's from all over italy they actually do serve the restaurants here
0:34
but i want to make sure you get the real florence the fiorentina food when you are here and one of
0:39
the starters i really want to make sure you have when you do come here is the crostini di figato
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and what it is is if you ever have bruschetta at home you know it's the little bread with the
0:47
tomato stuff on top and other things yeah that well here the crostini a little bit smaller toasted
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bread but what they do is they put chicken liver on it like chicken liver pate and i will tell you
0:57
If you order it, don't be surprised if the waiter's like, did you want pomodoro instead
1:03
Because usually tourists don't like the chicken liver pate. But it is something that's truly traditional from here
1:08
And you should try it at least once when you're here and then switch back to the pomodoro on top
1:13
Now, another kind of starter thing that you might actually do as a whole meal when you're here in Tuscany is the tagliere
1:18
What the tagliere is, is when you see a charcuterie board. You know, you see a literally board comes out that has cheeses and meats on there
1:26
And the thing is, it's regional meats. It's regional cheeses. It's so good when you're here
1:31
And the thing is, if you have that cheese, you might notice they give you honey as well
1:35
Put some honey on that cheese too. It is so good. Like you can't go wrong with the taddea
1:41
And you'll see people that literally just get that for lunch because it's that good
1:45
Now let's talk about the bread. And anytime you go to a restaurant, they're going to bring you basically a basket of bread
1:50
I won't lie to you. Tuscan bread in general is probably my least favorite bread in Italy
1:55
but one of the types of breads they have here is very common and like what you'll have like with
1:59
your sandwiches and stuff is a is a roll that actually has very it's very very crispy crust
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kind of bread you'll have that but having said that about the bread i will tell you they do have
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their kind of own version of focaccia here which is called scotchata and basically it's a flat bread
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that's drizzled with oil and a little bit of salt actually is really good like if you could get that
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instead of the bread ball i would definitely recommend that and the thing is that bread from
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here that really crispy um like crispy crust bread actually goes into some of the dishes here
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and a couple sandwiches you really have to have are here that are really famous from here um one
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i'm gonna tell you you probably aren't going to be the biggest fan once i tell you what it is and
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it's lempredotto and what it is is it's cow stomach yeah it's cow stomach they cook it for a long time
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so it's it's not chewy like you'll if you eat it without knowing what it is you're like oh this is
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like a thinly like roast beef sandwich-y kind of thing, you know, kind of
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But I'll tell you, it's required taste. It's not bad. It's way better than the tripa fiorentina, which is tripe that they have here in a tomato sauce
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But the lempradotto, when you get it, they'll cut that really crispy bread, like the roll
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and they'll put the stomach on there. and then they'll put this green like sauce you get the spicy one if you want the red one
3:41
and then they'll take the bread and dip it into the juice of where they were cooking in the stomach
3:45
and i'll tell you like the flavor is there it's just when you're eating it you start to think
3:51
about what you're eating. That's where sometimes travelers have a little bit of trouble. And the thing is you should try it when you here And if you don want it it okay I understand But it is something that quite you know traditional from here and you see places that sell at the market on the side of the streets like in little stands people sell lampredotto but i just want you to know
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tours sometimes aren't the biggest fan of it but what they do like what i do recommend you get if
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you get to the mercado centrale which you should go to you want to get the porchetta and the porchetta
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is a pork sandwich and where it is you'll see this big huge pork roll and you're like my gosh
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am I in a cartoon that doesn't look real and they slice it right there for you and it is fantastic
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with the herbs and everything it's wonderful and then they make a sandwich of it for you and the
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thing is you can just get it where it's like that really crispy bread and the and the pork on it
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which is great by itself but you can go like the full meal deal out on it where they put like the
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garlic like mayonnaise stuff on the bottom and they put the the pork on there and they put this
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like vegetable puree stuff on there and then they put literally potatoes on there and then some
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tomatoes on there and then my favorite thing is like the sauteed onions as well oh my gosh like
4:57
you're gonna need a fork and knife to eat this thing and it is amazing like the porchetta sandwich
5:02
you have to get that one even you don't get it with everything you should at least get it with the pork it is awesome and you can get that in the the mercato centrale and i actually recommend
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for a tourist visit and a place to eat the mercato centrale is actually really nice because you can
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walk around and see the meats and cheese and grab a little snack kind of things there but on the
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second floor of it they have all these little restaurants you can go to so if you want to get
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you know your fourth stomach of a cow sandwich or if you want to get your porchetta or you want to
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get you know anything up there they have all kinds of great food up there you can do that for another
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option especially if you're in a group and everybody wants something different that can be a good place
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to go also if you go for the second floor when you are here at the mercato centrale they actually
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have food court here too so there's a bunch of restaurants you can order from as well so you have a lot of options when you're here but the thing is you're here in italy when you think
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of anything pasta there's a lot of really good pastas here in uh in florence you're not gonna
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have a problem finding good pasta but i think two you should definitely have in your number one this
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one you have to have this is like the most famous one here it's the pappardelle al cingale and
