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!

Paint Party Friday - Peeking Through

For Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday I did a piece on cardstock (4 1/2 x 6 1/2") using acrylic paint and permanent markers. It's a 'Peeking Through' piece using a photo I took as a reference.

Fall begins at 4.02 pm EST did you know?  In what is becoming a fall tradition, I swap out my summer artificial flowers with my fall ones, about 5 pieces.

Three Ducks

My sister who lives in Florida says these 3 ducks stayed under the back of her minivan during the hurricane. She thought that was so smart and funny. Her power was restored about a week after the hurricane.

Scribble Picnic - Watch Out!

Welcome to Michael's Scribble Picnic! This week's theme is 'Watch Out!' I thought of doing a 'Duck Crossing', my piece is done in acrylic on red cardstock (6" x 6").

A healthy snack

I was inspired to have a healthy snack the other day. I remembered I had a tub of plain Greek yogurt in the fridge and an old bag of dried cranberries so I came up with this :

Plain Greek yogurt with honey, salted pistachios and dried cranberries infused with pomegranate juice. The yogurt was silky smooth. The nuts and cranberries added a wonderful texture.  The honey contributed added sweetness as did the cranberries.

I should have this more often.  It is quite filling and that's a bonus.  Do you like Greek yogurt?

Fair Trade Soap

I have been buying this Alaffia fair trade 'Good Soap' with shea butter and coconut oil from Whole Foods. It seems to last twice as long as the commercial soaps. It also supports fair trade.