Florence
Alone

PRACTICAL SAMPLE

Eating Alone

A woman dining alone at a neighborhood trattoria is unremarkable, and the staff treat it that way. Counter seating, bar seating, small trattorias, wine bars and market counters are the most comfortable options; at the Mercato Centrale you can eat standing at a vendor’s counter alongside everyone else. Cafés expect you to stay, so you can sit for an hour over one coffee or glass of wine. A book or journal gives you something to do with your hands and spares you meeting the eye of every passer-by. On a stay of a week or longer, pick one trattoria near your base, go back two or three times, and ask what the kitchen is cooking that day.

A free excerpt from Florence Alone.