I’ che’ c’è c’è Restaurant
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
Located in the oldest section of Florence, this is another wonderful family restaurant. Friendly, casual, it has individual tables as well as communal seating at long wooden tables and benches in the center of the room. Gino Noci, owner and chef, serves traditional Tuscan food with a French flair. Gino trained with Giorgio Pinchiorri at Buca Lapi before opening his own restaurant, I’che’c’è c’è, which he runs together with his lovely wife, Mara. He also gives cooking classes in Fabbrica, a hamlet outside of Florence. He also annually holds classes in Tuscan cooking at a private club in Atlanta, Georgia. A complimentary glass of prosecco and coccoli (salty, fried bread dough balls) are offered after you’re seated. Many years ago, at our first meal here, Gino personally introduced us to the sweet, ice-cold, after-dinner lemon liqueur, limoncello!
Menu suggestions: Grilled sal-mon (salmone), which is ‘melt in your mouth delicious’ with or without a rich mushroom sauce, and carciofi alla Romana (these artichokes are better then the ones you can get in Rome!)-all musts.
I’ che’ c’è c’è has great desserts, but if you crave ice-cream (gelato), Vivoli (via isola della Stinche7/r; closed Mondays) is nearby. This well-known, family-owned gelateria has been open since 1930. Gelato ingredients are milk, eggs, sugar and natural flavors—and until you tasted chocolate (cioccolato), you’ve never tasted anything so delicious! Some think Bernardo Buontalenti (the Italian Mannerist who created the famous grotto in the Boboli Gardens) created gelato for Francesco de’ Medici in 1565.
