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This is the report I wrote upon returning from Florence. It is a collection of experiences, critical thinking, and photo’s from my trip.

The Adventure never Ends

So I left my hotel in Florence this morning at 7am (the last airport shuttle for the group) for a flight from Florence to Amsterdam at 12:35pm. First when I got there I tried to check in but they wouldn’t allow me to check in till the plane from Amsterdam to Florence took off. So at 10:10am (the time the woman today me to come back) I got back in line to check in. 10:30 rolls around and no one has been checked in. At 10:35 (after a man asked) they announce the incoming flight was delayed over an hour. They then out us into two lines, those who’s final destination was Amsterdam and those with connections. I ended up in the front of the connections line and went first. They spoke in Italian in front of me trying to figure a reroute out for about 5 minutes then had me follow them to another airline counter where they talked again for 5 minutes and finally went to the Alitalia flight counter where they worked it out. They told me to go to Rome and then I would get to Amsterdam. When I asked what time she replied tomorrow at 1pm.

Unfortunately the flight to Rome was boarding in about 10 minutes so I hardly got time to say goodbye to all my friends before dashing through security and immediately getting on the bus to the airplane. I didn’t sleep on the flight to Rome (only 30 minutes though) and when I arrived I started playing “Help Desk Hop” trying to find a fast way home.

After about 30 minutes of being tossed around the only thing I got was an earlier flight to Amsterdam. I left Rome at 3:20pm and landed at 5:40pm in Amsterdam. Thankfully while on my flight my dad and brother worked to find me a place to stay over night.

After arriving at 5:40 I walked to the curb and caught the shuttle to the hotel. Luckily the hotel has made up for this madness! I have a lovely hotel room, Internet, and there was a great walking trail! Now I’m relaxing in bed and I’m heading to bed soon! Hopefully by 1:55pm central stand rda time tomorrow I will be home in Texas!!

Goodbye at Ganzo

At 8:30 our final feast began. It was titled “Eating from North to South Italy” and was put on by WSU as their final dinner project.

We started with 3 passed appetizers: Melon wrapped in Prosciutto and drizzled with balsamic, bruschetta with olive oil and diced Tomatoes, and a thin wheat brea with a cheese spread and apricot compote.

For our first plate we had ricotta and basil stuffed zucchini flowers fried in vegetable oil on a bed of spiced diced tomatoes. This was probably my favorite dish of the evening!

For our first entree we had mushroom risotto. If was very tasty but rich. I couldn’t finish mine if I planned to eat the rest of the dishes.

The second course was a white fish coated in almonds and served on spinach and mash potatoes. The fish was too milky for me, but the spinach was really good. We were disappointed that they had trouble getting vegetarian and allergy plate out with the other dishes. They tended to get theirs as we finished our plates. We also switched to a new white wine during this course.

Before our dessert they served us a melon vodka sorbet shot. This was way too strong for me so I only had a few tastes.

Lastly for our dessert we had a raspberry and pistachio tiramisu whith a hazelnut spread and chocolate sweep. This was a very nice dessert but it was hard to eat and was a little dry. Taylor got a pancetta due to her but allergy, but hers still came out about 5-8 minutes after the whole room had been served. Also our table was never offered the dessert wine until after we finished the dessert and the table had been cleared. We only got to taste it because we asked about it. In my opinion it was a bad choice of dessert wine anyway. It had an overwhelming alcohol taste and would have drowned the dessert. It was probably better we got skipped.

Minus the mishaps it was a nice meal. Not as great as the first, but still good food. Mostly we were enjoying each other’s company for the last time and were very sad to say our goodbyes. This has been such an extraordinary experience. We have learned and seen so much in the short time we’ve been here.

I am not sure when I will post again. I still need to write about my wine tasting and do a wrap up but I am flying all day tomorrow. I leave for the airport at 7:00am, get on my Florence flight at 12:45pm to Amsterdam, then fly to Atlanta at 5pm (land in USA at 8:20pm same day June 6th), then flying to DFW at 9:50. I should arrive in Dallas at 11:45pm June 6th. Hopefully it all goes smoothly! I’ll write again when I can!

