Day 7 - Last cooking class, DAVID, Pizza and Cannoli (what’s not to love)?

Final day – met at Cucina LdM again for the final cooking class of homemade pasta with awesome pesto, green beans and potatoes, eggplant Parmesan and chocolate Florentine cake.  We had a different chef which was very interesting to see their differences in method and suggestions.

    

  

Then it was off to a few more museums including DAVID!

     

  

We had the opportunity to connect with another Appalachian study abroad group studying design in Italy and briefly and then headed to the Central Market for a final meal of wood fired pizza and Cannoli!

  

  

Huge thank you to everyone at ASU and LdM who made this course possible and took the time to find a wide range of activities for us to better understand the food and energy infrastructure in Florence.  Also a personal shout out to this fantastic group of students with whom we were able to share these experiences!  The bus picks us up at 4am tomorrow morning!! Back to the US.

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Day 6 - Florence Museums and Farewell Dinner

Today was our least scheduled day. Students had a Firenze museum pass which gives them access to 33 museums throughout Florence.  We also had priority access to Ufizi Museum, Florences largest collection of art from the period of the Italian Renaissance at 10:15 this morning and so everyone was able to skip the line and be immersed in these amazing works of art from Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci, and other familiar masters.

     

Since this is a physics course, the Galileo Museum was also a HUGE favorite (especially for the geek physics faculty leading this experience).  So incredible to see a telescope from Galileo himself and other examples of original science instrumentation.

   

Saturday ended with some group time to reflect and tell stories about this experience together in an LdM classroom.  This student group grew very close through this week and it was interesting to hear about this experience from 15 different perspectives.

Finally, LdM hosted the group to a delicious 3-hour Italian meal at a Florence restaurant with several courses.  We are leaving Florence knowing new Italian friends from our fantastic Florence advisor, Chiara Sordi and many others.

     Tiramisu!

One more cooking class tomorrow…

Day 5 - Hydro Power and an Organic Farm

There were significantly less calories consumed today!

This morning started with a lecture from an LdM architecture professor, Marco Sorito, on renewable energy in Italy.  From there we walked to the train station which allowed us to get a better glimpse of putblic transport in Italy and we boarded a private bus to the Bilancino Lake dam and hydro electric power plant.  We learned how this dam was first built in 1966 as a resivoir to prevent flooding in Florence.  Much later it was converted into a hydro electric power station to generate income to further the work of this resivoir.  We were able to visit both the dam am intake as well as the turbine house and learn about Frances hydro turbines.

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We returned to Florence and took a brief break and then joined another LdM faculty, Martina Delle Chiaie on the public bus system to a small organic CSA farm, Semele.  There Giovanni Petrini explained his method for returning farming to the traditional methods and relying on strategies that worked for most of our human existence to grow simple, helthy food.  We picked delicious cherries and had a tasting at the farm of fresh greens, onions and baby zucchini with (of course) olive oil and vinegar.  We appreciate the simple, healthy food!

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Tomorrow is mainly a free day to tour the Florence Museums.

Day 4 - Florence's Sustainable food ... at its finest!

Today was all about an immersion in Florence food and learning about their philosophy regarding food which goes to the root of food sustainability -
* No waste
* Seasonal, local Sourcing
* Creating long-term relationships - between producers and restaurant owners and guests, these relationships often lasting for generations!

We started with a cooking class at The Cooking School Cucina of Lorenzo De' Medici in Florence's Central Market.  The menu consisted of Zucchini Flowers filled with Cheese & Zucchini Cream, Pici hand rolled pasta with Finto Ragu' and a soft Florentine cake.  Giulio Capotondo, the director of the culinary school at LdM was our culinary instructor.  It was an amazing experience!

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This was followed by a tour and "tasting" of food in the Central Market with explanations of the sourcing and preparation of many of the foods.  When Italians say "tasting", they actually mean "eating"!  Everything was delicious, from the cheeses and Italian meats to the Biscotti dipped in .  wine!

                           

   



After an afternoon break, the food education and "tasting" continued with a tour of 3 restaurants.  First a Trattoria (Esercizi Storici Fiorentini) which has been in this family for 4 generations.  The grandfather determines what the menu will be each day, they head to the market to get the ingrediencts and cook, only serving lunch.  We enjoyed La Ribollita (twice boiled soup), which uses their day-old bread to provide the creaminess in this vegetable soup, ravioli, veal and beef. Let's just say we were already full after this meal but this was only stop #1...

   

Next, we headed to the streets of Florence for traditional street food of Florences' famous Lampredotto (4th stomach of the cow) and trippa (cow stomach lining).  Kudos to the students for their adventurous nature in sampling these food.  Most agreed the Lampredotto was good!  This is part of their sustainable treatment of food - no part of the animal is wasted!

   

Last, we headed back to the market and had some of the most amazing Naples-wood fired pizza we have ever had!  As with most of the food, it was all based on very simple ingredients and was amazing! 
   


We rolled out of the market and are ready to shift gears a bit tomorrow as we study renewable energy and visit an organic farm.