Countdown is beyond weeks, now days, and even hours!

Well well, well.  What do I say.  I say that I am preparing for finals......check!  I say that I am preparing to finish all my studying and presentations and say goodbye to all my professors......check!  I say that I am preparing all my belongings for packing and empty-ing my cupboards for my last meals here.....check!

In 48 hours this entire experience will be over, or at the least the part where I live in Italy, will be over.  I will be on a jet plane heading over the ocean to return to my family and friends and share all of it with them and teach them everything I have learned.

I have done a few final walks through the city and tried to take in as much of the culture and my surroundings as possible.  I sat in the piazza and ate gelato, people watched and relished in just the idea of doing nothing.  Sitting, watching and being present within this large experience, hell this large world that surrounds me!

This experience has forever changed who I am as a person.  I am so grateful for this experience and all that it has taught me.  I have gained more than just the ability to dive into a culture, speak the language, love the food, experience all Italy has to offer, but also I have made the promise to come back to this place.  Bring family and friends here and show them where they need to go, what they need to see, what will change their lives forever.

This great adventure has definitely brought to me many things...most importantly my writing has returned.  Sitting down each day and keeping track of my thoughts has forced my writing to come out of hiding.

I cannot wait to cook, show all my photographs, wear all my cute Italian clothes, find some Italians in the states to practice my Italian with, and more so go back to my time zone!

Tomorrow is my last official day in this city and the forecast is for sunshine!  I am hoping to get out and get a few last minute shots and enjoy the city.  I hope to post soon, if not once I am on the other side and in the states!

Ciao ragazzi!

I got family waiting back at home!!! but first we must eat Turkey!!!

Happy Thanksgiving all, even though it is already Monday, I finally have recooped from my cooking, cleaning, hosting, preparing and eating all the turkey one could possibly eat to send you all a little hello from Firenze.

This holiday season I was lucky enough to be living in the apartment that hosted theee biggest Thanksgiving party I had ever attended.  Back in the states it's simple, small and I barley am interested in the turkey by the time it is ready because I have snacked the whole day waiting on the bird, well this year we set all time brand new record.

Thanksgiving started with classes and an early morning run to the central market to pick up the turkey from our friendly fellow Carlo at the market.  I brought the turkey to a nearby friends apartment to keep it cool while we finished classes for the day.  I had an Italian exam at 9am so I was pressed for time and exhausted already.  After the market, italian exam and classes I was cut loose for the day to head home and begin the prep for our 6pm guest arrivals.  We sludged all afternoon to prepare the stuffing with all it's italian fixings to hurry and get the bird inside the oven.  We hosted about 20-25 people in our small italian apartment.  We were blessed with many bottles of wine, went through 12 in the first hour and a half, many of our guests pitched in and brought a dish so that we could focus on fixings and the bird items.  One of our professors covered our dining room table with a "cheese and cracker" display that would blow your socks off, italian style of course.  Literally this woman is obsessed with cheese, she raises goats just to eat the cheese.

We invited all of our professors and all who work in student services, even the receptionist attended from the school.  Many of the Italians, for most of them, this was their first or second thanksgiving.  We did the formal "giving thanks" and made a video of it all and what everyone said, it was quite memorable and we all felt really lucky to be involved in such a great program with such great people, we all really lucked out with the students, faculty and the timing of it all, and all our instructors and peers reminded us of this great opportunity and how lucky they felt to get to work with us.  I hope to post the video but it was amazing regardless.

Amongst the gravy mixing, turkey happenings and all the other desserts from the great Italians I barely had time to eat, but it was a great night and a thanksgiving to remember for sure.

One of my nutrition Professors, she made and assembled the "crackers and cheese" display.  if you look up close there are like ten types of cheeses and every vegetable in season and many other accompany-ments, she kept trying to give us money to help for the meal and we insisted no and this is what we got, loads of appetizers!!!  Everyone loved it

this was where all the food looked like.  The list:  2 7-8 kg turkeys, mashed potatoes, zucchini and cheese, carrots, green beans, fresh applesauce, cranberry sauce, stuffing, by yours truly, bread and olive oil, of course, small italian pizza's, sweet potatoes, gravy

after all this food we still had room for dessert and vin santo!! Oh so delish

One of our housing coordinators!  Her first thankgiving, she loved everything, every time I saw her in the kitchen, all she could say was "mamma mia!!!"

