School's over and back in Florence.....

Well school is over and we are back in Florence for one last night. Words cannot describe the beauty of the Tuscan countryside. Rome may be the heart of Italy but Tuscany is its soul. We had a great time at cooking school and I highly recommend it to everybody. The building we were in was over 500 yrs old. It may not have had the modern fixtures but the water was hot, the toilet worked and the bed was comfortable. I know some of our guests would have liked CNN or something but I was so busy I didn’t even think about a television or the outside world. The internet was touch and go but it affected the instructors more than me. We had good weather for most of our trip and it only rained a few days, but they needed the moisture so I’m glad they got it.
What can I say about Sandra Lotti. She is a diva in every sense of the word. She is an amazing teacher, chef, woman, and mother. Not only did I learn the ingredients of the recipes but I learned why they were used and what to use if you cannot find it. Sandra’s love for her region comes through her every time she speaks. She taught us like her Grandmother taught her and she freely answered any question we had. We bought her recent cookbook which is only in Italian and hasn’t been translated yet. This is going to make Lisa and I learn Italian so when we come back we can speak to Sandra in her language and hopefully get so much more.
Christopher is an amazing talent and chef. His lessons were amazing and he is a true master of making custards. He is so creative in the kitchen that it is scary. We have to try to get to Province Town to his restaurant when it is open (it is open during the tourist season). We are looking forward to meeting up with him in October next year for dinner in Denver. He comes to Denver for “Cooking for the Cure” and has invited us to meet him for dinner.
We made so many new friends at school. The pictures we got are great and I’m looking forward to the video so everybody can experience Sandra and her incredible voice.
Lisa and I will be back for the Spring session in a few years. Chris told us we should come for the advanced class with the chefs, he thinks we can hold our own in that class. We think one more class and then we will try the advanced class.
We are not looking forward to the ride back tomorrow. It will be long and very boring. See you soon. Ciao!

Truffles and Ravioli Day

Today’s tour was all out truffles. We went to a factory that a family has been running now for 50 yrs. The grandfather was a truffle hunter and then his son thought they could make a business out of it and now the whole family is involved in making everything possible with truffles. Lisa and I picked up some truffle oil, truffle polenta, and this amazing truffle honey. The trip to get there was very long and my butt started to hurt from sitting that long.
It has been raining and it is really needed so I don’t mind much. It isn’t a downpour, just a steady rain that soaks the ground and plants. That has kept me getting to the internet. You can only access the net from the little square outside of the olive pressing room and since this thing goes through battery power like a Frenchman with free cigarettes I am typing this up on word and will add it to the page when I can get outside for a few moments and upload and check scores.
We made multicolor ravioli today. The dough is much softer than the gnocchi dough we made, it doesn’t have duram wheat in it so it feels a little wetter. Lisa really got the hang of it and she made a woodland camo dough from the left over green, black, and brown and it looked really cool. We had 2 sauces for it: the first was a sage and butter sauce. Note here do not brown your butter, that is French. Italians do this over a double boiler and gently warm there sauce with the sage in it. The second sauce was a tomato sauce, the same we learned the other day.

Yesterday was gnocchi day. We made 2 types, one boiled and one fried. I liked the fried one better than the other but the boiled gnocchi is more of a traditional dumpling than the ones we get in the states. It is very soft and does not have a bite to it.
Dinner was great. We had spaghetti carbonara and then chicken cacciatore made the proper way. Sandra is an awesome cook and it was a great meal. We also had crème brulee for desert. Christopher made the crème and it was GREAT! He is a master at that dessert. We are keeping a journal of notes and I will add that to my notes.

Today's picture is of Lisa and $1000 euros worth of white truffle.

Back to School.......Arrival and Day 1

We made it to the school on Sunday and was met by our guide. She is a wonderful little Sicilian woman who with her daughter (who is stunning the by the way) are our tour guides for our afternoon tours of the local area. The train ride was good but we were happy to get to our room. We have a fantastic room with a private bath (we got lucky on that one!) and a canopy bed. Sunday was spent walking around the school and waiting for the other students to arrive. There were about 10 of us here already so we had lunch with the staff. The owner of the school Sandra is amazing. She is an expert in all things Tuscan and does not like the French. She says they have killed cooking and should go back to school. I like her! Her lead teaching chef Christopher is incredible. He has several restaurants in the states and knows all the famous chefs. He is a great teacher and fun to work with.

There are also some French Culinary Institute students here doing an internship but sadly they are leaving today. They are a great group of kids (twenty somethings!) who are great cooks and have a passion for food and cooking.

