Ciao, le paste!

There are pastries here everywhere. In le pasticcerie, of course, but also in le caffe, the bars, the bookstores. Every restaurant has some kind of pastry bar in the window to tempt innocent passersby. Not to mention le gelaterie on every single block, with the waffles outside and the big jars of nutella and oh my god the sorbetto!

I was very, very good for my first week here, but eventually I broke down. So far, I’ve had gelato once (dark chocolate and pistaccio), sorbetto once (apple and tangerine, at a famous gelateria called Grom that is, by the way, so overrated), and only…three pastries!

Of course, that count is excluding everything outside of Florence. But hey, when you’re traveling, who can keep track?

This was from a little caffe on Via dei Servi, north of the Duomo. I don’t even know what this one was called, and it’s in every caffe so it’s nothing particularly special. But damn, it was delicious.

It was all about the filling. You would think from looking at it that it would be citrus of some sort, maybe lemon or orange curd; but you’d be wrong. I swear to you, it was sugar, cream, and butter—pure decadence.

Anyway, now that la quaresima has begun, I must say Ciao! to all of these delights.

So, ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao! (The more times you say it, the more you show your love.)