Fashion and Food

Okay this one is for you Amy! Before heading to our dinner we went to the FUA Fashion Store/School for their Apertivo and store student sale. The building use to be old horse stables and was converted into the FUA Fashion School.The store “FLY” promotes upcoming designers and the students were offered 30% off (even with that most of the stuff I couldn’t afford). The clothes were amazing and the “build your own bag” station. It was so much fun to shop, but I couldn’t afford it though I walked around the store with it for about 30 minutes. They had wonderful finger foods and great desserts. We wandered around the design rooms and talked to the students about their pieces too. It was a great start to the evening and I cannot wait for our 5 course dinner at Ganzo in an hour!

Staying in style – Hotel Cellai

I just realized that I never posted any pictures of my hotel. Hotel Cellai is a beautiful four star hotel a block from the Hot Independica and 3 blocks from San Marco’s Piatza where you go to get to the Academia and see The David. The walk to the Duomo is about 10 minutes, but it can easily be viewed on the hotels food garden. It was free wifi, pretty good wifi too, in the rooms and the rooms are great! Larger than a typical European hotel room and decorated with antique looking furniture.

Are hotel is also a cool place to explore. It has about 9 different rooms where you can sit and enjoy comfy chairs and between 5-7pm complementary coffee, tea, and tea cakes. Also 24/7 there are apples left on a table in the lobby for guest to take. (Taylor and I have eaten our fair share of those) as I mentioned in a previous post the breakfasts are also amazing. A large warm and cold spread with everything ranging from fruit to pastries to scrambled eggs.

We will be sad to leave our hotel at 7am tomorrow to head to the airport! We have had a wonderful stay! Now we are heading to breakfast and then to the Duomo! Hope it’s a great last day!

Say Cheese!!

Drowsy eyed and half Awake we boarded the bus at 5:00 am to head to Parma. I slept 90% of the way so I couldn’t tell you much about the drive. We arrived at the Parmesan Cheese Artisan. This family run production was just starting the process for eight rounds of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

The steps to make this cheese are:
1. Selecting the milk – the cows are given a strict natural grass and vegetable feed diet to keep them healthy and happy. This facility milks 150 cows daily. Once in the morning and once at night.

2. Separating the cream- the milk from the night milking goes into a basin where it’s is left to separate over night. The cream rises to the surface and is removed and used for butter. The non-fat milk is then used in the morning batch and that same day’s morning milk from milking is added to create a semi-fat mixture. It takes 4.23 gallons of milk to make 1 kg/2.2 lbs of Parmesan.
3. The cauldrons- the semi fat mixture is poured into a copper steam jacketed kettle. Steam is then pumped into kettle to hear the milk.
4. Adding Whey – after warming up a natural whey (the lactic acid ferments from the cheese the day before) is added to the milk. (Rests for 25 minutes)
5. Natural Rennet- this natural enzyme is added to cause the milk to curdle (an enzyme taken from a calf stomach lining)
6. The Spino- a worker manually breaks the curds with a round ball device called a Spino.

7. Heating – the milk is then slowly heated while being agitated by a machine. Once it’s heated to the proper temperature the heat is turned off. The kettle sits for an hour to let the curds settle.

8. Removing and Casting – after and hour two men use sacks and a machine to remove the cheese. The original weight is 90kg removed then it is sliced in half so each plastic form holds 40 kg. the cheese sits in the plastic mold for 2 days. This cheese is turned 3x a day.

9. Marking- on the second day the cheese is put in a metal cast and a plastic brand is wrapped with it. The wrap contains the date and year created, the company number, and the certificate number.

10. Salting – after a day of marking the cheese is removed from the metal cast and placed in a salt brine. It sits in the brine for twenty days to absorb the salt. This salt adds flavor and helps the aging.

11. Aging – the cheese is removed from the brine and set on a shelf in a temp controlled room for a minimum of 24 months

A cheese wheel is inspected at 1 year if age. The inspector taps the cheese with a hammer and listens for holes and odd sounds. If the cheese passes it is branded “Parmigiano-Reggiano Consorzio-Reggiano”. This brand means the cheese can continue to age for an additional year or two. A Parmesan wheel cannot be aged longer than 3 years if they want to have a good product. If it’s is not well enough to continue aging but a good product, lines will be drawn through the brand. They also earn a DOP brand if the meet the specific procedures and produce in Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and specified parts of Bologna.

She then explained about the recycling they do with the products. The liquid left over from production is fed to their pigs to make them high in natural proteins. Like the olive oil artisan they are searching more ways to reuse all of they waste they produce.

