Food and more food

I think I told you guys that Rachel and I have a cheese lady. Well, we also have a bread lady. When we got to the market around 9am (so early), many shops were still setting up, like our bread lady. So she was kind enough to give us amazing samples of cenci.

They are typical Tuscan cookies served during Carnival (which starts this weekend) and they basically taste like fried dough in a cookie form, with powdered sugar. They were amazing.

I also picked up two of these rolls, also called schiattatine (but different from the crackers I bought here). They taste very similar to focaccia, but so much better. And what an amazing coincidence that this roll is the same size as the mozzarella and tomato?! :)

We have also made friends with a guy who sells fruits and vegetables, he is our produce guy. Picked up some of these uva and they were expensive.

I was so excited to eat them, but they taste bad! Well, I guess they are just different than what I am used to. They are not as sweet and taste literally like wine. Plus they have seeds. Fail.

We then went to the Florence Chocolate Festival which is held this weekend at Piazza Santa Croce. It was amazing. There were chocolate vendors, demonstrations, and FREE SAMPLES.

This guy makes chocolate into the most amazing things- horse shoes, tools, and they actually look rusty!;

Truffles and chocolate-dipped fruit;

Chocolate bark;

My thick, rich cicciolata calda

After the chocolate festival, we were wiped. I took a nap until 8pm, then got ready for the night. We went out which was a lot of fun, the the absolute BEST part of the night was finding this secret bakery. We had heard talk of a few bakeries in Florence that sell wholesale to other bakeries and while they are baking during the night (starting at around 2am), people can knock on their door and buy baked goods from them. Well we were lucky enough to find this place, knock on the door, and they opened up and sold us treats! I got an amazing slice of Sicilian pizza, while others got fresh donuts filled with custard.

Yesterday was certainly an amazing gastronomical adventure.

Ciao!