Florence
Florence,
Tuscany,
Italy
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Florence was fantastic. I met up with Gareth and we stayed at a great hostel, ate delicious food, met lots of lovely people, and tired ourselves out from seeing all the beautiful art all over the city. The first day we got there, we met another Australian called Amy, and we walked around for 9 hours, including 414 steep steps at the Duomo bell tower, and another 414 down again! That, along with climbing up the piazzale Michaelangelo (a big hill overlooking the city), caused me to have very sore legs the next day. All that exercise meant I didn't have to feel guilty about eating copious amounts of gelati, pizza and pasta. It turned out that Amy and I have mutual friends. Such a small world.
Galleria dell'Accademia was great. The statue of David was stunning, and we stayed and looked at it for a long time. The other art works all had little stories about what was going on in them, which was quite interesting to read.
Gareth and I did a Tuscan cooking course on the 2nd night. It was four courses and all of it was amazing. We made Zucchini Florentine for the starter, then homemade potato gnocchi and Sugo al Pomodoro sauce, then Farmer's chicken (Pollo alla Contadina), then Tiramisu for dessert. I didn't know gnocchi could taste THAT good. It is definitely worth the effort of making every individual piece. I am definitely going to make all of those things when I get home. It was good to have some nice food and wine - we had been eating cheap food which wasn't exciting...no better than Australian Italian anyway.
The last night we went to a wine and cheese tasting of the Tuscany region. We visited a wine and cheese shop in the heart of Florence. This was the menu:
· a glass of white wine Chandonnay "il borro" accompanied by Caprino Cheese
· a glass of red wine Nipozzano "riserva 2004" accompanied by Pecorino di Fossa cheese
· a glass of red wine Pian di nova "il borro" accompanied by Gorgonzola cheese
· a glass of red wine Brunello "castel giocondo accompanied by Parmigiano cheese
I love doing things like this, it's great fun. I always learn a lot and enjoy the wine and food immensely. It makes it easier to choose a good bottle of wine in that country too. Also, in Italian bars they serve free food to accompany your wine if you come in the evening - it is fantastic! We need this in Sydney. We had unlimited and various kinds of free pasta, salad, dips, breads, olive oil, and all sorts of things. Gareth and I stayed in that charming little wine bar for many hours. It was called Sei Devino.
Comments
Gnocchi
YOu need to cook me all this delicious food when you get back ok!!! I want to go back, I clearly missed out on alot!
Re: Gnocchi
I certainly will :)
freebies
It's a bit hard to work out whether the lack of free food in wine bars in Australia is because the bars are too stingy... or is it because people generally abuse those sorts of freebies in Australia. Unfortunately, it's only when everyone has the freebies that people regard it as the norm and not something to suddenly take advantage of...