Other fun facts:
1.Parmesan cheese that completely fails inspection is sold as Granna. This is usually what big industry mixes with a small amount of real Parmesan and treats with chemicals to give it a longer shelf life.
2. 1 wheel of Parmesan is=
40 kgs and sells for 500 € each!
3. 1kg of cheese is made from 16 L of milk. This cheese has a very High concentration of milk per kg.

After seeing this whole process we got to taste some cheese. We tasted 1, 2, and 2.5 year aged wedges of their cheese. My favorite was 2 years, but I thing the 2.5 would be great shredded. They also served us their ricotta which they make on thursdays in their facility. They had us try it with black cherries (fantastic combination) and on a coconut cake (not my favorite but it was a nice combo).

It was very interesting to see this process and here the passion in the daughters voice about what her family does. All of our tour guides have been so passionate about their products and it is very inspiring. Next post you will see how prosciutto is made!

Cooking and Cleaning (culinary class about gluten free pasta)

After our marathon morning at the Artisan pasta and olive oil makers we headed directly back to Apicus to start our gluten free pasta making course.

The beginning lecture was similar to the previous pasta and gluten free lectures I’ve posted about so I’ll keep this brief. The new material we learned was about theories in why there has been an increase in intolerance and subsitiute cereal grains for baking.

The two theories our chef mentioned were:
1. The pesticides used on the grains are causing the immune reactions to increase causing intolerance (research has shown a connection)
2. We are no longer eating wheat that is grown near us. People move
Around more and grains are imported from around the world. People spent thousands of years eating grain only produced near them and their body’s adjusted to that. Now with multiple types eaten the body may not have the ability to recognize and digest it. (Still a theory)

The grains our chef mentioned to use for alternate and pseudo cereals were
Alternative Cereals (no gluten):
Corn
Rice
Minor Cereals
Millet
Sorghum
Teff

Pseudo cereals:
Amaranth – contains lysin essential amino acid
Quinoa – contains all essential amino acids
Buckwheat – 2 month maturation grows in poor soul so can be cultivated almost anywhere

After our lecture we began by preparing the Mes en Place for our buckwheat, spinach, prosciutto, and cow cheese lasagna. I mixed the buckwheat, eggs, and water to form dough with Allison and Taylor made the inside bits.

Next we prepared the potato for the gluten free gnocchi. I mashed the potato, Parmesan, and 2 eggs together to form the base. Next we added corn and rice starch in small amounts till the consistence was correct. After a short fast kneeling Taylor and Allison went to work rolling and cutting the gnocchi. One they were all cut we tossed them in salted, boiling water for about a minute and a half till they Floated. They we removed them, plated them, and dressed them with our melted butter, thyme, and peppercorn sauce. Gnocchi is meant to be eaten hot our the pan so we are it standing at our stations. Our chef liked ours so much he ate half our plate!!

After we inhaled the gnocchi we took our buckwheat dough and rolled it out in to lasagna type strips. It was harder to roll and not break than real pasta. After rolling and cutting we boiled the stops for about 10 minutes (ours could’ve used more time it was still a bit hard) to plate we stacked a layer of pasta, drizzle with butter/thyme sauce, and fill with cheese, meat, and spinach, then stack another pasta slice on top and repeat till you have thee slices of pasta per piece. The tsar we decent and could be acceptable to someone who had to give up pasta, but our was a bit too hard due to the lack of time to boil it properly. Also, we were the last to finish cleaning and last to sit and eat but the chef can out one most people had left and gave us vanilla bean Pan-cotta for a dessert since they made extra in another class! It had a lot of flavor and was a great end to the meal.

We ended up going back to Allison’s because she had free laundry in the building she was staying in. We did a little laundry (washer takes 3 hours and we dried in a rack over night) and hung out in the apartment. About 9:30 Ann wanted Grom to celebrate the Italian Holiday so we walked to Grom. I got Grom de Creme which has chocolate chips, biscotti, and cream gelato, hazelnut, and raspberry cheesecake (flavor of the month). We then walked the the Piazza Independica to see if anyone was celebrating. There was only a Charlie Chaplin street performer so Ann desided to wander till our laundry would be done. We saw the “5th ave” of Florence, the Ponte Vecchio at night (pretty reflection in the water), walked by a LUSH store, and went to a bridal shop before heading back to hang up our clothes. We got to the hotel at 11:45 and passed out!!

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It was such a fun/exhausting day! We were happy to do and learn a lot. I am so sad we are near the end, but I’m loving and living every minute!! Ciao!