Serena, she works in the library but also helps in Student Services!  Crazy kids in the background!

We got Friday and Saturday off for a break and then the prep began again for festivities for Sunday.  My roommate has family that live nearby in Bologna so they wanted to come and have a typical thanksgiving with us as well, so we prepped all again from top to bottom and enjoyed another great meal.  Except this time I was actually able to relax.  I didnt' take part in the cooking so much and was able to fill my plate and relax and enjoy the turkey, stuffing, applesauce and all the others.  It was worth the effort and again another enjoyable meal here in Italy!

Just another week in a vineyard!

So my adventures this past week have brought me closer to my return to the states but also so much closer to the answer of all this nutritional studying about the Mediterranean Diet.....olive harvest.  This week we worked in San Polo in the region of Chianti.  Pruneti Olive Oil, two brothers loaded with 15,000 olive trees, vineyards filled with grapes and saffron.  It was an amazing experience and I enjoyed it as much if not more than picking grapes.

The work day was short, much shorter than back in September because of daylight and preference of weather. We picked at 7:30 in the morning until about 12:30 lunch time.  The process was all done by hand, small rake and involved climbing.  It was a very cathartic work, I enjoyed the calmness and the stillness.  With the grapes, there were good ones and bad ones, in olive harvest they are all picked and typically they are all acceptable.  We also got to work in the pressing factory that the brothers run this time of the year.  The pressing mill runs 24hours a day for approximately 50 days and they sleep in shifts and take their olives and their clients olives very seriously.  The machines are very expensive and they settle for no one else using or handling the equipment.

We got to interact with many of the Pruneti's clients that came in and pressed their olives.  Once the olives are picked they have to be pressed immediately for best quality to ensure low acidity, to ensure Extra Virgin.  We saw the lime green liquid flowing at all hours of the day and we also of course got to taste many of the mixes and pure oils that the brothers have.

I was very impressed with such a large scale operation and how knowledgable they were.  No one could have a similar experience, I enjoyed it very much.

Below are a few photos of my adventure, Chianti I have taken for granted, plainly because I have visited it numerous times and the landscape views are the norm for me now, but let me remind you as I am standing in these olive trees picking olives, with messy hair, and big yellow gloves, smelling the freshness of all the olive trees surrounding me, outside of those branches is a landscape and a beauty like no other.  Really I was spoiled but I mean it is Italy.

Assisi, Oh how I love thee!

Unreal, photogenic, a complete postcard, it is everything you think a postcard would be if you were to walk inside of it!  A small town on a hill, in the distance of the Italian countryside, a beautiful tiny little mecca.  

A view from in between the trees on the streets on top of the hill.  We were above the clouds and haze, it was an amazing site.  Glad it turned out to be a sunny day!

A view after we walked all the way down back to the train station, an hour later, we turned around to see how far we had come and this was our view from the bottom of the hill.  

Of course a girl's gotta eat.  My new favorite dish, Spaghetti al Carbonara, not as good as Rome, but decent. 

Good old St. Francis resting place and me being a tourist!

Today's feat is the Florentine Soccer game, we know how well they play and all but hey we are trying to be a true Florentine and at least cheer them on and wear our purple!

Updates and photos soon to follow!

Sorry I have been a busy traveler!!!

