Pizzeria Chiaroscuro

For a neighborhood pizza and pasta locale, this is the best combination of food, price, service, and ambiance I’ve encountered in Italy. No trip to Florence is complete without a stop with the relatives at Chiaroscuro in Calenzano, a suburb of Florence, prior to leaving to come back to the U.S.
First, it is not in some la-​tee-​dah trendy part of Florence, though there is another Chiarascuro close to the center, where you’ll probably run into some idiotically enthusiastic star struck twit exchange students studying art history and Italian in Florence for a semester and who will walk away clueless because they have been partying too much. This is about 6 miles northwest of the city, in a quiet residential community and somewhat industrial area, on a side street. I’d walk there if I had to, but the relatives are just as pumped up to come here, so we drive.
On each trip, the wait staff will present you with the rotating selection of several pastas, in addition to the set slate of pizzas, that they are featuring that evening. It helps to speak Italian. Sure, there might be a pizza or pasta you might dismiss because it has a theme or ingredient you don’t like, but you will be salivating for the ones you’ve ordered to arrive. Oftentimes, we share portions of our entrees among our party to give everyone a taste. The service staff is cool, and not by trying, but because they are. The people who go here are down-​to-​earth. The well-​heeled Florentine with a «puzza sotto il naso» (snobbery) problem will not be breaking bread with the patrons, and that’s probably a good thing.
This place typifies the very places in Italy in which I like to eat. I dream in chiaroscuro. «Buon appetito, amici.»