Monday, June 7
This is a big post. There are alot...ALOT of food photos, this was a huge fun day for us. My long winded nature means I write so I dont miss a single detail.)
Today was a day of SUCH fun! I love Florence. What a vibrant , buzzing, old -world-meets-21st century city! Italy just keeps getting better. We slept in this morning, yay! And by sleeping in, I mean we were out of the hotel by 9. We had the most fantastic breakfast of croissants, prosciutto (buddy) cheese, blood orange juice and hard boiled eggs. The waiters seem surprised everytime they ask us if we want a cappucinno and we say no. "no? no coffee? cappucino, chocolate?" Actually, I could go for the chocolatte but I passed it up. Mr. Prego seemed the most alarmed.
We got a bus map from the concierge and walked to the stop. It was just down the street and through an old brick arch. As we waited for the bus I felt so excited about our skills in navigation. Maybe Im jinxing us, but yeah, we are good.
Our Tuscan cooking class was today! This is one thing I have been really excited about. Buddy loves to cook and Im so excited for him to have this experiance today. We met our group and chef Giovanni at 1000 downtown Florence. He was a suave Italian. I think he spent more time flirting than teaching, which was annoying at times. But the experiance was so great, I couldnt let that bother me. There were 10 in our group. Chef Giovanni walked us about10 minutes into the heart of the city to a local indoor market, San Lorenzo. The area was buzzing with commerce and we definatly felt as if we were in the heart of the town where the locals shop and hang out. We learned so much at the market tour. Italians dont like to waste any part of the animal, so there were items for sale that we could not beleive! Like testicles and sheep skin. We taste tested the most delicious hot fresh bread, sampled a variety of cheeses, were I met my favorite, pecorino. We tasted unusual foods such as tripe, which tasted alot like beef. Buddy liked it, I tried it just to try it but I wont be doing it again :) We were schooled in the art of balsamic vinegar making and tasted several, one that was aged 12 years and very sweet! We learned the process of sun dried tomatoes and sampled them. very salty. We spent about 2 hours there. I could have spent longer too. We purchased all of the produce we were going to cook our lunch with and headed to the "tuscan villa" that the brochure promised.
When he was showing us the final cut he said in his best english "now thatsa steak!" Am I right Raina? :)
he reminded me of my brother Mike.
While I was tasting the tripe, Buddy dissapeared on me. When I turned around to find him, he was at the flower market buying me my favorite, peonies. It made my DAY! I have such a sweet and thoughtful husband.
This guy was so nice!
Techincally, it was a villa, because it was an apartment, and it was in tuscany, because, well, Florence is in tuscany. I had invisioned it being out in the country somewhere, but we were downtown florence close to the piti palace. It was a small but beautiful apartment on the 3rd floor. We surround a large marbe island and started making Tiramisu. We then made Bruschetta. which was the best I have ever had! He rubbed the delicious fresh toasted bread with a garlic clove, topped with fresh tomato and mozzarella and then dusted dried oregano right off the branch on to the top and drizzled with olive oil. Oh Yum! He then gave us his recipes for tomato sauces and pizza dough. He is a private chef and many (so he says) hollywood celebs have hired him for a week to cook for their families. Most recently, Noah Wiley. It was really great to pick his brain and get fantastic recipes to try at home.
We then started making a vegtable tomato sauce for the fresh pasta to come later. It was so simple in the preperation. What we loved is that everything was so fresh and simply prepared. not alot of Butter, oil, etc. While that was cooking, we learned the art of fresh pasta. Chef Giovanni beleives the best tools for making pasta are our hands. The pasta was so fresh and delicious. I loved that we learned how to make it. Its definatly something we will be making alot of at home. For Dessert of course, the chocolate Tiramisu. We loved it, except for the very strong coffee flavor in the lady fingers. We will have to alter that when we make it again.
we bought one of these rolling pins at the san lorenzo market We cant wait to use it ay home. It was also really cool how the pasta just "appeared" when we tossed them through our fingers.
After the cooking class, Buddy was so happy. I am SO glad we did this today and I know its something that we will always cherish that we did together.