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basically what it is is pappardelle noodles think about like the size of a dollar bill if you cut it
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like lengthwise and then cooked it up it's really good like actually a really good noodle and then
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the salsa that goes with it is made with wild boar now you've never had wild boar before think of the
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flavor is more like, kind of if you ever have a really good pot roast that kind of falls apart
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you have the stringy meat in there, and that like brown sauce with it, that's what we're putting on
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there. And it is amazing. Like that's one you really have to have. Yeah. No, but the thing is
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if you don't want like that, you want the meat kind of stuff, you can also go for the tagliatella
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fungi porcini, taruffo, which is tagliatella pasta. And then it has mushrooms, porcini mushrooms
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and truffles yeah yeah yeah you can't go wrong i mean and those are just two there's tons of other
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great pasta you can have when you're here so i definitely recommend you trying some and you're
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a prima piatti so you do have that now if you move on to our second piatti the second plate the meat
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plates here and for my american travelers that are coming here that don't know how it works here
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in italy you have the prima piatti which is the first plate which are usually pastas and then the
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second piatti, the second plate, which is the meats, okay? So if you order a pasta and your
7:11
person you're with orders the meat, they might not come at the same time, so be aware of that. But probably the most famous meat dish you'd have here in Florence is a bistecca a la fiorentina
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and it is a Florentine seg. I mean, these things are massive, okay? They sell them by the kilo
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and I will tell you, they'll say, oh, 50 euros per kilo or 85 euros per kilo, and you might think
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oh so I'll get a kilo well some cuts have to be more than one kilo so like you might have a 1.3
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kilo steak yes and it is worth it it is fantastic worth every euro you spend and the thing is if you
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get the fiorentine steak it's rare like they sear the outsides like they'll bring it on this
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like metal tray that keeps sizzling in it but it literally rare in the middle and the thing is some people like oh I don eat rare meat oh you eat this red meat because it amazing and the thing is i would recommend maybe you don need to get any side dishes with it like the potatoes or the beans and frangiole
8:07
here are fantastic but that the steak is great and you don't have to have the really big one you
8:12
get sometimes there's other sides there's other cuts there there's a lot of really good meat here
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but that chianina or i guess you'd say like the the white cow that is like the high end kind and
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There's different levels of it for the Fiorentine steak, but the white cow, that's like the high-end one
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It's going to be the prices, and it's going to be amazing. Like, amazing
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I will tell you, when you are getting the Fiorentine steak, don't forget they price it by kilo
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And you also need to know, that doesn't mean that a steak is one kilo
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You might have to go over, because certain cuts might need to be at like 1.3 kilos
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So be aware of that, because the price you see is already going to make you go, wow, it's expensive
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But then you realize that's per kilo and you're gonna have more than one kilo
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Be aware of that, okay, but honestly don't ever pass up a fjortim steak
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They are fantastic and for the love of God don't ask them to keep cook it well or anything
9:06
I mean you have it rare like they sear on the outside. It's fantastic and it's rare in the middle
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And honestly, it'd be like telling someone from Chicago to put ketchup on a Chicago dog to tell them not to have it rare
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and believe me it cuts like butter it is so good you will love it the kiana one that's like the
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really good one that's the the white the white one i guess you'd say that's what you want to have
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like that's the highest end one it is fantastic and when it comes out and it's all sizzling there
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you're like oh but it is wonderful and i will tell you don't feel you need to get a side dish when
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you do get the fiorete steak like one of the big ones because yeah 1.3 kilos of steak there's not
9:45
really room for any friccioli any any beans or anything like that now if you don't want a big
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old steak they actually do a number of stews here there's actually a tuscan fish stew that's really
9:54
good a lot of different seafoods in it with onions and garlic kind of stuff that's really nice uh the
9:59
ripolita that is it's a bean soup but like a veggie bean soup so you want that and you'll see
10:04
that you can get that in the mercado centrale like literally there's some out there they'll give you a bowl you can have it right there that's really nice so keeping with our i guess stew and soup
10:13
theme i think papa el pomodoro is another thing i should mention that you'll see here and basically
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what it is it's like a tomato soup but made with stale bread so it's it sounds better than saying
10:23
tomato soup with stale bread but that's one thing you can have another pasta you'll see here is
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pichi which p-i-c-i and what you'll basically see with that is basically like a thicker spaghetti
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noodle i would just give the cacio e pepe version that's my find a very simple one on there for you
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but you can have other sauces as well so you can't go wrong with that either and there's a sauce i
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really like they do have here there's a duck sauce um you might have with uh like i think you'd say
10:46
macaroni and macaroni um sul antara and basically it's a duck ragu sauce which is really good you
10:53
can have that on a pasta too so you do have options and i'll be honest with you here since
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there's so many tourists that come here so many people come here you can actually find good pasta
11:01
from other parts of italy here too so don't limit yourself just try some of the things i just thought
11:05
i'd give you a few of those pasta dishes stews meats there's all kinds of good stuff here now
