Palazzo Tempi

After slogging all over Florence in the heat we found ourselves tired & hungry on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio looking for sanctuary in the form of a cool place with wine & pizza. The nice owner of the ceramic store (sorry I don’t know the name but it is down a tiny side alcove over the bridge– beautiful handmade pottery) told us to try this place. Not really a tourist spot she said she & the other store owners go & her kids enjoy it. With a little zig zagging we found it & so glad we did. We got there early and were the first there but the place was filling up as we left, mostly with locals. Pizza was delicious, pastas were fresh, salads were too & my daughter’s Quattro Fromage ravioli (a dicey choice in any restaurant) was sublime– light & perfectly sauced. The owner was a nice man happy to have tourists (he keeps some menus in English) but clearly successful with the locals. He called a cab for us to head back to our hotel & we drove along the Arno content & happy after a great meal.

We visited this restaurant with our daughter who is a student in Florence. This is one of the restaurants she can use her vouchers at an she was curious to see how the service was for full paying customers as ourselves. We were not disappointed in the food or the service. Our first course of smoked salmon rocket salad was divine. Large balls of buffalo mozzarella, fresh greens and tender slices of salmon decorated this colorful plate. Accompanied by fresh baked bread, half toasted, half not. My pasta, Puccini infucate sounds very spicy, but the heat was not too much. Others had fusilli with sausage and marcapone. All washed down with a litre of the house wine. We finished with tiramisu and some cream and berry dish recommended by the waitress. All scrumptious. The atmosphere was very nice, plenty of filled tables and bustling service. I know our daughter wishes the waitresses were nicer when she and her flat-​mates come in with vouchers, but I guess I get it; students aren’t always the best customers.

The Seafood Risotto was quite excellent. It’s a reasonable size restaurant that sells a lot of pizza and most of the patrons seem to be local. Nothing particularly stands out, but the food is good to very good, fair price and friendly.