With the majority of Florence closed on a Monday, Alison and I signed up for a wine tasting and cooking lesson north of Florence in Rivello. We were picked up by our guide Jessie (from Arizona) along with 6 other Americans and taken to a working olive oil and wine making villa. We had the opportunity to tour the production area before being taken to a tasting room where we sampled 5 different wines from the vineyard. Our tour group was great fun and we were all friends by the 4th glass.
After wine tasting we were taken to a woman's house in the countryside and taught to make pasta dough which we then turned into spinach and ricotta ravioli and fettuccine. While the dough was tasty the finished product rocked my world. Just a little butter and Parmesan was added to the ravioli and our hostess made a fresh tomato and basil sauce to lightly coat the noodles. In addition she also made us stuffed tomatoes, pizza and some sort of fennel and cheese goodness and wrapped up our day with her tiramisu. Lucky for me Alison was full by the time dessert came so I got a second helping. Hello big fat belly!
We arrived back in Florence around 5 and quickly jetted through the inside of the Duomo then went to the train station to buy our morning tickets to Venice. I tried leading us a different way back to the hotel but after an hour of walking (without a map) we ended up right back at the train station. Oops. The upside was that I walked off 1 piece of tiramisu.
Our early evening nap turned into an all night slumber so no last night in Florence gelato for us. Somehow I think gelato will be in the cards again.
After wine tasting we were taken to a woman's house in the countryside and taught to make pasta dough which we then turned into spinach and ricotta ravioli and fettuccine. While the dough was tasty the finished product rocked my world. Just a little butter and Parmesan was added to the ravioli and our hostess made a fresh tomato and basil sauce to lightly coat the noodles. In addition she also made us stuffed tomatoes, pizza and some sort of fennel and cheese goodness and wrapped up our day with her tiramisu. Lucky for me Alison was full by the time dessert came so I got a second helping. Hello big fat belly!
We arrived back in Florence around 5 and quickly jetted through the inside of the Duomo then went to the train station to buy our morning tickets to Venice. I tried leading us a different way back to the hotel but after an hour of walking (without a map) we ended up right back at the train station. Oops. The upside was that I walked off 1 piece of tiramisu.
Our early evening nap turned into an all night slumber so no last night in Florence gelato for us. Somehow I think gelato will be in the cards again.
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