So update, update!  Over my past weekend I traveled finally, to Cinque Terre.  Words cannot do it justice, it was unreal.  Cinque Terre is located in northern Italy along the coast.  It is five small towns strewn about along the coast that closely resembles what I think looked like Hawaii.  Complete mountains and hiking paths to each town and a small train that ran from one end to the other.  It was so worth the energy it took to travel there and the views were amazing.  Cinque Terre is known for it's pesto!  and when I mean pesto, I mean pesto!  Michael, my faithful traveling friend, and I dined at a cute restaurant in the third town.  I had the spaghetti and pesto and he had a dish typical of the town, what looked like a large flat pancake or crepe, sliced into squares and cooked like a pasta, and pesto on top of course.  Literally my lips and tongue were green it was intense flavor and so delicious.  Saying that Cinque is located in the northern part of Italy you would assume it was cold, but not at all.  I left Florence with a hoody, under armor zip up, long sleeve t-shirt and a tank top, scarf and gloves, it was chilly at 7am.  Once we arrived in Pisa to switch trains, it was even colder and we thought we were in for a miserable day of cold along the water in Cinque Terre.  Little did we know that the climate there is completely tropical.  There was cactus growing, lemon and lime trees bigger than my head!  Seriously.  It was like a microwave of heat and I loved it.  It was a very calming and meditative place, one could sit for hours and listen to the ocean, it was really really beautiful to see.

Throughout this week we are off from classes, of course, what good italian student has class everyday?  not the agriculture kids, we are doing all workshops this week, unfortunately our last week of workshops :( so we are traveling all around Florence visiting organic (biological farms) their livestock, their means of sustainability, their agriculture, and of course they feed us too.  It really is the life.

In the middle of my busy week, we had holiday Monday because of All Saints Day and Tuesday we visited a sustainable internet company here in Florence.  The best part of the day was....drum roll please...... the OPERA!  The show was absolutely everything I thought it would be and so much more.  It was a sold out show and lasted the typical 3-4hours.  The length of it killed me, but I barely noticed because I was so involved in the atmosphere of the show, it was awesome.  The show I saw was Le Nozza di Figaro.  It was all in Italian and it was the typical sounding opera music that I love.  It was nothing compared to the woman in the piazza that belts out her opera singing mid-day but it was something to definitely see.  I am so glad that I did.

Otherwise I am busy finishing up the week with workshops and planning my few weekends that are left before I leave this beautiful place.  I wish I could stay, I wish I could live my life here.  Tomorrow I made plans to travel to Assisi, supposed to be the most religious place in Italy, even more so than Rome, I will believe it when I see it.  I will take lots of photos and post them all.  Hope you all are enjoying the posts!

This past weekend I visited Bologna with a side of Bolognese!

Sunday, last day of my fall vacation and I decided to travel just outside of Firenze to nearby Bologna.  My intentions were to take the 6 euro train two hours to a city just 30 or so minutes from the city where I live.  Well to my dismay the computer systems were jacked and I was unable to find my time and ticket, so I settled for a 24 euro fast train with screaming babies, but at least I had a guaranteed seat.

Anyways to my arrival at 9:30 am I sat in the station and waited for my travel companion, Courtney to soon arrive at 11!  It was chilly so I wandered a bit around the area and then found a warm side of the station to sit on to keep away from the wind.  Once she arrived we decided we must walk towards their duomo, church, and find the shopping and food.

Bologna I had not heard good things about, it is dark, gothic, architecture is totally different from Florence. Their "leaning tower" wasn't much of a leaning tower but more of something that looked as if it were about to fall at any moment.

Why I was not impressed with the scenery, we decided to get lost a little bit and wander outside of the normal areas of Bologna.  While chatting we managed to get pretty lost and figured well if we have anything it's appetites so let's find our way back close to the duomo and then eat our time away until our train comes to take us home.

We order the traditional foods we were instructed that were best in Bologna.  Food wise, I was very impressed, so impressed that we splurged and even got dessert.  It was amazing.  We sat at a cafe outside and had our late lunch surrounded by huge torches of fire to keep us warm, it was ideal.

We shopped and shopped a little more, I bought nothing, thank you very much.  My shopping strike has officially started with my nightmares of having to give away my entire new wardrobe because it will not fit into my luggage.

This week we are in classes and then we have a long weekend for the holiday off Monday for All Saints Day.  I believe daylight savings for here is Saturday night of Halloween, but we shall see.  I am planning on traveling somewhere this weekend, but not sure where.  There is a couple of options, I will keep you posted!

