Thanksgiving Dinner in Florence with Kids

Lisa, try these: I' che' c'è c'è Restaurant (Pronounced - I beleive: E-kay chay chay) Via Magalotti 11/r, Florence (A side street off Borgo dei Greci between Piazza Santa Croce and Piazza della Signoria) Closed: Mondays Tel: 055-216589 This is a small, casual neighborhood place serving Tuscan/French food. It was so good, we ate there twice. Another, more turisty option is Il Latini via dei Palchetti 6/r (Palazzo Rucellai) - 50123 - Firenze - tel. (+39) 055 210916 - http://www.illatini.com/?lang=en

Since you will have an apartment I will make a radical suggestion... Why not have a sorta traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the apartment. Here's how. A lot of places throughout Europe have hot rotisserie chicken to take home. If you have wheels there is a Carrefour north of Florence which probably would have them and other fixins. There is a fair chance they will have frozen cranberries. I would pack a bag of Pepperidge Farm stuffing from home, or a box of Stove Top as you may not be able to get them there. They are available in London fairly easily but I wouldn't bet in Italy. This may not be what the kiddos need, but maybe a bit tending the right way? Maybe bring Pilgrim hat cutouts? Don't think you will be able to get punkin pie filling. You can in London, Libbys in cans, but, having never looked in Italy, never noticed any. Any body else?

We've been in Germany (twice) and Turkey (no pun intended) with college students on Thanksgiving day where our hotels prepared a Thanksgiving meal for us to the best of their ability. The attempt was priceless. It would be a little hard to travel, shop, and prepare a little TG meal in your apartment on the 1st day of your arrival in Florence IMO. I vote that you make a scavenger menu hunt of tracking down a nice little restaurant in Florence with something pumpkin like on the menu. That time of year, many restaurants have squash filled ravioli or pumpkin soup. One nice neighborhood for restaurants is concentrated across the Ponte Vecchio bridge (away from the main square) and down to the right.

I missed Thanksgiving in 1996; I was in Italy on my honeymoon. We were surprised how much we really missed it! I think cooking or buying a cooked chicken and making some mashed pototoes, cranberries, etc...would be great. Or, you can tell the kids you will have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner when you get home. We had a "4th of July" barbeque in Spain back in 2007 and invited some of the home exchange families friends to it. They were thrilled to attend.

I'm going to go in the other direction and suggest that you not try to duplicate the traditional Thanksgiving meal in any way, but try something totally different. I don't think you really can duplicate tradition, and by trying to come close but not quite getting it, it may only serve to point out what the kids are missing. Why not instead try the most traditional local specialities that you can find; that is, something totally different from the expected American meal? Maybe if presented as a great adventure, your kids will feel less upset about it. They seem old enough to understand that they have many years of American meals ahead of them, but probably comparatively few chances to have a holiday meal in another country. It will make great stories for them to share at school, and I'll bet their friends will think it is cool. We've been in Italy on Thanksgiving, and we had some wonderful seafood, prepared in ways that we never had at home. This was not at all what we were used to having at Thanksgiving, but it was great fun, and our families back home thought it was so interesting. We still did our little family tradition of each saying at the table what we were thankful for. One of the things we agreed we were thankful for was the opportunity to travel there and have that experience. I don't have a suggestion for a specific restaurant, but I just thought I'd throw these thoughts out there for consideration. I think there are probably a lot of traveling families in the same situation over various holidays, so maybe this would work for them.

I agree D.D. That is more what I had in mind. What I'm hoping for from all those reading the post with experience in Florence is a memorable special restaurant suggestion. Thank you for saying what I should have to begin with!

If you don't tell them it is Thanksgiving they won't even know it. They won't have any reminders while there and they'll be with their family. I bet they are just using it to guilt you into something. I would guess they would be way more upset to miss Halloween.

Hmm this is a hard one for me,, Americans defianately put more focus and importance on Thanksgiving then most Canadians do, so its hard for me to imagine kids resenting missing one turkey dinner over getting a trip to ITALY, holy cow,, how lucky are they!! Have a nice turkey dinner at Christmas and skip Thanksgiving this year,, or be make the focus on being THANKFUL that they are able to travel to Europe for holidays when many kids are lucky to get to the next States campground for a week of tenting once a year! I think its all about the meaning of the holiday, so if its Thanksgiving,, learn about being thankful! And yeah,, a nice dinner out may help!lol

Make a reservation. Great spot for your family holiday dinner. Communal tables. Fresh ingredients. Tuscan cooking. One of my favorite places in Florence as it's away from the touristy sites. Vecchia Bettola, Viale Vasco Pratolini 3-7. Enjoy!!!

Turkey cacciatore! ;-)