We are traveling in September to several cities and towns in Tuscany. Wondering if anyone has some favorite local spots to eat in Florence, Montalcino or Voltera?...Not opposed to high end dining, but mostly enjoy spots dining with the locals?
I don't know if it's local people or tourists or both, but this place in Montalcino was great. Outside the village(so I suspect more locals go there, the view is fantastic, food was great and the people were more than friendly:
http://www.boccondivinomontalcino.it/boccondivino/
I got that from different reviews and didn't regret it at all
La Reggia, up the hill in Fiesole on the number 7 bus from Florence, about fifteen minutes. Aim for outdoor seating if the weather cooperates.
For Florence, I have two suggestions
Trattoria Panemonio: http://www.trattoriapandemonio.it. Local food, family owned, we had a great meal of traditional Tuscan food. The highlights were the Eggplant Flan with pecorino cheese, Ribollita (a Tuscan bread soup that is out of this world), and of course the Florentine steak. I had their seafood risotto and my niece who does not like risotto liked this so much she had my leftovers for breakfast the next morning. We celebrated my friend’s birthday here and they brought him a delicious slice of cake and the entire restaurant sang him happy birthday in Italian.
The other is to take a food tour. We took the Eating Italy Sunset Food Tour (only 8 people) and experienced an entire Florentine meal from the appertivo to dessert. The highlights of this tour were meeting the Cheese King and eating soft pecorino and local salami, trying Ribollita soup and a wonderful tripe dish, having our first Florentine steak, and then dessert with vin Santo on the steps of church in the plaza. Here is the link if you are interested: https://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com/florence/tours/sunset-food-tour/. This link also has some of their recommendations for local restaurants in Florence.
Have a great trip,
Sandy
For Volterra, try La Carabaccia. They have a short menu of whatever is seasonal, and it was really good without being too expensive. It's a small restaurant so you may want to call for reservations when you know you'll be there.