

For any hard core foodie, Italy is the place. Yea there's great art, great architecture...but the food! One of the real privileges of an extended residency in Florence is having a kitchen and being able to prepare meals with all the best ingredients in the world, and shopping at the Mercato Centrale, a massive two-story warehouse the size of a city block full of vendors --- fresh produce upstairs, cheeses, meats, homemade pastas downstairs. Why don't we have places like this in the states?
And we won't even mention the coffee.