Restaurant: Aqua Al 2

My landlady waved her hand flippantly at the restaurant. It was a bit nondescript, with a wooden sign above the door. A few trees flanked either side of the entrance.

In her broken English she told me, as she rode her bike and I struggled to keep up next to her in my exhausted state, "All the Americans go here. So expensive. I don't know why. Not worth it."

Later on I realized that this little restaurant, just a few steps down the cobblestone street from my apartment, was the highest rated, most strongly encouraged restaurant in my guidebook. Then I got an email a few days later from my cousin telling me that when she was in Italy, she had one of the best meals of her life at a restaurant she insisted I check out. It was this one.

So when my sister arrived, we decided to be decadent and made reservations at this hyped-up restaurant. The entrance was on my street, but it's address matched the Via around the corner. Hence, it was called: Aqua 2. Named after via dell'Acqua.

Our reservations were for 9 pm, and we almost missed it because of a last-minute debate as to whether we should climb the Tower of Pisa. There was a crowd waiting outside the restaurant when we arrived at exactly 9 double zero, and it was obvious there was no way you were getting in without your name on the list.

Eventually we were seated at a big wooden table downstairs. It was so crowded that we had to share our table with three other people, who seemed more annoyed by the circumstances than we were. The menu was handed to us, and it was ALL in Italian. But we like a challenge.

Here's what we ate:

Sis had a first course of Fuscilli with Spinici. I had a first course of Macaroni with Gorgonzola cheese. I don't know how to describe to you how utterly unbelievable these dishes were. You could taste every single piece of seasoning, each nuance of the cheeses. We kept sharing our dishes, whispering to each other, "Oh.My.God."

For the second course I had the dish the restaurant is famous for. Steak with Blueberry Sauce. Who has ever heard of such a combination?? The ample sized chunk of meat arrived on a white plate, swimming in a dark blue sauce (yes, blueberries!) and I delightedly started cutting away. It was heavenly, out of this world, sublime, exquisite. It was a steak meal I will never, ever forget.

My sister also got a steak, but a little more of an Italian delicacy type. It was wrapped in some sort of dough, and cooked with saffron -- and you could, of course, TASTE the saffron. It was also magnificent. She loved it. Again, we kept switching dishes, repeating over and over, "Oh.My.God."

Of course, there was wine, too.

Then for dessert, our waitress suggested a "sample plate". Wow. It was a slice of cheesecake, a slice of fruit pie, and a slice of chocolate cake. My goodness. Never have we tasted cheesecake like this. Forget NY-style. Forget it. Just go with Florence-style.

The whole meal, considering all we ordered, was expensive, but not out of the park. It was around 65 euros, give or take, which is about, hmm, $90, give or take. Which for two people, having the MEAL OF THEIR LIVES, is unbelievably worth it.