This was Courtney's dish, it was large tortellini, called something but I forget.  It was filled with pumpkin and pancetta with a balsamic vinaigrette reduction sauce!  It was unreal!  Heavenly!

Bon Appetito!

This is the Duomo from the outside!!!

I climbed the Duomo

Yes I know I live here, and I can see the duomo from my apartment window, and even pass it everyday on my jaunt to class, and I know I haven't taken full advantage of the beautiful historical city I live in, but yesterday I decided to do just that.

I set out early in the morning to avoid the tourists and the lines of people waiting to get in. I paid my 8 euros and started my hike up the narrow, stone, claustraphobic walls of the stairways to the top.  There are 463 steps and it is advised if you have asthma or any chronic heart problems to not attempt the climb.  They have a half way mark but no place to rest, just an open area where one could lean and pant and catch their breath, but still there are over 200 stairs to go when you get to that point.  So you push forward and climb on, and on, and on, and on, until! you reach the top.




So the uncomfortable part of the climb is that some of the "going up" and "going down" pathways cross and the tiny steps you are climbing are soon filled with traffic going in the opposite direction, and you not only cannot catch your breathe because you of course have just dined on your "traditional italian breakfast, cappucino and cornetto" but you want to get this climb over with because there are so many tourists, and you are living here, so you can do this anytime, and why are there so many damn americans doing this?  Anyways to my point......

Is that the view is sooo completely worth it once you make it to the top!

But you have to remember.....you have to climb down afterwards!

Did you know.....

Did you know... you can get any type of coffee, or cafe rather, in a vending machine on the streets of Florence!  How ever you like it, one size with whichever type of brew and espresso!

Did you know... you can get a hot or cold dish of risotto or pasta pomodoro from a vending machine on the streets?

When in Rome....hello yeah guess what I was there!!!!

me at the trevi fountain!!!

spanish steps

i took no risks and did all three coins!

this is my favorite fountain in rome, it was also in the movie Angels & Demons, it was so large and beautiful all lit up.

the vatican at night, slightly blurry but still gives a glimpse of how insane it looked!

I took this after they announced no pictures.  great shot at least!

you cannot go to rome and not have some of the Roman pizza! girl's gotta eat!

another addition, the potato pizza, yes you guessed it, boiled potatoes seasoned with rosemary and put on a pizza, carb on carb, come on now, who wouldn't eat this?

me excited at the Vatican, hoping for a front row seat to see the pope!!

this is the view from the top of the college our friend took us to, it was on the roof top, it was above the whole city!

oh you know just another place in Rome!

the cat sanctuary.  there were sooo many!

this was the gelato from a great place, I ate so much food but there is always room for gelato.  Limone of course.  I just assume gelato is like water, fruit and ice, no calories there right?

Vatican by day

So, where oh where do I begin.  Rome was absolutely magnificent.  I was blown away by the experience, the views, the sights, monuments, architecture, the entire city was enormous and more than I expected.  

Initially I was warned about the gypsies and the pick-pocketing that was around every corner.  Well hello, I do live in Florence I do know a thing or two about gypsies and I was not at all hindered by the people in this community.  It felt very familiar in this city, much like New York or a city in Connecticut, it was surreal.  Everywhere you turned there was another monument or church that you had seen in your history book or in a movie.  It was amazing, in case I haven't yet said that.  So we reach out destination of Rome in the late afternoon, close to 5pm ish.  Right away we want to start seeing some sights because we only have a few days in this beautiful city.  We take the metro to the Spanish Steps and immediately next to the steps is Furla, ahh I am home.  Shopping with Furla and Gucci and Prada and the Spanish Steps it doesn't get any better than that!  We climbed to the top and took many pictures.  There were hundreds of people resting on these steps, you can tell they were weary from their days adventures.  We decided to try and make our way to the Trevi Fountain nearby and catch a snack before we searched for someplace for dinner.  We followed the tourists hoards and the big sunflowers on a stick that led each of the groups all the way to the fountain and were surprised by the enormity of the fountain.  Michael, my traveling partner in crime, found a small Roman pizza place close to the fountain, was enjoying a slice paid by the weight of enormous basil leaves, mozzarella and big chunks of whole tomato on top of it, while I took chance to guarantee my return to Rome.

