While pairing wine with food is nothing new in Tuscany, typically the focus is on making outstanding cuisine and finding a wine to pair, instead of creating an outstanding wine program and making delicious dishes to pair. Piazza del Vino is pulling off this new concept effortlessly.
When researching restaurants in Florence, Piazza del Vino is a top choice. As soon as you walk in, you’ll feel like you’ve walked into a stone wine cellar. The romantic ambiance — with its high ceilings, brick walls and wooden accents — envelopes you, while smiling servers, tables ordered with candles and coffee-bean filled wine glasses, and shelves upon shelves of Italian wines from all over the country enhance the experience.
You can even have your own wine cellar in their restaurant with a lock and key
This is the type of place where you choose your wine first, then decide which meal will pair best. The wine menu is expansive, with thousands of vinos listed by grape varietal and region of origin. You can opt to order a bottle, or, if you just want a glass, walk over to their self-serve wine machine in the dining room. If you’re a regular, rent your own small wine cellar in the restaurant — complete with lock and key — so you always have your favorite wines waiting for you.
Enjoy traditional dishes from various regions of Italy, which are marked on a map-style menu
The cuisine at Piazza del Vino is also delicious, focusing on traditional food from different regions of Italy. While it can be difficult to choose what to order, some menu highlights include pici pasta with duck; Fiorentina steak; scallop and asparagus risotto; and baked suckling pig. As you’re in Tuscany, I recommend ordering some authentic Tuscan cuisine paired with a Chianti Classico or Super Tuscan wine.
Jessica Festa is the editor of the travel sites Jessie on a Journey (http://jessieonajourney.com) and Epicure & Culture (http://epicureandculture.com). Along with blogging at We Blog The World, her byline has appeared in publications like Huffington Post, Gadling, Fodor’s, Travel + Escape, Matador, Viator, The Culture-Ist and many others. After getting her BA/MA in Communication from the State University of New York at Albany, she realized she wasn’t really to stop backpacking and made travel her full time job. Some of her most memorable experiences include studying abroad in Sydney, teaching English in Thailand, doing orphanage work in Ghana, hiking her way through South America and traveling solo through Europe. She has a passion for backpacking, adventure, hiking, wine and getting off the beaten path.
