kajonesbu

My wife and I will be in Florence August 14th - August 16th. Of course this falls during Ferragosto hence a lot of the restaurants we've looked at may be closed. Was looking for some recs for restaurants that will be open. Additionally, we were wondering if a lot of the shops (i.e. Gucci, Tods, etc.) would be open during this time period. Any insight would be much appreciated. Cheers.

PWMTrav

Larger shops will generally be open. As far as restaurants go, you'll need to start calling the ones that you would potentially like to visit. I'd be doing you a disservice if I told you the places I thought would be open, only to find them closed. The best places tend to be smaller, family owned restaurants and their plans might change year to year. There's really no other way to know except to call. One reliable assumption is that hotel restaurants will be open, and there are some good ones (albeit a bit overpriced) in Florence.

Your fallback plan if your planned restaurant is unexpectedly closed on a given day can be the Mercato Centrale, 1st floor (2nd floor by US standards). There are a bunch of local food stalls up there and it's really very good, but it also gets crowded around meal times.

I just fired off a few emails since it's too late to call right now to the following:

La Casalinga (EDIT: Closed through 28 August)
Osteria Cipolla Rossa (EDIT: Open throughout August, and I really like this place)
Pitti Gola e Cantina (EDIT: Open in August except for Tuesdays. It's a wine bar, and a really good one at that, but the food is good as well. Owner says to call or email to make a reservation).

I'll let you know in this thread if I hear back. I can possibly call a few places tomorrow, but can't promise that since I'll be at the office and mostly in meetings.

Perche

It will be bad, but if you want to do something unique, take the train to Siena and go to the Palio on August 16th. If you don't know what that is, watch the opening sequence of the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. You won't get a good seat, it will be crowded, but you will witness one of Italy's great events, never to be forgotten. And the days leading up to it are just as interesting. No Ferragosto problem in Siena, with Palio on August 16th. Just an extreme spectacular, and even though you won't get a good seat, you'll see one of the most spectacular events that Italy has to offer. August 16th. Some of the most exciting 90 seconds in the world.

PWMTrav

Oh I should add in addition to my edits above, the supermarkets in the center tend to be open. Eataly included, which is on Via Martelli just off Piazza del Duomo. That'll be your best shot at ready made food, but you can also sit down and eat in. I'd absolutely go there in a pinch. There's also a Sapori Conad, which is a gourmet market kind of like Eataly one block west.

Or a regular city-sized Conad supermarket a couple blocks northeast on Via dei Servi - it has a good selection for groceries, and also a really good selection of salumi sliced to order at the counter. I usually stop here right after we drop our stuff off and get a few snacks, groceries and bottles of water.