The story is if you toss one coin in, you are to return to Rome someday, two coins you will return and find the person you will marry, three coins backwards, you will return, marry, and live in Rome forever! So I took no chances, and backwards tossed my three coins in!!!  We shall see wont we!

Safety and security, in all the tour books they do warn you of pick-pocketing and gypsies begging for money often.  Well yes this is true but I feel like the danger lies within the tourists.  Many of the tourists all travel the same route to each of the sites.  First spanish steps, next trevi fountain....etc, etc, etc.  so the pick-pockets know where to go, where these large groups of people reside and mingle.  It was easy to avoid the crowds at times and others it was hard, but using common sense and like I do in Florence, carry your purse in front or backpack, know where your money is, look ahead, don't cause interest to any of the locals and know where you are going, don't look around all lackadaisical and be like "oh wow, this is pretty!" Oops there goes your wallet.  So I didn't find Rome to be any worse than Florence, I felt it to be pretty equal.  Use your brain.

Next we decided to make our way across the city because it was getting late to try and find our hotel.  I was getting more and more nervous that it was getting dark and we would never find it.  I just wanted it to be clean and comfortable because already we had walked quite a bit.  We stopped by a popular touristy piazza I had read about, Piazza Navona? sp? not sure.  It was filled with tourists and lights and entertainment and fountains galore.  It was filled with restaurants with people of course telling all the american tourists that "this is the right spot," "you don't know what you are missing"  It was like being around a bunch of car salesman.  Next, we made our way to this magical bridge all lit up and across the bridge was the most magnificent sight, the Vatican.  AWWWWWW, cue angels singing.  Hahah it was so incredible.  Especially at night with all the lights and the view, it was right out of a movie.  Both Michael and I had to pinch ourselves because it didn't feel real.  We both felt like it was a replica of the real thing in like NYC or something, there is no way that the two of us could be here right now, at the Vatican, seeing this?  It was hard to believe.

We explored a bit and asked many times for directions and many times we were sent in multiple directions.  Soon we reached a man with a gps, most people in Italy own these, but mind you they still get lost.  There are too many streets in Italy nevermind one city for satellite to update them all into a gps. So we come to the address of our hotel.  One door is label communist room and the other is a gated community with passcodes.  I immediately tell Michael I am not staying in a communist dorm, we will turn around and find the train and head back to florence.  So we call our guy and he instantly shows up at the gated community.  Thank god! He shows us to our room, very car salesman like, and I am comfortable and pleased with the result.  It is clean, there is soap and towels.  No bed bugs.  We head out for a usual late dinner after settling in for a bit and try and find a place to fill our stomachs.

The traditional foods we heard about in Rome were the "roman pizza," paid by the weight and cut however long you would like, they are baked in sheets, and often with many many toppings, and the pasta a la carbonara.  We dined on the carbonara.  It was so delicious.  I loved it.  We return to our place of rest and pass out with excitement for the day tomorrow, even though it took us a bit to get to our destination we are pleased and happy that this trip is turning out so well.

Friday we wake to make a mad dash to the shop around the corner for the free breakfast, Italian breakfast mind you, a croissant and a cafe and are on our way to the daunting line of the Vatican tour.  We arrive at 8:30 with 1-200 people deep.  We finally reach the doors at 9:15, not so bad, I would have waited days to see the inside.  We are searched and scanned and led in one by one.  Swiss guards are everywhere and there are many american tourists I am surprised by the lack of Italian I hear.  We get some audio guides and head on our tour.  I, and neither is Michael, am not the artsy type but we are the slight history buffs.  So we cruise through the statues and articles from the Etruscans, Egyptians and many more.  My attraction of fever is the Sistine Chapel, everytime I see a sign my heart races.  At the end of the tour is the chapel.  All in all we spend like an hour or hour and a half in the Vatican alone, more of it in the chapel, listening to the audio and viewing all the magnificent fresco's.  Unreal.  No pictures are allowed in this room, but silly me ignored that quickly and snapped a photo.  Oops.

