Eating Europe

The famous Florence restaurants — the ones on every top-ten list, with a queue out front and a menu in four languages — are rarely the ones Florentines are actually sitting in. Locals here don’t eat out often; when they do, it’s an occasion, and they spend it in small, unshowy rooms they’ve trusted for years: paper tablecloths, a handful of tables, a cook who’s made the same ...

Ask anyone who’s been to Florence what they remember, and it’s rarely the museum queue or the marble David. It’s an evening — usually one they didn’t plan. You cross the river as the light goes gold, leave the postcard center behind, and land in a square where students sit on basilica steps, a fountain murmurs in the dark, and the trattorie fill slowly with people who actuall...

Everyone tells you to visit Florence in the golden light of summer. They’re wrong. Come November, the tour groups thin out, the air turns crisp, and the city exhales — handing itself back to the people who actually live here. This is the Florence worth planning a trip around: kitchens simmering with truffle and slow-cooked ragù, trattorie glowing against the cold, and tables ...

There are two things you’ll find on almost every cooking class schedule in Florence: pasta and tiramisu. Both are iconic. Both are delicious. But if you’re the kind of traveler who’s curious about the finer details of a dish and wants to understand the craft behind what’s on the plate, these likely won’t fill you with much excitement. 

Some people are not looking for t...

It’s August in Edinburgh, and that can only mean one thing: festivals. Not just the world-famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but also the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Edinburgh Art Festival, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, and ...