Good food and atmosphere ruined by rude service

Posted by Georgia_Peach from Atlanta, Georgia on 10/15/07

My husband and I recently visited Florence and after watching the sunset at Piazza Michelangelo one night, we were looking for a quaint little place to have a glass of wine and dinner. Fodors had recommended this restaurant, and it sounded perfect. We arrived just after they opened at 7:30 and no one was happy to see us. We were led to a table, a menu was literally slapped on the table in front of us, and we were ignored for the next 15 minutes. At one point, the waiter was at the bar talking to another patron in Italian and gesturing to us and rolling his eyes. Though we knew enough Italian to get by, we couldn't understand exactly what he was saying, but the gist of it had something to do with our being American. However, we had made it a point to speak to everyone in Italian, so we couldn't figure out how we had offended him. I was so uncomfortable that I was ready to leave, but my husband really wanted to try the crostoni. So when the server finally came back to our table, we each ordered a glass of wine and a crostoni. I grudgingly admit that the food was really good, but we only ate our crostoni and left to get another glass of wine and the rest of our meal elsewhere. We never did get the water that was included in the service charge. It was such a shame because the restaurant was so quaint, the food was so good, and the prices were reasonable. But I certainly would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. No one deserves to be treated like we were treated.