Third day of our trip: Florence. This city claimed a soft spot in my heart since I first visited years back, and having only one day to revisit this city was not nearly enough time. Since Florence is inland, our cruise ship docked at the port of Livorno, about an hour and a half’s drive away. This was one port where the limitations of being on a cruise stung. After a whirlwind day of seeing some new sights and returning to old remembered spots, I still have a hankering to return to Florence. It’s like cozy college town, filled with some of the world’s most glorious art and architecture – and it’s next to the Tuscan countryside. How could you not want to spend weeks here? Nevertheless, we did our best to squeeze Florence into a day.
We took a quick detour first to Pisa to get a look at the Leaning Tower. No, we didn’t do the “pretend you’re holding up the tower” trick shot, although every other tourist seemed to be doing it. The Tower was beautifully clean – our driver told us it had just undergone a thorough cleaning a couple months ago. Certainly much nicer looking than in some older photos where you can clearly see it blackened by pollution.
The Cathedral next to the tower.
Overlook of Florence – so pretty. You can see Ponte Vecchio (the Old Bridge) to the left and the huge red dome of the basilica to the right.
Another view of the city and the Tuscan hills beyond.
Statue of Dante Alighieri outside the Basilica de Santa Croce. Looks like the kind of brooding artiste who would write the Divine Comedy, yes? Well, apparently this wasn’t what he looked like at all: he had a rather ordinary face, but likely the Italians preferred a more heroic image for their immortal poet.
Ponte Vecchio from the Uffizi Gallery. I love the colors of the buildings, all rainwashed ocher, umber, and siena – the colors of Tuscany. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any photos of the art inside the Uffizi, but believe me it’s one of the world’s great repositories of art – you could easily spend an entire day there.
Facade of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore – look at the beautiful multicolored marble panels. The enormous dome of the Cathedral is another of my favorite historical engineering achievements. It measures almost 144 feet across and it’s a staggering 463 steps to the top – we didn’t have time for the climb on this trip, but the last time I went, the view was worth it.
A model of the city in one of the central piazzas – complete with a little Duomo. I really enjoyed just wandering around the streets of Florence – it’s more compact and accessible than Rome.
Some marzipan fruit in a patisserie window; they do love their marzipan over there. The leaves are a cute touch.
And that was it! Sigh. We really could have used at least one more day here, but the rest of our itinerary awaited.
No, I didn’t eat any marzipan fruit in Florence; I ate a lot of gelato instead, because if you only have three days in Italy you should squeeze as much gelato into those days as possible. I didn’t want to offer up just ice cream recipes from my vacation, though, so here’s one of my favorite cookie recipes.
I have to admit this recipe is a bit of a cheat as well; florentines actually don’t originate from Florence. Some stories have them coming from Austria, but the most common story is that were invented in France, as a tribute to the visiting Medici family from Florence. So there’s your connection, however tenuous.
Even if they aren’t a local Italian treat, you should still try florentines at least once: they are a cinch to make, and they are as addictive as potato chips; in fact, hubby calls them “candy chips”. They are basically baked-crisp caramel sprinkled with almonds and drizzled with chocolate; sweet, buttery, chocolatey, and nutty all at once. Many florentines are coated on one side with chocolate; I like to make mine very thin and crisp, but you can modify yours simply by cooking the batter longer on the stove to thicken it even more, or thinning it out with a little extra cream. These florentines also make excellent toppers for a bowl of ice cream…or gelato.
Next stop Naples…and the Amalfi Coast.
- 1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoons corn syrup
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/3 cups sliced almonds
- 4 oz bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
- Preheat oven to 374 degrees F. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside a 3-in round cookie cutter.
- Combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Melt together over medium heat on the stove, stirring occasionally.
- Add flour and stir to combine.
- Add cream and salt and stir to combine.
- Continue cooking until mixture comes to a boil. Add the almonds and stir to combine.
- Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and moves around the pan as one mass. Remove from heat.
- Drop tablespoons of batter onto prepared cookie sheets, 4 to a sheet (the batter will spread out quite thin so space out the batter). Flatten batter with a wet hand or back of a spoon.
- Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, until edges are brown and centers are golden. Remove sheets from oven and use cookie cutter to "scoop" the batter back into a circular shape (use the edge to move the batter - do not press down like cutting out a cookie).
- Cookies will begin to harden in moments. Let finish cooling and hardening on wire racks before removing from parchment.
- To finish: Melt the chocolate in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. Drizzle melted chocolate over the cooled florentines. Let chocolate set before serving.
Anita Chu, also known as pastrygirl, is a baker, writer, and photographer with a passion for pastry. She trained at Tante Marie's Cooking School and is the author of Field Guide to Cookies, Field Guide to Candy, and Lollipop Love. Anita lives in San Francisco with her husband, daughter, and dog Max. 
I love this post! I was in Florence in June and can’t wait to go back when I can spend a lot more time. I think Tuscany might be my very favorite place. I have pictures here: http://cyndimartin.blogspot.com/ . Great recipe! I made florentines at culinary school several times.
You’re having a fantastic holiday! I’m envious.
I hope you enjoy the Amalfi Coast – I have great memories of our holiday there.
Will have to try florentines as I’ve never made them.
Florence really is beautiful, I went there a few years ago and can’t wait to get back! Completely agree with eating as much gelati as possible while you’re there! Thanks for the Florentine recipe though, can’t wait to give it a try!
I am so glad that you are enjoyed Florence, it is definitely my favourite city. These pictures make me long to return to the Renaissance capital.
I hope you enjoyed as much gelati as possible, it is an essential part of any Italian sojourn I believe.
Florence sounds absolutely lovely!!
Love your Florentines, gloria
I love your blog and this post is just as lovely as usual, and particularly touching to me since I am Italian and Firenze is one of my favourite towns. I’m glad you enjoyed your stay.
Just one little note: the fruit at the center of your picture with the little leaves looks like fruit jellies to me, more than marzipan. Marzipan fruits are wide-spread, although not particularly typical for Florence, but they look totally opaque since marzipan is a white paste. The little pears on the right hand side of your picture are marzipan, I’d say.
I would love with my mother would make us Florentines, they would go missing the moment they hit the wax paper!!! Delish!!!
FLorence is a great place, my husband and I were ther on our honeymoon last month, we enjoyed it alot,we ate alot,ill be posting some pics next week,we also went to Naples for one day, we would definitely do it again.
I also stuck to gelato in Florence and didn’t have any Florentines there either. I will have to give these a try. My mouth is watering looking at the photos!
The gelato itself is reason enough to visit Italy.
I thoroughly enjoyed Florence when I was there. Did you know the middle doors of Grace Cathedral are cast from the same “mold” as the ones from the Duomo? I think there are only 2-3 re-castings of them and SF is one of the places that has them!
Ohh I have an upcoming trip to Tuscany and your post has made me look forward to it even more… I also think that the Duomo is one of the engineering masterpieces of all time, can’t wait to see it in real life! Florentines look quite tempting too; I usually have mine with one side completely covered in chocolate.
You have a really beautiful blog 🙂
Anita, these Florentines look wonderful. They bring back special memories from when I was a kid, my grandma always visited with a box of these treats. Your travels sound like a blast!
I’m out today searching for great dessert recipes to add to my list to try out before the holidays and entertaining picks up. These look awesome. Great photos. As addictive as potato chips? hmmm… for my sake its a good thing they aren’t sold in stores.
Wow, these look great! Thanks for sharing
I will have to be making these very shortly. They look wonderful!
Also, I’m passing the Versatile Blogger Award on to you. View the details at http://apinchofsweet.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/versatilebloggeraward/