Out with the new and in with the old!

Man the days are flying by!! I keep running out if time to write and by the time I get in bed I’m too tired to write. I can’t believe we only have 3 days left! Here is a quick recap of yesterday morning!

We loaded the busses at 9am (finally slept in!!!) and headed to Chianti. Our first stop was an old grain pasta maker. Pastifico Fabbri is the name of the shop in chianti. The owner started the demonstration by explaining the two types of old grains he uses. There was a softer lighter coores one that’s used for breads and a dark hard one used for pasta. He showed is how to use a large stone grinder to turn the seeds into flour.

After grinding the flour is sifted once to remove the endosperm. This is Type 2 flour and it is the healthiest because it still has the fiber in it. This flour creates a dark “whole wheat” product. The flour can be sifted again to create a zero/zero flour, what the old pasta makers called “death”. This sifting removes the fiber and B Vitamins and creates a white soft product.

The reason his pasta is so special is the old grains used and be uses a long drying process at a low temperature which is different than 90% of the pasta sold today. The old grains create a simple bond when turned into a dough for bread or pasta so the gluten is easier for all people to digest. This pasta is only not okay for celiac people. Gluten intolerance individuals have eaten this pasta and felt okay because their body can digest the simpler gluten. This simple structure allows dough to bounce back after being pressed or stretched. Industry dough creates an intricate web of gluten that does not Retain it’s elasticity. The low temp drying (100 F for 4-6 days compared to the industry 356F for 4-6 hours) keeps the heat from destroying vitamins, amines, and altering the gluten.

He then showed us how to see gluten in a dough. He washed his dough with water till the water ran clear and all the other component like starch had washed away. What remained was “chewing gum” gluten. It was soft and sticky and we could see the simple bonds.

He used his small 100 year old pasta machines to show us how to form and shape dough four pasta. Then he used different (just as old) attachments to make different shapes of pasta like spaghetti, lasagna strips, and small macaroni like pieces.

He was so nice to open his store for us because yesterday was a national holiday. (1946 Italians voted to become a republic, not a monarchy) he also felt bad that they didn’t have enough to sell us different types of pasta so we all got a “souvenir bag” of pasta to Take home.

Best we headed to an Extra Virgin Olive Oil Artisan. Stay tune for that post!

What the heck is that?!!

Well that pretty much describes how prepared we were for Rome! We knew we were going but we all were so busy we didn’t research the sights or what to do. Even though we were pretty clueless about most of buildings history, we saw a lot!

People say “Rome wasn’t built in a Day”, but we conquered it in a day! We saw about 26 different sights, walked 13.09 miles, and were only in Rome a little under 9 hours.

We met at 7am in our Florence hotel to walk the short distance to the train station. Thirteen people from our twenty-six people chose to go to Rome and we all boarded the train at 7:30. The train ride was about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Once in the station we bought day pass tickets for the metro. Ann had suggested going straight to the Vatican so we squished on to the crowded train and went there first. Once off the train we walked up to the gate of the Vatican to take pictures. The line into the Vatican stretched from the gate Down about 3 blocks. This helped us decide to skip going in and to go to Saint Peter’s. The line was wrapped all the way around the square but we wanted to go in. We waited in line about 45 minutes(and made friends with the people behind us by working together to force out people trying to cut.) It was worth every second of waiting. The church is HUGE!

We spent about an hour inside the church looking at everything and going through the crypts. The line was really long to go in the Sistine Chapel so we chose to start our “snap and go” tour instead! While waiting in line for St. Peter’s Basilica we talked to the Germans behind us who had been Rome before about what to see. After their suggestions we made a game plan. Even though we had this great plan our own knowledge hindered our experience a bit. The first “unknown” was a brown castle at the end of the road leading away from St. Peter’s. We only discovered the name by the plaque near the entrance. This was the Castle Saint Angelo.

Next we walked a block to see the Palazzo di Giustizia and cross the River. We ended up getting Gelato to eat in the Pizza Navona. It was a nice spot to sit and eat and look around before continuing our mission.

Next we followed out map to the Pantheon. This was one of my favorite sites because it was such a surprise. I didn’t realize how beautiful it would be on the inside. We spent some time looking around and admiring the lighting.

After getting a little turned around because the pantheon on our map faced the wrong way we finally map it to my favorite spot of the day, the Trevi Fountain. It was surprise by it’s size and really loved the flowing water falls. Of course all three of us tossed our coins in and made a wish!

