Scuola en Firenze

Pasticcerieas. Pastry shops... these are truly wonderful places. Everything at the supermarket is sold by weight, from breads and pastries to fruits and vegetables. In some of the pasticcerias, each pastry has it's own price per kilo, in others the whole counter will just have one price. I just can't get over this. On the way back for lunch Monday morning, I picked up a loaf of toscana bread for about two (American) dollars. The shop owner was aflutter with all she had to do and yelling in Italian to help things along; there was an older man in there chatting away while waiting for his lunch; it was just so typically Italian. I love it.

Classes began on Monday. First on the list: Tuscany and It’s Wines. It is odd, to me, that this class begins at nine in the morning, but this is Italy. The teacher for this class seems really great. In this class, I will learn the proper technique and descriptions for wine tasting as well as the names of the best wines Tuscany has to offer. As an introduction, he asked everyone to say what a glass of wine means to them. None of us really seemed to know quite what to say, but for him, a glass of wine seems to be everything that represents Italia: culture, history, tradition, connecting the past to the future. It was a nice, romantic description of a glass of wine, but I wonder how much weight that really holds.

Second, Chocolate Artistry. I don't know that I can even begin to describe this class. I had thought that it would just be decorating and designing with chocolate and not so much about the taste... Oh no. By "Chocolate artistry," the instructor meant the art of making and tasting chocolate. Best. Class. Ever. My professor has won just about every award in the books for his chocolates, including best chocolate bar in the world two years ago. He makes the chocolate himself, right here in Florence. The class basically consisted of a general explanation of how chocolate is made, followed by a chocolate tasting. We had seven different types of chocolate. The first one I thought, "It's good, but I could live without it." The second was even better. The third one though, had finely ground espresso beans, and I don't know that I could've died happy without ever tasting this. I exaggerate, of course... but not by much. At one point in the middle of these chocolates (I think just after the first dark chocolate), I was so happy I think I could have cried. No exaggeration. Then, with the next chocolate, I thought, "This one is so good, I don't even like the last one anymore." My professor's webiste: http://andreabianchini.net/
Nota bene: if you’re having a chocolate tasting, or chocolate binge or just going through lots of chocolate bars at once, the proper thing to do is begin with the lightest chocolate and work your way towards the darker ones but save the ones with chili peppers for last.

We climbed to the top of the duomo on Tuesday. The weather was wonderful, and we’d been waiting for a sunny day to do this. A lot of guidebooks said that the better (and free) view of the city is the one from the Piazzale Michelangelo, which we've already seen and will see again and again (since it's free). So we seriously thought about not spending the 8 euros each to climb the 460 steps. Well, those guidebooks lied. It is so worth it and a much better view. Of course, the dome isn't exactly in view, but it is an amazing sight nonetheless. The steps are rather scary going up, and it's a good thing I don't have claustrophobia or acrophobia or anything because the way up is tight and dizzying and the drop off from the top looks rather steep. Once past the scary stairwells, though: amazing is really about all I can say. All the rooftops below are burnt red and the walls are mostly a sunflower yellow or creamy mocha color. You can see the other churches nearby. There are villas surrounded with olive groves on the nearby hills, and off in the distance, barely visible, are snow-covered mountains. Simply amazing.

Today consisted of Traditional Italian Foods and Traditional Italian Breads. The syllabi for these classes look wonderful: gnocchi, pesto sauce, focaccia, pane toscana, fresh pasta, basically everything that comes to mind when you think of Italian food. Yum!
(For those who are wondering, I am taking really good notes in the bread class, and I will pass them along as soon as they are typed out. I’m wondering if some ingredients will be very easy to find in the New Albany/Tupelo/Jackson area, and has anyone noticed if our flour says anything about its w# or p/l# ??)

Tomorrow is Food, Culture and Society in Italy. Then, for the rest of the week, there is a chocolate festival. http://www.fieradelcioccolato.it/ (This site is mostly in Italian, and neither Katie or I are yet up to the task of translating.... but there are a few pictures:) )

Ciao.