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Published: April 10th 2009
Thursday, April 2
Nancy's gift to us all was a day at a cooking school near Florence. For those of you in Vancouver: no, it wasn't Umberto's school (check out his prices!!!) ... she booked it online through a small company, "Good Tastes of Tuscany." The sun was actually shining as we trotted to the meeting place...the school sends a bus to a central Florence location to pick up the class, which worked perfectly.
There were 9 of us altogether: the 4 Carrow Sisters, 3 female cousins (American - originally from NYC), Carol, Abby & Roberta, who were staying in Florence, and one young couple from Minneapolis, Josh and Michelle. Josh was a great sport, being the only guy...turns out he's a deputy sheriff and LOVES to cook...the cooking school was a present to him from his wife. We had assumed he was accomodating Michelle by going to the cooking school - he's HUGE and looks like a halfback for the Rams - not exactly the "cooking school" type. Nope...he's the cook in the family and he had a ball.
Our chef for the day, Alberto, was fun, funny, smart - and a flirt. The kitchen was huge and after the obligatory cafe latte, we got to work. No fooling around! Alberto had Laurel pounding pre-boned chicken...I was put to work peeling potatoes (why ME???), while Nancy was in charge of the spinach and Diane was stirring a huge pot of veal stock. We all made pasta, which became spinach & ricotta ravioli...the flattened chicken was stuffed with sausage, diced ham, fontina cheese & pistachios, tied together and roasted with olive oil and rosemary...baby artichockes were sliced and gently braised in butter & oil in preparation for an artichoke risotto...strong espresso (is that an oxymoron?) was poured over ladyfingers then covered with a rich marscapone custard to make individual tiramisu's...it was grand!!
And of course, we had to eat everything we had made...with wine, naturally.
It was a wonderful day - the Carrow Sisters all love to cook and Nancy could not have made a better choice for a special outing for us. We were poured back into the bus for a very short trip up to the Good Tastes of Tuscany's co-owner's villa. She is British, but married into what we had to assume is a pretty wealthy Italian family -- they own a massive villa dating back to 1370 as well as hectares of land, producing olive oil & wines. It was a short, fascinating look into how a wealthy medieval family would have lived...and how the current owners live in such an historical site.
Back to Florence...and the sun was still shining! although clouds were looming in the distance.
Sad to realize this was Diane & Laurel's last night with us...they could take only a week away from work and had to return to Venice the next afternoon, where they were to stay overnight and fly to NYC early Saturday morning.
Laurel & Nancy returned to the B&B for a rest, while Diane & I poked around the unbelieveable street, Via Tornabuoni. We just called it "Via Very Expensive"...it is full of European and North American designer shops and jewellry stores...makes Rodeo Drive look like Walmart. Prices through the ROOF! - but fun to window shop.
We went through a quick cloud burst, which didn't last long...then back to the B&B to pick up Nancy & Laurel. After the immense amount of food we had for lunch, none of us were hungry, so we wandered through the city and found ourselves back at the Ponte Vecchio, which Nancy & Laurel hadn't seen yet. It was dusk and the shops were all closed, but we strolled over the almost 700 year old bridge and I was glad they were able to at least see it. And with no shops open, the massive crowds from yesterday afternoon were gone and we were able to enjoy looking at the medieval buildings lining the bridge.
We got a bit lost walking back to the B&B but were able to find our way, walking streets we hadn't seen yet...fun.
We had earlier told Marco, the owner of B&B Il Marzucco, about the cooking school...I was trying to remember where it was, as he had not heard of "Good Tastes of Tuscany". I described it as being part of a huge farm with a medieval villa...he just nodded... "Yes?" I then said they grow olives and grapes... "Yes?"....and made their own olive oil & wine..."Yes?" -- and I then realized how dumb that was. EVERY farm here has an ancient villa, grows olives & grapes, and makes their own olive oil and wine....d'uh.
We see Diane & Laurel off on the train to Venice tomorrow. Too short a visit!
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anne
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Lynne - I can't believe you're coming home in two days! Enjoy your last minutes/hours in Italy! Happy Easter!