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 |
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 |
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