Daughter's trip to Italy - Part 4

Continuing daughter L's trip to Italy, please see my parts 1 to 3 posts earlier.

It so happened that my sister and her husband from California would be arriving in Florence on vacation the day before L was leaving so it was fortuitous that they were able to meet for dinner that night.  My sister had gotten a fantastic restaurant recommendation from a friend and it did not disappoint.  The party of 5 were introduced to this tagliatelli dish that was flambed in a cheese wheel and topped with shaved truffles.  I've never had truffles myself but it is an expensive mushroom.  They had great conversation and it was so great to meetup with family in an exotic location.  Afterward they walked to a delicious gelato bar near their airbnb accommodations.

Stay tuned for part 5, the final post in this series!

Daughter's Trip to Italy - Part 2

This continues Daughter L's trip to Italy from yesterday's post.

L and her girlfriend had reserved an Airbnb 2 bedroom townhouse in central Florence for the week.  They were very happy with it being steps from the Duomo and all the major galleries.  There was also a  fantastic gelato ice cream bar nearby.

The girls downloaded Rick Steve's free audio tours of the galleries and sites they visited and said it added a wealth of information to their experience.  Here is Michelangelo's David at the Accademia Gallery.

David

Here is Botticelli's famous 'Birth of Venus' at the Uffizi Gallery:

Birth of Venus

Stay tuned for Part 3 tomorrow!

My daughter's trip to Italy

Daughter L went on a 2 week vacation to Italy recently with one of her very best girlfriends.  This girlfriend had suggested this trip as a part of her goal to do some of the things on her bucket list now rather than later, with life being so short and unpredictable.  They both are foodies and decided to do a one week cooking course at a resort outside of Bologna in the Tuscan hills.  They would spend their 2nd week in Florence doing sightseeing out of that city.  Both girls carefully planned their holiday in detail and it was a resounding success in large part because of that.  L shared her photos with me and I thought you would enjoy hearing about her experiences over my next few posts (as I did vicariously).

The girls rented a car to get to the cooking school/resort and to get around the small town outside of Bologna that week.  They were very happy with their accommodations which included a large swimming pool and beautiful mountain views.  They were provided with a traditional bolognese dinner at the start of the course:

traditional Bolognese dinner

On the first day of cooking the class of 5 made their own tagliatelli pasta using large rolling pins. Daughter L said the Italian recipes are all very simple. Pasta is made from just flour and egg, two ingredients.

tagliatelli

Here is their tagliatelli with the bolognese meat sauce they also made:

bolognese meat sauce

For dessert they baked a simple custard:

Simple Custard

On the 2nd day, they learned to fold and make these tortolonis:

Tortoloni

Here are the tortolonis with a simple sage/butter sauce:

Sage/butter sauce

They had made a couple of  friends, 2 girls of about the same age from the Netherlands.  They had all spent a day in Medieval Bologna on one of the free days, had dinners together most nights and all too soon it was time for L and her friend to say goodbye and return their rental car and depart for their week in Florence where they would not need a car.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this trip!

Sweet Saturdays - Healthy Snack

Welcome to Diana's Sweet Saturdays. I have a healthy snack for you today!

Don't forget to visit the other participants and better still, join us!



K did very well on his Math exam so we are free for the summer! It's a good feeling. L has been home for 2 months already. She has to finalize her 2nd year course selection within the next few weeks and it's not something she takes lightly.

M just got back from Milan, Italy where he was on a business trip. He had a great time and in fact they were able to take the train to Florence for a day trip. It was raining the day they left on their trip and M said they had 2 hours of rough turbulence once they got into the air. Even the flight attendants had to stay seated the whole time. But then the rest of the journey was incredibly smooth and they gave out free drinks or something like that.