Day 11

Lunch at the Central Market.

Piazzale Michelangelo

View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo.

Street fair in Florence.

We arrived back in Florence this morning and visited the Central Market, Duomo, and Casa Martelli. Casa Martelli is a wonderful museum that is an example of an 18th century nobleman's home. During the late afternoon, we traveled to the Piazza Michelangelo to see the panoramic views of Florence and the Arno Valley with friends from Florence. We spent the evening with these friends sharing a meal in their home. There was a street fair on their block that evening and we enjoyed visiting local vendors and being able to experience life as a local.

Day 10

 Parmesian-Reggiano factory

Balsamic vinegar tasting at Villa San Donnino in Modena.

Barrels of Balsamic Vinegar

 Prosciutto ham factory

Our guide, Alessandro

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Neptune fountain in Bologna.

Porticos in Bologna

We started our food tours of the Bologna area with a 7:20 pickup at our hotel. Our guide, Alessandro, was very knowledgable and entertaining. He had a passion for the Italian food culture and was very informative throughout the day. Our first stop was at a Parmesian-Reggiano factory in Modena. We had a very detailed explanation and tour of the cheese making process. This cheese is government approved for quality and has to be aged 12 months. Our next visit was to a Balsamic Vinegar production. This tour gave us a better appreciation of the lengthy process in making a quality Balsamic Vinegar. This product is also government approved for quality and must be aged a minimum of 12 years. Our last tour was of a prosciutto ham factory. We saw the process from beginning to end and again this is a product under  government approval for quality. The production to all of these products is limited to this region of Italy. You can not make these products in any other place in the world. At each stop we tasted the products and then had an excellent lunch in a trattoria in the hills of Modena. Our first course consisted of sampling four different pastas, we then had a main course of rabbit and wild boar with roasted pepper, eggplant, and zucchini. Our dessert was a refreshing lemon sorbet.
After returning to Bologna, we walked through the porticos that covered the sidewalks in the historic center of town. We visited many amazing churches. Our favorite was Santa Stefano which dates back to medieval times.

Day 9

This morning we went to the Central and San Lorenzo Markets. The Central Market is a large building filled with food stalls selling meats, cheese, fruits, pasta, bakery items, and vegetables. We saw many unique items such as rabbit, tripe, pig's feet, and poultry with heads and feet.  Italians usually buy there food from individual vendors each day at local markets. The San Lorenzo is an open air market containing produce. You can find lots of bargains at this market. The afternoon we visited the Uffizi Museum. This contains the world's greatest collection of Renaissance art. All the master's such as Da Vinci, Donnatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael have work displayed here. This gives you a better understanding of the history of the area and the Italian culture. That evening we traveled to Bologna. Bologna is in the Emilia-Reggiano area of Italy and is known as the country's food center. They pride themselves in having creating such food as tortellini and Bolognaise Sauce.

Day 8

Cinque Terre

Market in Cinque Terre

Seafood appetizers

Enjoying our meal

Terraced hills of grapes.

Coastline in Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre

Boats stored in Cinque Terre

We went to Cinque Terre, the Italian Riviera, and visited all of the five towns. The food is very unique in this area and different than traditional Italian meals. Each town was completly isolated with their own foods and dialect until the train service began in the 1920's. Our lunch consisted of a seafood plate appetizer that contained squid, octopus, fish pate, mussels, and very small fish. The pasta dish was spaghetti with pesto sauce, which is a local speciality. The beautiful setting of these multi-colored buildings against the Mediterranean Sea was breathtaking.

Day 5-7

Making Bruschetta.

Our guest chef, Alvaro.

Castle at Castagnoli

Enjoying the castle tour.

Medieval village

Day 5
Today we had a guest chef, Alvaro. He was a retired chef from Radda and was an excellent source of information. We prepared berry tiramasu, a variety of roasted meats and potatoes, riboletta (which is bread soup), and two kinds of bruschetta. In the afternoon, we toured a castle, winery, and two medieval villages.

Measuring flour with scales

Preparing dough for foccacia.

Our last class member and host family

San Gimignano

Piazza della Cisterna in San Gimignano

View from one of the towers

Day 6
Today was our last cooking class and we prepared risotto, foccacia, chicken marsala with zucchini, and a cake made with farrot (which is an ancient grain). After our meal we drove to San Gimignano and explored the beautiful city of towers on our way to Florence. We arrived in Florence that evening and had dinner with a friend who teaches Italian Food Culture classes. They were having a street festival in the area of our hotel, and we enjoyed food samples and observing the local people as we walked to our restaurant. We had a wonderful meal and it was interesting to discuss the nutrition of the Italian diet. Our host explained that the short distance from farm to table is what made their diet so healthy.

Porcelain museum at Pitti Pallace in Florence.

Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens

Gelato

Shopping in the markets

View of Arno River from Ponte Vecchio.

Ponte Vecchio

Meal with friend who teaches Italian Food Culture classes in Florence.

 Day 7
We explored the city of Florence for a straight 8 hours today! We began at the Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace. The views from the top of the garden were breathtaking. The palace was the home of the Medici family which were the leaders of Florence during the Renaissance period. We really enjoyed the costume gallery which explained the history of fashion throughout the ages. This will be very rewarding information in our textile and fashion classes. We next visited the Galleria dell Accademia where we saw the sculpture of Michelangelo's David as well as his prisoner sculptures. Bortolini had a visiting exhibit that was also interesting. From there we took a Renaissance Walk through the town visiting historic sites and sculptures. In the evening, we had anouther excellent meal at a local restaurant in the Santo Spirito area of Florence. We continued to discuss the food culture with our host as she explained how most Italians purchase their food daily. She also said Italians have the second longest life expectancy. Tomorrow we travel to Cinque Terre.

Day 4

Preparing ingredients for pesto

Meal with the our host family.

Monteriggioni - walled city

Cafe at Monteriggioni

Ruins at Volterra

Streets of Volterra

Preparing stuffed conchigliana.

We had a wonderful day cooking today with 2 couples from the USA and one from Canada. Some of the unique things we made are homemade pesto sauce using a mortar and pestle, beans cooked in a glass beaker, and panna cotta with dark chocolate. Our pasta course was conchigliana stuffed with tuna, mozzarella, and olives. We learned about different kinds of olives and olive oils. In the afternoon, we traveled to Monteriggioni and Volterra. Both are walled cities and we were able to explore the Etruscan ruins. They were amazingly beautiful.

Day 3

Butcher shop in Greve

Preparing the veal.

Making gnocchi

Cheese shop in Greve

Greve in Chianti

Today we made gnocchi, pizza, veal with roasted peppers, and lemon sorbet. We were joined in our class by a group from Texas so felt right at home. We spent the afternoon in Greve visiting the shops. We toured a butcher shop, wine store, and ceramic shop. We are having trouble with computer connections and downloading pictures so the post is going to be short. Hopefully we have the pictures working now!