11:09
another thing we could go for, if you go back to the stomach or the tripe, you have the tripe la
11:14
fiorentina, which I talked about before. And basically what it is, it's just tripe cooked in
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like a tomato sauce. You can have that. And for the for the sandwich, you don't necessarily tell
11:23
that you're eating stomach. But when you get the tripe la fiorentina and you see it, you're like
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yep, I'm eating stomach. I can see I'm eating stomach. The weird vibrant texture. Yeah, it'll
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get you. Now, another thing that's actually from Florence, which seems weird because it's a fish
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is bacala forentina. Bacala is codfish. What it is, you have your salted cod and they cook
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it up for you and they'll have like your chunks of cod and then it actually has like a tomato
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onion, rosemary like sauce on top of it which is really nice. Let's move into some legume
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dishes when you here One the ioli Any of the bean dishes are going to be good but for me the white beans like if you see the white beans it is really really tasty There one where they cook with garlic and oil
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It's fantastic. Like you can make it as like a main dish. Like I was like
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this could be a great like soup kind of thing. Or it can be a side. And it's actually quite popular as a side
12:15
If you get the Pistecca Fiortina, you know, when you are here. Another thing is they have a pea dish
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that's very popular, which is the Pistelli alla Fiortina, which is peas with pancetta
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so sorry my vegetarian friends the pancetta shows up garlic parsley olive oil in there and it's
12:29
that's actually really good as well now we've had our starters our first place second plate stews
12:33
all kinds of stuff it's time for dessert if we look at desserts one gelato is famous here in
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florence you can never go wrong with gelato when you're here you'll love that for my friends i
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don't know what gelato is it's italian ice cream i love the pistachio kind that's my go-to but
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you'll be great with any kind when you're here so many great gelaterias here you'll be fine and of
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course if you're in florence don't ever pass up gelato they do a fantastic job here whether you
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go to a chain like this or you go to the local ones on the side of the street you'll be fine but
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don't ever ever pass up gelato anytime you're in florence but if you're in a restaurant where you
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might go for there's cantucci y vin santo which basically cantucci are these little uh there's
13:12
these little almond cakes or cookies i would say like but the thing is they're dry as heck like
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biscotti have you ever seen at home it's like that they're very very dry but what you do is you dip
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it in the vinsanto this sweet dessert wine and then you eat it it's so good like you definitely
13:27
should have that one and that's what lunch dinner it always is good heck you can just go have that
13:32
for fun if you wanted to another dish that's kind of more popular here you don't necessarily find a
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lot of other places in italy i mean you do some places but it's more from here is sucotto and
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basically what it is it's sponge cake on the outside and then it's sweet ricotta inside with
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candied fruit in it. Yeah, it's amazing. You should if you see that one go for it. And if you want
13:52
something that's popular all over Italy, you can always get a Zuppe Inglese. That's always something you can get too. But the thing is, there's a lot of great different desserts. There's a lot of
13:58
bakeries and cafes you can go to, to have a slice of different cakes from all over Italy. Because
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since so many tourists come here, the restaurants know that not everyone wants tripe, right? So
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they do have really great Italian food from all over Italy here. So that could be something to
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look out for. But I will say if you go to a restaurant that has like picture menus or like
14:17
19 different pastas, it's probably a tourist restaurant. So be aware of that. Now Florence is
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a very popular place and I would mention this. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but you just
14:28
might want to make sure you look, don't forget to look over your bill after you get it because
14:32
when your place has so many tourists and so many things here, if you go to some of the tourist
14:36
restaurants, they might accidentally add an extra beer on your menu or a wine or a little
14:42
little aperitivo or something just make sure you don't forget to like check the itemized bill it
14:47
doesn't happen a lot but anytime and this is not just here in florence this is any of those tourist
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cities you do want to keep an eye out for because i actually had one of the locals here say hey mark
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please mention this in your video so i'm like all right i'll do it for you so uh just want to do
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that for you just in case not saying there's anybody bad here but it is one thing you should
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be aware of and when you're thinking about eating here i will tell you this don't forget restaurants
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do tend to close their kitchens from about 2 30 in the afternoon until 7 30 at night so you're
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going to be doing more snack food at that time than actual meals um also it's very important that
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you do get reservations when you're going for dinner especially on the weekends and in the
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summer because the locals like to eat out with their friends too so the places do book up it's
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not hard you could ask them a lot of them let you book online so you could do that and the thing is
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for some tourists we like to like just have picnics and things i will warn you during certain
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times of the day, you're not really allowed to eat in certain areas or, you know, on steps
15:40
at churches and stuff. So do be aware of that because there are fines for eating ice cream at the wrong place at
15:45
the wrong time in certain times of the year. It's not all the time, but it's something to be aware of when you are here
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Anyway, what are the things you love to eat when you come to Florence? Let us know in the comments below because honestly, you could eat really well here if
15:56
you just go get some pizza. Bye from here in Florence
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