Just returned home from Florence and Pienza in Italy, and Zurich in Switzerland. Had so me fabulous dining:

FLORENCE:

3* Enoteca Pinchiorri--From start to finish, this was sublime. We chose a very expensive wine pairing that included only Italian wines--since we were in Italy, we most wanted to see Italian wines. And the pairing was incredible. Almost as incredible as the food. Every course--sublime. Every course, presented like a gift from the culinary gods. This was for us the best meal we'd ever had in Italy. That includes our amazing dinner 2 years ago at Le Calandre. The meal was outrageously expensive at $2400 for the two of us. But it was worth every penny (euro). We'd go back in a second.

1* Winter Garden by Caino (in the St Regis Florence)--dined here twice, the second time because it was so good the first time! We dined here after arriving at the St Regis after a full day of travel from the USA, expecting to simply order a la carte, but the tasting menu looked so darn good that we had to try it. And it was sublime. We loved every course. We also loved the wine pairings. The staff was wonderful, extremely friendly and helpful and enthusiastic in assisting us from start to finish. The Winter Garden courtyard restaurant space is truly impressive, too, without being gauche. Real genuine Florentine elegance, while still being quite comfortable. We loved it so much that we brought my mother for our final night, 5 nights later, canceling on another top restaurant. We ordered a la carte this time, and some of us had to reorder a few items we'd just had our first time since they were so darn good. But we also tried to beef and rooster, all of which were again sublime.

1* Borgo San Jacopo (in the Hotel Lungarno)--This was our 2nd best meal in Florence, right after 3* Enoteca Pinchiorri where we had dined only 2 nights prior. We absolutely loved this restaurant, from the interior modern and sexy ambience, to the views onto the Arno, to the incredibly polished and yet very friendly service, to the absolutely mind blowing food. It was all decadent and incredibly delicious, and the wine pairings were matched perfectly. This truly felt more like a 2* dinner. We'd heard from the StR team that this restaurant is rumored to get its 2nd star in the coming months, and we wouldn't be surprised in the slightest. It certainly was that good.

1* Ora d'Aria--I think Ora d'Aria suffered a bit by comparison with Pinchiorri and Winter Garden. We hadn't yet dined at Borgo San Jacopo. The food was very good, thought the service started off a but curious--they seemed to expect we were a party of 4 rather than 3 for some reason. We heard another party of 5 that they expected to be 4, so I'd have guessed someone there had their wires crossed. Still, after a little clumsiness, we all got seated and sorted.The chef appeared quite surly at the start, but he quickly warmed. But his surly attitude at the beginning made us all a bit nervous. The food was great, but lacked the inventiveness and more bombastic approach to flavors that I normally prefer. It was very good but more subtle than I prefer. Service otherwise was pretty good--but my biggest beef was how incredibly warm the restaurant space was that night. Overall, this is a great restaurant. It just didn't quite impress us as much as the other restaurants of similar caliber did.

RURAL TUSCANY NEAR PIENZA

1* Osteria Perilla--Wow. We ate here our final night in nearby Pienza. We knew it had 1 Michelin star, but we still weren't prepared for how incredible our dinner would be. After dinners in Florence the week prior you just don't expect a restaurant in so small a village as this to compete with the big guns. And compete it most certainly did. I'd say this dinner was easily as good as that at 1* San Jacopo, which we truly believe deserves a 2nd star. We similarly believe Perilla to be worthy of a 2nd star. We ordered a la carte, but my mother ended up with 3 course and I ended up with 5. Everything was absolutely spectacular. The sommelier recommended a wonderful Brunello that matched my meal incredibly well, and recommended a Sauvignon Blanc that also perfectly matched my mother's choices. The restaurant is quite small with only 6 or 7 total tables. We were the only diners for the first hour, and eventually we were one of only 3 occupied tables. The service was spectacular from start to finish--friendly, accommodating, and extremely helpful in every way. The only miss might have been waiting a bit too long after requesting the bill.A pretty perfect end to our time in Tuscany. Anyone in the vicinity should take pains to make it to Perilla. It was one of those amazing dinners that was so unexpected and yet will be remembered for quite a long time.

ZURICH

2* Ecco Zurich (in the Atlantis by Giardino hotel)--My husband, mother, and I were joined by 2 Danish friends for dinner at Ecco on the first night of our recent stay at Atlantis by Giardino. Wow--what a meal. We really were blown away by the entire experience. We were particularly impressed by the variety of options allowed for diners--we each could order different number of courses at the same table, quite unusual for any top restaurant. As it turned out, everyone else ordered 5 courses, while I ordered 7 (including the cheese course and dessert course).
The food really was exquisite, easily worthy of the 2 Michelin stars. My husband's venison is unquestionably the best we've ever tried anywhere. The wine pairings that my husband and I ordered were excellent--with perhaps one exception that didn't quite match up well to our tastes. Dining in the private dining room was also a treat. Service was tremendous--very polished and knowledgeable while also being friendly, enthusiastic, and very accommodating to our group's crazy cult of personality. Yes, it's very expensive. But it's also 2 stars in Switzerland, and it's absolutely top notch.