Tuscan cooking class!

So the last few days my parents were in Florence we didn't do a whole lot except just enjoying all being together.  My parents went to the Uffizzi and afterwards we headed to the Christmas market to do some more shopping (and eat another cinnamon twirl!).  We then went shopping for one of my Christmas gifts: a purse!  It was a cute little store with a man that had to be close to 100 and after I picked out the one I wanted he asked us to type in the cost in the credit card machine because he couldn't see the numbers.  It was crazy and I hope that no one has ever taken advantage of this!  He was so cute though and my mom had a pretty decent conversation with him only in Italian so we both felt like we accomplished something!

After the shopping we went to an enoteca for a champagne tasting in the cellar and then to meet Kate, Jess and Giada for dinner at a restaurant called Fagioli.  I found out later that the family name was Fagioli and the restaurant didn't specialize in bean dishes - that disappointed me more than it probably should have.  The dinner though was delicious - I had a beef stew with roasted potatoes, and we also had lots and lots of wine!  It was a great night and I'm glad my parents had the chance to meet the girls.

The sunset my mom and I caught on our way back to their hotel

The next day was gorgeous and we were pretty beat so we decided to just walk around, grab some breakfast from The Diner, and do some more shopping.  My mom was able to find an awesome leather purse that matches her equally awesome leather jacket so she was all set on the souvenir front.  That night we went to a Tuscan cooking class!  Yes, very touristy and my dad had to be convinced that it would be fun, but my mom and I were very excited.  We had to meet the group in a semi crowded piazza and then the woman in charge of taking us to the class took out her dreaded giant paddle basically signifying "HI WE ARE TOURISTS" and herded us like cattle for 15 minutes to our destination.  I wanted to die mainly because I feel like now I'm basically a resident and I knew exactly where we were and where we were going so I would have just rather met at the place instead of being paraded around.  My (least) favorite part of that walk is when we were going over a bridge overlooking the Ponte Vecchio and the woman says "Now this is the Ponte Vecchio, it's very famous" and gives a little description and I actually hear the two women in front of me  say "Oh what is that bridge again?" as if they've never heard of it.  I mean it's the Ponte Vecchio, probably just behind the Duomo on "Things to see in Florence".  Oh well, the walk was finally over and we were ready to start our class!

In the class there were 12 people and you needed to split up into 3 groups of 4.  Thank goodness a girl from Japan had come on her own and could be in our group, otherwise we would have had to split up.  There were 2 teachers and we had a young guy who was taking care of 2 groups, which made it very hard to follow his instructions sometimes.  Basically he would tell us what to do with a small demonstration, but it was all very fast paced and all of my cooking knowledge went out of the window under the pressure!  My dad actually thrived especially in his onion chopping skills - he only had one mishap when we were folding egg whites for the tiramisu and he posed for a picture and started stirring the mixture.  You can't do that with egg whites, but obviously he didn't know and he was just trying to do an action shot for the camera so we got a good laugh out of that.  Our meal consisted of a broccoli souffle (which I absolutely LOVED and couldn't believe it since I didn't think I liked broccoli), homemade gnocchi with a fresh tomato and basil sauce, fresh chicken glazed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red peppers and red onions, and then the tiramisu.  The food was fantastic and we cannot wait to recreate those dishes at home.  I don't have pictures because they are on my mom's camera, but I will post them once I get them!

The next day was my parents last full day in Italy.  We woke up and headed down to Rome where we would spend the night.  My dad was feeling really under the weather so it was going to be another relaxing day.  We went to lunch at a place we had gone a couples times before that has the absolute best bufala mozzarella pizza I have ever had.  Afterwards we just went shopping for boots (for me) and then went to St. Peter's Basilica because my dad hadn't been in there since he was 17.  We then watched a bit of the sunset over St. Peter's and headed back near our hotel for dinner.  It was a fabulous dinner and I had zuppa fagioli, carbonara, and chocolate cake.  We headed to bed early because we were going to go to the airport early for their flight.  It was a sad goodbye, but it's easier writing this so much later than when they came because I know I'm going to see everyone in a week!

outside of St. Peter's