A few summers ago, on the last afternoon of a somewhat exhausting family vacation to Europe with our young kids, I slipped through a tourist-jammed square near Florence’s Ponte Vecchio into a smaller, almost abandoned piazza just steps away. This is where I found Le Volpi e l’Uva, an enoteca whose mellow vibes belied a revelatory wine selection and subtly exquisite cuisine.

For more than two hours, I did what I’d been wanting to do for weeks: just chill out, casually nibbling on dish after dish as an extremely knowledgeable server shared ever more enlightening sips, her genuine excitement growing with each delivered glass.