The plan for the afternoon was to see David at the Accedemia. Giovanni told us we wouldnt have enough time, but hello!!! We can not leave Florence without seeing David! This is our last day here, I must see David. Having said that, you wouldnt think I was in that big of a hurry. We walked through some back roads and found some amazing vintage shops. One in particular, Pitti Vintage, had the most fantastic vintage clothing, jewelry, lighting, fabrics, you name it. I wish I could have purchased one of everything, but there was no room in my bag! Plus, it was a little pricey. We grabbed some Gellotto and made our way to the Accademia.
From what I understood from my travel books and in talking with others, we were expecting a long queue and a large unmistakable building. I find it humerous that we walked past it twice before even realizing it was the museum :) There was NO line and it the building looks like all the others around it. The only thing that even told us it was thte Accademia was a small plack to the right of the door. Right beside it, a notice that said the hours and "Chiuso il lunedì" Closed on Mondays.
Are you kidding me!!!? I was deflated if only for a minute. I immediatly tuned into a large group of people entering the museum under a sign reading "solo su prenotazione" Reservation only. Wheeeellll, I quickly grabbed Buddy and pretended like we were part of the group. I was fully expecting them to ask us for our ticket at which point, I would play dumb. I had a plan. As dishonest as it was, I just had to see the statue of David. Im not the type of person to "ask for forgivness later" something just came over me.
We walked into the museum and were put through airport like security. We had our personal belongings scanned and even walked through a metel detector. Once through, we follwed the small crowd around the corner and BAM! There he was, David in all of his glory. He is at the end of a long corridor, where normally, I would assume are no seating. But tonight, there were several chairs set up, like more of a formal event. We walked up to the front row, took a seat and marveled at an unobstructed view! Poor buddy, he was so afraid we were going to get arrested or in major trouble. He kept asking if we could leave. I felt bad for keeping him there, but I was just taken in by David. He is magnificent. Michealangelo sculpted his body perfectly down to the last detail. I wondered if it would really be a cool experiance to stare at a naked man, but he is waaaay more than that. He is a force, the artwork is amazing. I did notice his hands were disporportinate to his body. It was just really cool to be that close to him and marveling at the sculpture and pure talent of Michaelangelo. Finally, I listened to Budddy and we left. At first, we coudlnt find a way out because the exits were blocked with guards. I played dumb and said to someoneone "group?" and shook my head like, we made a mistake. They smiled at us and showed us the exit. It would have been nice to see the artwork in the whole museum, but David is enough for this visit. We need to mail in a generous donation to the museum. I can beleive I was balsy enough to do that. And we didnt even have to pay to see him. We are for sure International criminals.
After we broke in to the Accademia, we took a leisurley stroll through the city. We decide to walk back to the hotel. We knew it was a bit of a walk, but the night is beautiful and we wanted to take it all in to the last drop of sun hitting the arno. We walked to the ponte vecchio market and looked through scarves and purses, all of which I could have bought.
We through the streets and hung out in the piazza around St, Maria, Florence's famous duomo. We had a recomendation from our guide book to eat at Mama Gina's. We crossed the ponte vecchio and it was just to our right.
IF you are ever in Florence, you MUST eat here!! It was hands down, by far the best Italian food I have had since weve been here, ever had period. I had Cannaloni Mama Gina and buddy had shrimp Risotto.The pasta was filled with the creamiest cheese and spinach I have ever tasted, along with miniscule bits of ground beef. The risotto was creamy with the taste of shrimp running throughout. We've never had risotto before, boy have we been missing out!! We definatly dined as the Italians do tonight and sat at that table forever. The restaurant looks like an old cellar with marble ceilings and rounded beams. The waiters are so attentive and polite. We really really enjoyed that meal. Oh, it was So delicous!
We watched the sun set on the Arno while enjoying another dessert, Canoli. oh man.... It was marvelous the sunset and the sweet treat!
We found our way back to the Villa Carlotta. It took us about 30 min. We found a laundry mat on the way home. We grabbed our dirty clothes, some euros and drove back down to wash some clothes. But a miracle, we found someone pulling out as soon as we were approaching the laundry mat and grabbed the coveted parking spot. They are SO hard to come by here! We spent about and hour there and feel good that we have all new clean clothes for the next part of our trip. I felt so resourcefull tracking down and laundry mat and getting it done. It sounds stupid, but visiting a foreign country is not so different than my own. Its easy to get around and get things done, for the most part.
Goodnight from GORGEOUS Florence.
