Florence - Day 2 (cont)

(For this and the posts that follow, I'm recalling the details after the trip has ended.)  We leave the hotel bar for dinner at a trattoria that was recommended in a timely magazine article in Saveur.  As we reach the lobby, a small group asks if we are also with the VBT tour.  Turns out they were also told to meet at noon on Tuesday which also didn't make sense to them.  Checking with the hotel desk seemed to favor checkout on Wednesday - but they weren't 100% certain.  As we purchased tickets to enter the museums on Tuesday, we were going to stick to touring and if everyone was gone when we got back, we'd find a way to get to where we needed to be.
On finding the trattoria, we also find it full - so we wander a bit looking for another that looks good (there are plenty of restaurants, so there wasn't much concern of quickly finding an alternative.  After looking at a few menus, we find one with a decent selection and reasonable prices.  I tried the ribollita and a pork chop.  The ribollita (name means re-boiled) is a traditional Tuscan vegetable and bread soup - though its more filling than broth.  The pork chop was surprisingly plain in presentation - just a chop on a plate, but it was very thick, juicy and very tasty.  I should mention that bread in this region is made without salt - definitely a difference that's noticeable, making the bread a bit bland when eaten plain.  However, they also served a form of fried dough that was salted, hot and also quite good.  House wine was nothing special.  Service was interesting - although there were many tables in the restaurant, the waitress seemed a bit reluctant to seat us and less engaging than other Italians that we had met.  When others arrived, she seemed to know all of them so maybe it was odd for strangers to eat at this place.  One couple brought there dog in - he was very well behaved and sat under the table.  Another table ordered the steak - it was a very, very healthy portion - one of the largest I've ever seen.