Next we made our way through St. Peters, which also was amazing to see.  We hurried off to meet up with a friend for lunch and picked up our jaws off the floor from all the sights and history we had just been next to.  We are meeting a friend of Michaels who is studying to become a priest.  I know I know, in Rome of all places, well yes.  This man, kid, whichever, he was 25, and a brillant person at that.  He was so educated and kind and open to all my 8000 questions about everything.  As we walked our way to his college where he studied we must have passed a dozen or so other priests or those he knew and they all kindly waved and said their hello's and continued on their way.  It was such a welcoming and nice experience to walk through Rome with someone like him.  He knew every church, what everythign was, the history behind it, it was daunting.  I loved meeting him and felt it made for such a more educational experience especially in Rome.  We took a tour with him through his college and saw all the photos of past priests and bishops, etc.  It was a beatiful place.  He then later took us to lunch, a little restaurant called "Abruzzi," named after a little part of Italy where my family is from.  Of course we dined and stuffed ourselves, and of course it was with the carbonara, they are known for it here.  We rolled ourselves down the streets to gelato, one can never eat too much, and then rolled ourselves another twenty or 15 miles or so around the city checking out all the sights.

One of my favorite sights was the cat sanctuary.  This by far was the weirdest concept.  It is were Caesar was assassinated in Rome.  It is in ruins now and surrounded below to keep the cats in.  They take care, spay and neuter and feed the cats.  They are lounge around in these ruins.  There were so many, I lost count at like 30.  It was definitely a sight to see in the middle of this city.  Definitely a must see.  Colosseum, more ruins and a few more churches.  It was an amazing day.  Lastly we decided to humor the female on board and attempt to perk her up with some shopping, at this point the priest in training left and had to return for evening mass.  Michael and I shopped a bit in a few specialty food shops and then decided that even at 7pm we could not fathom eating another thing.  So we returned to the hotel and decided to rest until dinner and then would head back out at 8 or 9ish, Italians eat late.

Well 10 pm rolls around and both of us are passed out cold.  Like don't move one muscle, land on the bed and fall asleep just like that.  I get into my pj's and Michael is passed out in his clothes.  Needless to say it was a long day with many sights and our full stomachs put us to sleep.

Morning comes and we pack up shop for Florence.  We are meeting up with our friend for breakfast before we head out.  One last croissant and cafe.  We walk along the streets to find so many early morning weekend markets.  So many fresh, huge, not so life like, vegetables and fruits.  They have slaps of beef and pork bolted to these boards clamped between these braces and are shaving off the prosciutto right there in front of us.  If only my chefs were here.  This was a sight to see.  My central market in Florence has nothing on this market and this is only a neighborhood one, this isn't their main market?  It was unreal.  So many vendors, so few tourists in these outskirts, it was great.  I took many photos and we hurried on our way to meet for cafe and cornettos before our train departed Rome.

We relaxed a bit and said our goodbyes to only hop on the train and be back in Florence in just over an hour.  It seems so unreal that there are so many places near Florence, or in Italy in general that you can travel to in such a short time and have such a different experience.  I would love to go back to Rome any day.  It was such a wonderful place.

Here are some of the 100's of pictures that I took during my few days stay.  I hope you enjoy them, nothing compares to the real thing.

A Biodynamic Farm: Poggio Antico

This farm was quite the site.  They have lived as a community with around 20-30 people all on this one farm.  They are goats, cows and many other animals.  They are self sustaining and have all their needs met by the farm.  It was a definite experience here at this farm, I was blown away by the perspectives the local farmers had here at this farm.  Their idea of living sustainably was to understand that there is more to life than just us, our bodies, our existence.  They were a bit earthy crunchy in a good way but beyond a scope that as even hard for me to comprehend.  The people living on this community, many since 1979 and others since 1983, have all their belongings combined.  They combine their money, necessities and work and labor.  It was an amazing site to see it all in action.  They use everything they can on their farm, nothing is waste!

