Pizza and Gelato Cooking Class

Duomo*Orsanmichele*Piazza della Republica*Ruccelai Palazzo*Cooking Class

7 miles of walking

Today we made the short 2 hour drive to Florence.  We easily found parking and our apartment is on a quiet pedestrian only street about 400 meter from the famous Duomo.  The apartment is the biggest yet with 2 kitchens because it is actually two apartments combined together.  Eric and I practically have our own suite - yeah!  Each time we've arrived somewhere new there's some orienting that takes place 1) is there toilet paper? 2) laundry and dishwashing soap 3) locate towels, drying rack, and other necessities 4) head to the nearest grocery store for food.  Today we didn't get to the grocery store until later so the kids had oranges, gelato, and left over foccacia for lunch.  However, dinner more than made up for our strange lunch.

We wandered the streets of Florence and ended up at the fun San Lorenzo market where the kids enjoyed looking at trinkets, soccer jerseys, purses, wallets, ties, etc.  I think everyone except Emma bought something.

The highlight of our day was the Pizza and Gelato cooking class we had tonight.  The teachers were fun to listen too and had tons of personality.  We were in a group of 20 with only 1 other child, Charlie, especially, got a lot of attention which sometimes embarrassed him.  I even learned a few things - pizza dough does not contain salt (yeast, water, flour), add the oil at the end to keep moist.  The pizza sauce is only tomato sauce, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  You can sprinkle the oregano on at the end.  If using fresh Mozzarella add just seconds before taking out of the oven.  He also taught us how to make homemade gelato without a gelato machine, it can be done but takes a long time.  I think I'm better off investing in a gelato machine if I want to add that to my list of cooking items.  The kids really liked our class tonight and are all pumped to start cooking homemade pizzas when we get home.

Ruccelai Palazzo