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Restaurant Recommendations for Florence & Milan

My wife and I will be in Florence in about 2 weeks and Milan just after that. I haven't even started looking at restaurants in Milan. We are only there are a couple days, though. We are staying at the Square Duomo Hotel in Milan, just south of the Duomo. We should mostly be in this area, except to go see the Last Supper and Sforza Castle.

I think we mostly have Florence covered. We are there four nights, though. I have Il Latini, 4Leoni, Ciro & Sons, Trattoria Za Za, going to the Mercado Centrale. But I would not be bothered by a few other recommendations. I haven't made any reservations yet, and I actually don't have all the blanks filled in. Coincidentally, though it might not be Florence-specific, I would love to find amazing pesto here. About 9 years ago I was in town and ran across a restaurant with some friends that had the most amazing pesto. I didn't take a picture of the place and I can't remember the name or it's exact location. It was somewhere west of the main street between the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo, as I recall on the south side of the street (but the road might have curved so I can't be sure about that). It was around a "Y" in the road with a very small piazza (I can only call it that because the buildings did not come all the way to the road right there, and left room for scooters, bikes, and tables in the wide area). I would love to find this restaurant again, but was unsuccessful 5 years ago on a single night in Florence. If I don't it will always be a great memory! :)

We are also going to Rome, before Florence, but I've got an abundance of options there. More restaurants I was to visit than meals!

Posted by
46 posts

Cicalone in Florence was my favorite restaurant from our trip - the steak and the tiramisu were incredible!

Posted by
32 posts

We eat at the Centrale Mercarto twice I had the best pizza in all our travels through Italy and we also had the Florentine Steak which was very nice as well.

Posted by
3958 posts

In Milan between the Last Supper church and the Leonardo Museum you'll find several restaurants but the one I'd return to was Ristorante Bebel on Via San Vittori 1/2 block east of the Museum of Science and Technology (Leonardo di Vinci models here). The menu featured many seasonal choices and the staff visited with all of the locals who filled up the place starting at about 8 PM. I believe we strolled in at a little bit after 7 PM and they were able to seat us. Fantastic dishes!

Posted by
594 posts

In Florence you would be making a big mistake if you did not eat at Trattoria Sostanza :-).

Posted by
1054 posts

Take a stroll over to the Canal Area in Milan, some great places for an appertivio and snacks before dinner.

Posted by
31 posts

Thank you for the recommendations! Looking these places up online I can't wait to try them. We will be there in a few days. Caio!