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My Secret Tuscany
It had been a long day. Mid-way through our three month visit to Europe, we had arranged to meet friends from home at Florence. After picking them up on the airport, we wound our way in to town and located our rented apartment. I was excited because I found a parking spot nearby!
Once settled in, unpacked and caught up with our friends, we agreed to venture out on foot and see what the neighborhood had to offer for supper. It was unfashionably early, but I was reluctant to risk giving up my precious parking spot, so off we went on foot.
Around the corner, not one block from where we were staying, we chanced upon a small restaurant called Tre Panche. The door was open and a distinguished gentleman in full Maitre d’ regalia stood within. Between our sign language and primitive Italian and the gentleman’s excellent English, we managed to ascertain that the restaurant was indeed open and that if we could finish eating before his customers with reservations arrived at 9 PM, he would be happy to serve us. The four of us smugly agreed that we could probably eat in the allotted 2½ hours and entered.
Inside the restaurant were what appeared to be three picnic-style benches. That was all. Bemused, we sat at one bench and were handed enormous menus listing complicated Italian dishes. While we gaped helplessly, another couple came in the door, exclaiming in English how happy they were to have found the restaurant. They were clearly excited and after introductions, joined us.
It turned out the man worked for Neiman-Marcus in Chicago where this particular restaurant was so famous that the chef and Maitre d’ were flown over to the US when needed to feed the brass at annual executive meetings! Just then the Maitre d’, doubling as the waiter, returned with menus for the new couple. The man waved them off and declared that they would put themselves entirely in his hands. With quick glances at one another, our party of four said the same, relieved at not having to decipher the menu.
Our waiter proposed a meal which sounded overwhelming but at a very reasonable price which included the wine. We agreed and the dishes started arriving. Well! It was fantastic. Suffused with spices, truffles and luscious sauces, the delicacies just kept coming until we could eat no more. In my 50 years of travelling the world and eating out in restaurants, often on expenses, I have never experienced a more wondrous feast. Even the wine was wonderful. Thoroughly sated after dessert and coffee we settled up (spectacularly memorable dinner for four; 100 Euros), bid farewell to our new American friends and staggered out into the balmy evening for a lovely walk. We managed to leave just as the nine-o’clock guests were arriving.
We later found out that this unassuming little place was justifiably famous and we had stumbled upon it purely by chance. It was part of the magic of Florence and a wonderful introduction to the glories of Tuscany.