After making our wishes we walked down toward the Colosseum. This took us past the Monumento a Vittorio Manuelle II and the Rome ruins. At this point the sky had turned black and thunder was rolling, but it wasn’t raining. It cool down substantially from that morning too.

We walked around the Colosseum and even attempted to wait to go in, but we had not eaten food (minus small gelato cups) since breakfast at 6:45am (now 3pm) and there was a lot more we wanted to see. We were disappointed that it was covered in scaffolding because it was hard to get a nice picture.

Since we hadn’t eaten we headed towards the next metro station and searched for food along the way. We stopped by to see the Sait Pietro Vincoli since it was close on the map, but it wasn’t exciting. We found a cute tucked away Italian restaurant. I had a prosciutto, olive, mushroom, and artichoke pizza. Taylor had gnocchi and mussel pasta, and Allison had a noodle and bean soup. At this point it started pouring, but we are under a large awning so it didn’t matter. The food was good and the rain stopped just was we finished eating, we were lucky!

After eating we hopped on the metro at Cavor and switched the the red line at termini. Then we rode the red line to Spagna to see the Spanish steps. The steps were not that exciting. The fountain was surrounded and under renovation and so was the church. The steps were covered by tourists so it just looked like a busy stair case. After climbing the steps we headed to Villa Medici to enter the Rome Gardens.

We viewed the Piazza del Popolo from the gardens then walked down the the metro to ride it to Piazza Della Republica. This area wasn’t very exciting but it was near the Train station and we were killing time till 7:15 when we needed to be there. We walked by the Opera house and the Santa Maria Maggiore on our way to the station.

At 7pm we headed into the station and saw a bakery with Canoli’s! We decided all our hard work earned us dessert so we each bought one for the train ride to Florence. We left the station at 7:50 and got to Florence at 9:22.

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While we had a great time and it was amazing to see Rome I am so thankful I am not staying there. Florence has tourists, but the throngs of thousands wandering Rome was too much for me. I am so glad I took the opportunity and I hope to come back to see the colosseum and Vatican some day.
We walked a total of 13.22 miles and took 28,983 steps. We saw 27 different sites in Rome and even got to tour the Basilica. I count that as a successful 9 hours!!

Sorry again for the lack of knowledge about the buildings, hopefully I can expand more as I learn more.

A Seat with a View!

We had our wine pairing lecture from 9am to 12pm at Apicus. Afterwards Taylor, Allison, Ana, and I headed over to look at the scarf stand in the street market. We browsed, but nothing called to us. Next we wandered towards the Duomo and decided the Grom Gelato sounded good. I got Caffé, Extra Dark Chocolate, and Coconut Chocolate chip. This time at Grom we learned that they opened a Gelato store in NYC in Columbus Circle! Defiantly going there next time I visit dad!

We walked around the neighboring wine shop and then Ana decided to go back to the hotel to check on Annika who was not feeling well. The rest of us walked across the river to look at the art work in front of Pitti Palace again.

We then slowly walked back across the river towards the hotel, wandering in and out of shops to look at various things. When we got to Piazza Della Republica (the one with the Antique Picci Carousel) we remembered Ann mentioning you can go to the roof of the department store. We found the store (the one on the right if you are facing away from the arch and carousel). If you take 4 up escalators 2 sets of stairs you can get to the top seating of their cafe. This is a beautiful spot to have drinks or lunch because it over looks the Duomo and the Pizza. We decided to stay for drinks and we had a fantastic experience! The waiters were very cute and helped us learn some Italian. Allison had an Americano, Taylor had an …(Expresso shot with Sambucca), and I had a Spritz (Prosecco, ….. Taylor’s tasted like licorice candy and mine was like a bubbly sangria. They brought us corn tortilla chips and peanuts to snack on too.

We sat, drank, ate, and talked for about an hour. It was such a wonderful day and view it was hard to head back down when the sky started to look like rain. We walked to the Apartment to hang out while a it rained. We ended up eating left over broccoli and sausage pizza for lunch. After bout 30 minutes of hanging out we walked back to the market with Ann so Allison could buy scarfs from the street market.

Taylor and I quickly headed to the hotel to get our aprons for our evening cooking/olive oil class.
It was a unique and relaxing afternoon. I’m really happy we explored the store and spent time on the roof! I will post about our fascinating olive oil class soon!