Florence,
the birthplace of Renaissance and home to some of the greatest art, paintings
and sculptures of the world was the first stop of our Italian holiday.
As we
arrived at the Santa Maria Novella railway station and headed to our hotel, we
were overwhelmed with the infinite number of tourists teeming on the Florentine
streets and even more so by the hundreds of Chinese tourists that almost for a
blink of an eye, we could easily trick ourselves to be in China and not Italy.
But of
course the narrow alleys and the small streets having a quaint charm of its own
reminded us instantly of where we actually where.
Our hotel- Hotel Alessandra was a
family run set-up by a mother and son. We were warmly greeted at the doorsteps
by Andrea (a male name in Italy). Inspite of arriving almost an hour prior to the
check-in, they had our room ready and we were glad to settle in quickly after
almost 12 hours of journey.
We were
ravenous by lunchtime and Andrea gave us some suggestions of a nearby
restaurant- Hostaria Il Desco. The restaurant was a small family-run restaurant by a elderly
lady with stooping shoulders probably hitting 70, who I would like to call
NONNA and her son(s). It was a sheer joy
to see a lady of her age buzzing with energy and enthusiasm as she literally
ran from one end of the restaurant to the other attending to the guests,
waiting on them, serving them food and bidding them farewell as one would deal
with guests at one’s own home.
We soon gave into the Italian hospitality and realized that good service here was not about being quick and prompt, but allowing the customer to enjoy each course and conversation at a relaxed pace. Nobody would be rushing you or bringing your cheque without being asked to, in order to clear the table for the next party.
We slowly
moved from one course to the other savouring each bite and especially the
dessert. It was truly the best TIRAMISU that I had tasted during the entire
trip.
