Morning broke and we woke up in our exquisite bedroom in Il Salviatino. It was our first chance to get a really good night sleep as the last few days had bought wedding nerves, early mornings and rushed starts. Finally feeling refreshed we rose to take another look around the glorious villa.
The villa is fringed by beautifully manicured Italian gardens which provided the perfect vista for our first breakfast.
Breakfast is taken on the terrace where you are surrounded by beautiful blooms.
I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to start the day.
There’s no menu a breakfast tray is simply bought along with a selection suggested by the kitchen.
And when I asked for a plate of smoked salmon, they were incredibly amenable and bought it along straight away.
As we’d been so busy and stressed in the run up to the wedding I allowed Mr Silver and entire day of relaxing! Lucky man…
We headed down the hill to the infinity pool
And basked under the Tuscan sun.
After basking for a while we went back up for a light lunch.
I went very light as we were in for a large meal that evening.
But we were more interested in looking at our hands than at the food…
In the afternoon we a had a chance to enjoy the spa before heading back to the room to get ready for dinner at Enoteca Pinchiorri.
Enoteca is one of the best restaurants in the world and one of very few places to boast three Michelin stars. Our minimoon seemed the perfect opportunity to try such a sought after destination. The restaurant is housed in a Renaissance Palace in the centre of Florence and guests are certainly treated like kings and queens.
When we arrived we were given the choice of the indoor dining room or the garden. My husband (eek!!) and I preferred the pretty and slightly less formal garden as the place to enjoy what would be an epic meal.
We were incredibly well look after, even my bag and camera case had their own little seat.
Now, Mr Silver gets very excited at restaurants like this and I often have to hold him back. He wanted to go for the fifteen course tasting menu whereas I preferred to stick with a three course a la carte menu (we had a four week honeymoon in the states coming up after all) but we compromised on the six course tasting menu with the addition of one extra course.
A amuse kicked things, a bon bon filled with a light tomato cream. A beautifully delicate morsel.
I had to get a picture of the epic tome. Basically a wine bible! Mr S and I search fervently for a Sauv Blanc that was less than 1000EURO and fortunately hit upon a delicious Italian wine that wouldn’t max out the credit card!
Enoteca Pinchiorri is co-owned by Annie Feolde and Giorgio Pinchiorri, and it is the latter who is responsible for the fantastically epic collection of wine in the restaurant cellar. Annie Feolde is the founding chef and the first woman to be awarded three Michelin stars. The cuisine at Enoteca is contemporary Tuscan but there are influences of Feolde’s native France.
We were offered several types of bread and I chose this little tomato number.
Two silver spoons of ricotta cheese (yes, I thought it was egg yolk too!)
Our final amuse (no dinner hadn’t even started yet!!), a perfectly cooked octopus, I’m a big fan of the eating the many tentacled mollusc but Mr S is not such a enthusiast. But this was the first time he’d eaten the three Michelin starred version. And he certainly didn’t complain.
Our first course was yellow fin tuna marinaded in basil and served with a grapefruit marmelade, fennel and licorice powder. I love rare tuna but I thought there was a chance I wouldn’t like this dish but the sweet marmelade married perfectly with the fishy fragment. As I don’t enjoy the taste of aniseed, a dish with fennel and licorice was risky but the flavour was delicate and didn’t overpower the perfectly cured tuna.
The next course was monkfish filled with ‘soprassata’ (a Italian salami) and then deep-fried.
The next course was Mr Silver’s addition to the tasting menu. Lobster topped with an olive crust, corn puree and a spicy shellfish stew. The sauce was rich and the lobster perfectly cooked, it was like luxury in a bowl!
Fusilli with baby squid in white wine sauce with artichokes. Beautifully cooked al dente pasta, combined with one of my favourite fish.
Ok so far so fishy… and as regular readers know thats ok with me 😉
But Mr Silver needs a bit of meat.
Agnolotti with Tuscan white beans and veal tendons.
And next the main event.
A stunning plate of pigeon accented by pea and mint and a liver sauce. It was so simple yet tasted absolutely sensational.
Next we cleansed our palate. Before we were presented with dessert.
Caramelised chocolate truffle with pink grapefruit and almond milk. The dish was my one disappointment of the night it was just rather stodgy and watery. But fortunately, Mr Silver very much enjoyed it.
We were feeling rather full but there’s always room for petits four.
And chocolate!!
And we were presented with a selection worthy of Willy Wonka. We *modestly* chose four each.
We were given presents of more chocolates and a book of restaurants before we left, to complete a truly special and one of a kind experience.
I realise this has been a very long post, but that’s silly Mr Silver’s fault for wanting the tasting menu!Still more Florentine fun to come this week!