This was the end of our week of workshops.  Now comes the fun part.  I have four mid-term exams Monday and Tuesday and then I am off to Rome.  I have packed my bags and am ready to bolt.  We have the remainder of this week of as well as all of next week so there may be some interesting adventures.  I am sad to report though after break soon to follow is November.  What November brings is only another month here is this beautiful city.  Too crazy, and too fast!  

I will keep you posted on Rome and all the adventures afterwards!  Lots of lucky charms to bring home!

The workshops have concluded on a savory & sweet note

Okay so where to begin.... So let's recap. 

Monday: Truffle digging with bella and furla

Tuesday: toured pretty much everything sustainable, eco-friendly, biodynamic traditional area in florence.  Lots of informational sessions and presentations.  A tad dry for my foodie liking.

Wednesday: Cheese Day!

This day we were at Palace Ruccelai and we got to taste over 20 different types of cheeses.  Our professors is a lover of all things goat so first on the list of cheese's of course was a little goat cheese.  These here are my personal favorite.  If anyone out there in this world of internet who knows me, knows that i do not eat cheese outright, picking up a piece of cheese and eating it creeps me out.  But dum-dum-da-dum dum, ladies and gentlemen I have stepped out of the box and grabbed me some cheese. Thank you, thank you very much.  And to top it off I even have two favorites!  But please no standing ovation and don't you dare go out and buy me any cheese.  

So in class we got a little background on her goats of course, and then a little bit about the cheese making process.  We were already equipped with the prior knowledge of making ricotta so much of the class was spent tasting.  Fruit and crackers were even provided for in between fresh, aged and aging cheese tastings.  We tasted italian gorgonzola, french roquefort 1070, english cheddars, italian parmesan of course, dutch gouda, french camembert and so many goats and other salted cheeses.  Many smoked and covered in hay, it was quite the site.

Now moving on to our big and final day, Thursday: This day was the end all be all of being an agriculture student.  I know I said before that I think they feed us ag kids more than any other, well if I didn't think that before I sure as heck do now.  So we trekked into the hills of Tuscany early in the morning to only find ourselves at the top of a mountain where this lovely couple and their family resided there to help us prepare a sustainable meal.  We are a bit obsessed with sustainability in case you haven't gotten that.  So the husband, was a celebrity chef but of course left the field to stay at home and share his skill with his family and those traveling abroad; the wife, she teaches middle school and they have two children.  The kitchen is huge, filled with canisters of flours and wheats, millions of jars in their spice cabinet; there is so much you can tell about a cook by looking at their spice cabinet, uhh I love it, it's like a candy store to me.  So the group of us 12 are divided up amongst the tasks for the meals.  The menu is so delicious it would make your mouth water.  

Appetizer: Roasted eggplant, roasted red and yellow peppers, and tomato and basil crostini's

Primo: Spinach and Ricotta filled ravioli with sage and butter.  These were twice the size of a deck of cards uhh delicious.  We eat these often in our house here in italy except we put pesto on them!  so goood.

Secondo: Red sauce from scratch with homemade gnocchi

Contorni: Roasted pork loin with roasted onions 

Dolce: Tiramisu!

Espresso of course, but pass for me, although i am slowly entertaining the idea of sharing a cup of cappucino one of these mornings

gnocchi, all made by hand

The table we ate at outside, this was so italy it was like gushing!  It was sunny, there were kittens running around, we were sharing in great conversation and eating more than we could chew.  It was the perfect day for a perfect meal.  Afterwards we all piled on a bench and absorbed the sunshine and felt warm and full.

the large and in charge ravioli

the pork

The dolce, I was in charge of this,  I am a master at this now!  We used Amaretto this time, Marsala the last, but oh boy did I have one too many servings!

This was one of the kitties that sat next to us on the bench at the table.  So adorable.  I was trying not to cheat on my kitty.  This one liked gnocchi and tomatoes, it was totally italian.

After this meal we made our way to the biodynamic farm.  This is a another story that I will tell you about soon.  Let's just say the whole sustainabilty and cycle of all life as we know it, was demonstrated at this farm.  I will upload some pic's and fill you in on the conclusion to our last day of workshops....for now at least!