Monday was our first day and Lisa's birthday. All the staff was wishing her a happy birthday and then after breakfast we went into the kitchen for our lessons and to start to prepare lunch. The students cook lunch and the staff makes dinner, it is a great deal! We started with working on knife skills and we were taught the same way the instructors were taught at FCI. I must say I picked it up pretty well and the instructors told me with some more practice I could motor my way through heaps of veggies in no time. We chopped all the veggies for the sauce that was to go on our pasta. The sauce was a local traditional white bean sauce (Tuscan means "bean eaters") with just a little tomato in it. We then moved onto the pasta lesson. Lisa and I have been waiting for this lesson because we are not good at making pasta. Lisa is Sicilian and not Italian so she is not a big pasta fan so she hasn't had good luck with it in the past. We will now. We made a tagliatelle to go with our sauce. Oh also on the sauce, we learned that you DO NOT HEAT THE OIL BEFORE PUTTING IN THE SAFRITTO (the carrots, celery, and onions). You must put them in cold and sweat them. You know when they are done because the oil becomes clear again. When you add to the oil the water makes it cloudy so when it clears up the water is gone and the veggies are ready for the next stage.

We also chopped up fennel for a lovely au gratin that was our first course. The pasta came out great even the instructors had lunch with us. Christopher said he enjoyed our pasta and that we did well and that if we ever seeing him eating bread that meant he didn't like what we made and we should practice more.

After lunch we went to Pisa for our tour. We saw the tower and church and every thing else but honestly we are churched out. Today(I'm typing on the morning of day 2) we will go to Lucca and I don't know what we are learning today. I do know on Wed we are going to a truffle factory and a local chocolate maker is coming in to show us his candy. Lisa and I have decided we are coming back for all four seasons to learn all we can. Sandra and Christopher are great and make learning so much fun.

Oh also we met the Duke who owns Camporomano (camp of the Romans) and he showed us his olive oil press and how it works. He is a very nice man and his father is so funny. We have some ladies who came as a group (old friends who worked together) and he likes to watch them walk by. He is so Italian! Well time to go, the instructors are showing up and breakfast will start soon.

Today's picture is from a farmer's market we found in Florence. We had the best salami we have ever had there and right next to it were the pictures of the pigs before they became the salami! It was great.

Ciao!

Day 5: The Pitti Palace and Gelato

Today was about 2 things. The Pitti Palace and going to the best gelato shop in town. We accomplished both. The Pitti Palace was great, we took all the tours possible and the wandered all over the huge garden behind it. We will have to go back to more of it. The weather today sucked so we didn't get to see much more than a 1/4 of it and that was a lot of walking. We found the gelato shop and added four more flavors to our list: Hazelnut, Rum, Lemon, and Persimmon. This was by far the best gelato yet, it was so creamy and smooth we are going back every time we visit Florence.

We got some shopping done for us today. We got some pottery for the kitchen (a pasta bowl, some coffee cups, a sugar bowl and a creamer to go with the new espresso machine). We had a great dinner again tonight, I had wild boar for dinner. On the way to dinner we met this lovely young man. Tonight's picture is for Cora. Maybe Kate would like an Italian boyfriend?

We leave for school tomorrow and we have heard we enjoy the country side more than the city. The weather is turning a bit nasty so hopefully this will blow over tonight.

Ciao for now.

Day 4: Uffizi Gallery

We did a little shopping in the morning (Rachel and Mallory we specifically got you guys something Lisa thinks you will like) and to walk the train station route for Sunday morning. It is easy to get lost on the streets here so we made sure we knew where we were going since we are walking to the train station.

Today we saw some of the greatest Italian masters work. We saw Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. These four men were considered the greatest artists of the Renaissance. We saw the painting "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli, Michelangelo's "Holy Family with the infant St. John the Baptist", DaVinci's unfinished "Adoration of the Maji", and his "Annunciation". We saw many of Botticelli's paintings including "Primevare" (Spring) (it was next to the birth of venus). Words do not describe the art we saw today.

Before continuing I need to write out the gellato list. We have had: Pistachio, Melone, Coffee, Chocolate, Passion fruit, Nutella, cookies, blackberry, strawberry, fruits of the Forest (a mixed berry) and black cherry. We have not gotten gellato from the same place twice. Which brings me to the couple we met in the Piazza Della Signora today. They were a nice couple in their 80's who have been coming to Italy for over 40 yrs. They have traveled all over the country and they told us where to get the best gellato in the city so we are going there tomorrow. There daughter lives in Bellevue Washington and their son graduated from the same High School I did (just 1o yrs later!) They told us about the time that the Italian government was digging in the piazza and came across the remains of the Roman city and what they decided to do. They decided to make it a working piazza and to remove the ruins and back fill the piazza. They were a great couple, he was from New York (Brooklyn) and is now living in FLA. We loved talking with them.

We had our tour after that and then headed off to have dinner. What a surprise we had another great meal in Florence! We have been ordering the house red wine and have not been disappointed yet.

Today's picture is especially for David Defranco. He will know why. (wait till you see the foam here!)

