Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Florence Day 1-4

9/5 -9/8

I know it has been a while since I've last written something, but that's because I just got internet back in our hotel yesterday. So many things have happened here in Florence since Saturday. Once we got off the train, we knew we were nowhere near Venice anymore. There are so many cars and people here. The cars here are all so small. The Smart car is very popular and so is the Moped. Just about every car has a diesel engine and trucks are nonexistent here. We eventually found our hotel after wandering around for about a half hour or 45 minutes. This place is really nice. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, and a dining/sitting room. The first night here, which would be Saturday the 5th, we just went to grab some food and ice cream and then went to bed. I had some alfredo that was pretty tasty and the peach gelato tasted just like fresh peaches!

The next morning was Sunday, so many of the shops were closed. We decided to just go out and explore. We ended up walking up this big hill that overlooked Florence. It was very neat to see all the houses that dotted the hills around Florence. That is probably one of my favorite things that I have seen all trip. Once we got to the top of the hill, we were at the Plazzale Michelangelo, which gave us an even better view of the city and of the hills surrounding us. We then came down the hill, ate at a restaurant, where I had a ok calzone, and then went back to the hotel and that's about it for the day.











On Monday, we went to Plazzo Del Dumo. This was a very large church that had a bell tower and dome that we could climb. The bell tower was 414 steps and the dome had 463 steps. We were pretty winded once we came down. We visited the Plazza Della Signoria that had many nude sculptures... Very weird. I had to sensor Sarah's pictures so they were appropriate for all audiences. We came back to the hotel then Sarah and I wondered around looking for supper when we found this neat little restaurant that was pretty good. I got pizza again and Sarah got alfredo. We got some more gelato and then called it a night.
















Today (Tuesday the 8th), is our last full day in Florence. We took this cooking class where two older ladies met us at one of the farmers markets and picked up some food they were going to use in the class for our lunch. We then were taken for a 60 minute walk back to their house, stopping at older buildings along the way. This cooking class was so much fun! We made ravioli with lemon sauce, noodles with sauteed mushrooms, and zucchini with cheese and nuts. The first thing we did when we got there was to put on our chef hats and aprons. We then worked flower, egg, and water into our pasta dough. After that we helped slice up zucchini and watched the head cook saute the mushrooms and make the lemon sauce. When that was over we used a pasta press and for the noodles and made sheets of thin dough for the raviolis and then put the cheese in the dough and sealed them. The head cook then boiled all the raviolis then cooked them a little more in the lemon sauce and then we sat down to eat. This was very tasty! Then the zucchini with cheese came out, and shortly after the sauteed mushrooms and pasta came out. Everything was excellent. They wanted to bring us out some roast that tasted really good but all of us were so full form the previous courses that we had to turn it down. They then brought us out some homemade gelato that was also excellent. I would highly recommend these ladies if you are ever in Florence because the entire experience was amazing! In an hour or so we are heading to the Galleria Degli Uffizi so that should be fun too!


Well that all for now! We take the train tomorrow form Florence to Rome.
Matt



More pictures from Florence!







Here are some new pictures from the cooking class!







4 comments:

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  3. Sounds like more fun!! Good thing you are doing a lot of walking... The food sounds great! Hope u got pics of everyone in there aprons and hats!!

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  4. We started at the market where we picked up some things for the lunch then on the way back we did kind of a walking me tour where one lady told us a lot about different buildings! It was very interesting! They did speak decent English and yheir home was very nice! Very new pots and pans and a brand new hood! The flour was a Tipo00 (yes that is spelled correctly). It is a finely ground flour and small amounts of cornmeal mixed. I hope to have pictures of the cooking class up here soon!

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