Leaning Tower of Piza

Homeward Bound

Today we caught a 7 am bus to the Pizza airport. Since we had time we took a taxi to spend 3 minutes to see the Leaning Tower of Pizza. Not the dream duty free shopping at the airport but it was small and felt safe.

The 9 and 1/2 hour flight from Pizza to JFK was made all the more undelightful by the noisy Italian children who were either running through the aisles, talking or crying. No sleep was to be found on our end of the plane. JFK was nice to arrive at although the line through customs was long. We ate at Chili's again and then waited for our much delayed flight. We did not arrive back into SLC until about 1:30 or 2 am. A long day. We were happy to see Hanna and Max and to get home.

Florence

Winne, Kelsea, Carolyn, Zach, Katie, Sharele, Sherrie,

Chelsea, ...

Florence - First Painting of the Renaisance

Florance with our Guide

Florence w/ our Guide, Uffici, The David etc.

Today we met our guide on the Pontevechio (the main bridge in Florence) this bridge has been around since roman times being a part of the route from Pizza to Rome. The bridge now has jewelery shops crossing its span. We then walked to an old chapel on the poorer side of town where the first painting of the rennaisance is. It was a grand experience to start our day seeing this great change in art and hearing about the people and their lives at the time it was painted. We also noted the exhistance of many small paintings on buildings of the Madonna which gave hope to he poor people of the day.

We next went to see the David and some works by Michelangelo and hear stories of this life and the times he lived in. Then it was on to the Uffici to see the highlights of this great museum. Our guide was great; I would recommend him again any day his knowledge of Florence and art were matched well with his english.

Later we set out to find a much talked about restaruant that was near the end of the Ponteveccho underneath an arch. It was very small but was our best restaurant of the trip.

Florence - Our Cooking Class Day

We walked to our meeting point -- near the bridges to the older side of Florence and were picked up by a white van at 9:30. We were dropped off at a 1200 century palace with a newly rennovated kitchen. Stephan a delightful young chef with adequate english was our cook for the day. We were in a group of five people; three other Americans whom two were friends. Darrin and I made up the rest of the five.

We spent most of the day here cooking with Stephan. We made several dishes together and then sat down to eat them. We made a local version of foccacia bread, spinach ravioli, a wonderul roasted peppers toping for crostini, a lovely pork roast made with milk and herbs served with spinach, vegitable rissoto, roasted potatoes and a non cooked chocolate dessert that looked somewhat like salami. We did not arrive back to our hotel until 4pm. I was a lovely day with great food and company. We had Stephan give us his recommendations on where to eat.

Florence

Another great day of wandering about and discovering great things in Florence. We visited the Baptistry by the Duomo. This building is SO old and really quite amazing. We went to the Boboli Gardens which were somewhat of a let down; they were very dry and not nearly as beautiful as those in England or France. We found the top recommended place for gelato and then later visited Chef Stephan's friends restaurant which was great. Winnie and Maryam now accomanied by her husband (Slaymon sp?) joined us and enjoyed their meal. We went to dinner a Al Capone (it has a small sign above the door with two bones on it) impossible to find unless you have been told about it. Lauren from my baking class who did a semester at the Culinary Institute of Florence (Apicus) told me about it. Very small but good food - I would not put it at the top of my culinary visit to Florence though. Dining in Italy seems to always be a long drawn out event. We were alway's ready for our bill before it was offered.

Train to Florence

We took the train to Florence today. It was a nice trip although the usual rush of getting 22 people and their luggage on the train and into the assigned seating. A very pleasant ride though. Our hotel was not too far from the train station; right by the Medici Chapel down town. Florence is SO old. The streets are all narrow and made out of old square/rectangle cut stone (much larger than cobble stone!)

Our hotel was a great example of OLD Florence. This hotel was highly suggested by Rick Steves and they had three of his family's Christmas cards posted by the front desk. Our room was thin and long with three twin beds in it; it also had air conditioning which all rooms did not have -- I am grateful for this. The first night we had our window open and could not believe the noise outside and how early or perhaps late and early it went on.

We visited the Medici Chapel our first day; beautiful. We walked about the street markets near our hotel and of course had gelato -- a daily or more correctly multiple time daily activity. The Duomo was also very near our hotel. It was great staying down town to get a feel for the city. We walked by many beautiful sights this day.