Day 3: A much better day

I finally got the Internet to work today before heading out for the day. I will be posting up tonight for everybody to catch up. I also got my Christmas present today, a new espresso machine. It is one of the good Italian types with the manual handle. It will arrive in three weeks at the house, I can’t wait. When we get back I want to invite David up to have a cup with me and experiment to find out the perfect pull. It is all chrome and wooden handles, it is a thing of beauty.
We also found the two story food market today. It was full of butcher shops and fish mongers and farmers selling vegetables. I have never seen so many porcini mushrooms in my life and even here they are expensive. We stopped in the café and had a cappuccino and watched the shoppers.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around down near the Arno river since we were going to have a tour of the Uffizi Gallery. We walked across the Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge) and looked at all the gold that was for sale and then continued on to the Plazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace) and looked into a tour. We decided since it was so big that we would go all day on Friday and explore the whole place. While having some lunch we discovered that I had erred in my tickets for the tour and had to meet the group on the other side of town so we beat feet for our tour. Once there Lisa discovered the tour office was near by so we checked in and they told us we had to be at the Gallery in 5 minutes. Well that wasn’t going to happen so we rescheduled for tomorrow.
We ended up wandering again and this time we went to the San Lorenzo church where Cosomo Medici is entombed and was the private church of the Medici family. Michelangelo and Donatello were principle designer and artist for the chapel. It is a big place with lots of great art for the stations of the cross.
After leaving there we wandered around and found our selves at the Arno river again. We walked back and stopped for a small meal (we had a big lunch today) before coming back to the hotel. Lisa bought a bottle of red and we are now having a glass and figuring out our day tomorrow. We have a tour at 4:30 but the rest of the day is open. We will go to the Pitti Palace on Saturday and spend the day. Ciao!

Wandering through Florence: 12 hours on foot

Today we saw the David in all his glory. We started the morning looking for coffee and ended up finding the Galleria Dell’Accademia. It is where the David is. As you round a corner he is standing there in the middle of the room staring of to his left. The detail work is amazing! You can see his tendons and his veins under his skin. Pictures do not so this justice at all, you have to see it in person to appreciate the detail and craftsmanship of it. The paintings we saw were also amazing. What drew us to the area is the San Marco Church. It is a lovely church and while were walking around we saw a lot of tour groups heading down the street so we followed and found the galleria. This is a picture form the San Marco Church.
From there we wandered to find Dante’s house and church. I think we found it but ended up in another old church that was between mass so we went in. I think every church here has priceless art on the walls and ceiling. From there we started to follow small streets and wandered into the Piazza Della Signora and saw the house of Cosomo Medici, the last Great Prince of Florence, it is huge! Also there are so of the most incredible statues out in the piazza. A copy of the David is there and some other amazing stuff. After we left there we went to Santa Croce church, by far my favorite. This is where the tombs of Dante, Michelangelo, Galileo, and even Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister-in-law is there. It is an amazing place and we got a little tour from one of the Italian men who work there. It was the highlight of the day. I mean the David is an awesome statue but the Sana Croce church is just overwhelming.
We finished it off with a great dinner in Piazza de Republicca. While we were eating dinner we heard an amazing street performer singing opera and went over to look. She had the voice of an angel and should be singing professionally in a company. We had a nice walk home and I struggled to get the Internet working but failed. I’ll try again in the morning.

We made it!

We arrived safe and sound but really tired. It was a very long flight and Luftunsia doesn’t upgrade. We had a Red Soks fan get us the score of the game as soon as we landed. Go Rockies!

I knew I was getting close to Italy when we got on our flight for Florence because the stewardesses were beautiful! They were the classic Italian beauty and every inch the princess, they didn’t pick up any trash during the flight. They left that for the trash crew when we landed. We got into our hotel and they had us in a small room the first night with a fantastic view of the city. The next day they moved us into our normal room that has a overview of a brick wall, so much for the view.
We took a walk and ended up at the Duomo, the big famous church (it is huge!)and then had a nice dinner at a local place. The fresh pasta was great and we had a nice walk. We slept the sleep of the dead that night.

La prima neve della stagione

The first snow of season has arrived! The flakes are getting bigger as I type. It could be a very cold night for the Rockies in Denver. Lisa and I will spend the day cleaning up the house and packing for our trip. We are leaving in the morning early so we can either upgrade a class for the flight to Germany or try to get a exit row seat. I don't mind spending time in the airport waiting for our flight, I have my I-Pod and a book.
Well the snow is slowing down now, bummer! Well maybe the weather will drive away that crazy woodpecker from beating on our house in the morning.

A Quick update

Well this last weekend had its up and mostly downs for the sporting teams we follow. The up was that the Rockies made to the NLCS. Lisa and I had dinner at the parents house and watched the game. It was nice to see that my nephew loves to watch sports also. The downs were many this weekend for sports. First let me say I am not happy with the French right now. Last summer they kept Ireland from winning the 6 Nations Cup and this last weekend they beat the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup. Also the Gators lost for the second straight week this weekend, true it was to the #1 LSU Tigers but still. Sunday was no better. Lisa went to the Bronco's game with a friend and watched as they got a big beating and then later that night the Packer's blew a lead and lost to the Bears.
The only other up is that we are one week away from leaving for Italy! I am so ready for a vacation. I will be taking my laptop with me so I will keep the page updated as we travel in Italy. It looks like the hotel and the school have wireless Internet so I can update the page in the evenings before going to bed, that is of course if I'm not totally blasted on red wine!