What had been your first impressions while you arrived?
Views, views, and extra views. From its sixth ground perch above the river, bar-restaurant Cosimo has knockout views to beat any in Florence: the 360-degree wraparound panorama takes in the entire metropolis, the hills past, and the Arno because it flows west in the direction of Pisa and the coast. At sundown, it turns to molten lava. Bare wooden tables and straw on the ground could be wonderful with views like this, however the latest re-styling of the fabulous terraces and the glassed-in bar and restaurant space is as elegant as you’ll count on from the Marriot Luxury Collection model.
What’s the gang like?
Most of the tables for lunch and dinner are crammed with well-heeled and well-dressed vacationers, each visitors of the lodge and outsiders. But locals drop in for cocktails properly conscious {that a} terrace desk right here is without doubt one of the prime spots on the town on a summer season night.
What ought to we be consuming?
Aside from signature cocktails such because the Bloody Maria Luisa (with grappa as an alternative of vodka) and Blue Cheese Martini (vodka, dry vermouth, an olive, and a salty hit of gorgonzola), there’s a large alternative of wines, bubbles, and spirits of all types. The bar meals menu (obtainable from midday to 10:30 p.m.) contains burrata with cherry tomatoes, oysters, caviar, tuna tataki, truffle French fries, and different indulgent small plates.
Main occasion: the meals. Give us the lowdown—particularly what to not miss.
Choosing to serve the type of conventional, unfussy dishes from each Tuscany and different Italian areas (albeit with the odd twist) that individuals actually need to eat quite than fine-dining gourmand fare was a stroke of genius in my view. These embrace yellow fin tuna tartare with guacamole and ponzu, oysters, grilled octopus and potato salad, tagliatelle with the home ragù, oven-baked sea bass with a tomato, caper, black olive and basil sauce and a stonking, golden crisp milanese (breaded veal cutlet) which is definitely sufficiently big for 2 and comes topped with zingy recent tomato and lime salsa. Prices are as excessive as you’ll count on, but it surely’s all brilliantly executed and the setting is tops.
And how did the front-of-house people deal with you?
Quietly environment friendly in step with the five-star setting but pleasant, useful, and by no means stiff.
What’s the real-real on why we’re coming right here?
For the extraordinary views and the wonderful, unfussy meals.