Pretty much every morning, on my way to language school, I pass my favorite pasticceria in Florence: Rivoire.   When they are open (which is mostly every day, but not always), I stop in for a pasta da portare via, a pastry to go.  You pay at the cassa, about 1.5 Euro, and then walk over and choose your poison.  The cameriera wraps the pasta in a napkin and places it in a pretty little bag, as here:

My favorite pasta, or pastry, is a ciambella.  A ciambella is a doughnut, but at Rivoire “a doughnut” hardly does justice to the confection.  At Rivoire a ciambella is a yeasty circle of fried dough, covered in a granular sugar that covers your lips and cheeks when you’ve finished.  Trust me, it’s worth the trouble of wiping your face!  It is very much vale la pena.

Today Rivoire had no more ciambelle, so I got an apple strudel.  OMG.  This picture comes no where near how good it tasted!

Buon appetito!