Buona giornata!
Whew! Last week was a whirlwind of activities and excursions (along with a few adventures), topped off by returning to our home-away-from home: Pulicaro. We were all very happy to come back to the familiarity of the farm. One of the main things that everyone realized while away from Pulicaro is how fortunate we are to stay with Marco and Chiara on their land and to share in a small slice of their life for these three weeks. After being away and tasting many different kinds of cibo (“chee-bo” — food) and an incredibly large variety of gelati (gelato flavors), we can confidently say that here at the farm we eat the best food, enjoy the best gelato, and have the most amazing hosts we could ask for. Noi siamo fortunati (we are lucky!)! And now we know it even better than before.
Below you will find some snapshots of our most recent avventure (adventures) in Firenze (Florence) where we first split into groups to explore the city.
After walking the streets of Firenze, we joined Marcella, the owner and lead teacher at Giglio Cooking School, who taught us how to make fresh pasta with tomato sauce, chicken stuffed with spinach, parmesan and pine nuts, as well as chocolate cake with peach sauce in her professional kitchen. Afterward we enjoyed the fruits of our labor for dinner before driving back to our last night at Spannocchia.
The following day we headed from Spannocchia back to Pulicaro through the most beautiful rolling Tuscan hills, but with a twist: the students had to get us home themselves with clues and tasks to complete along the way! The premise of this day was built off of the Amazing Race show on TV, but with revised rules to fit our situation. Here is our version of the rules: for one day until dinner there are two vans and two groups; instructors drive while students decide on the route within a relatively large area specified on a map; if they say to go the wrong way, instructors will drive in the wrong direction. If and when the students solve a clue correctly and arrive in the right location, then the next clue will be revealed.
The groups received their first clue: Hitting the road is up to you, this piece of paper is your first clue! Find something at Spannocchia yellow and new. (Hint: outside). The students had to go find the newly hatched chicks in order to move on to the next clue, which led to a fun day of working together and learning more about our surroundings.
The Amazing Race Italy 2016 – Clues and Photo Captions
From there, the two groups — Blue Crew and Sweet Corn — had to decipher different clues that took them to various locations including Bagni Vignoni, a tiny town that has a gorgeous ancient Roman bath in the center, Bagni San Filippo with hot springs and an amazing calcium carbonate “waterfall,” and to top it all off we ended the race at Radicòfani, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that hosts an ancient castle overlooking a vast portion of southern Tuscany. We are still waiting to collect all of the photo caption shots, but for now you can see some of the places we visited below.
With our final days upon us, we have begun to feel the bittersweet emotions that come with the excitement of returning home and the sadness of our time together coming to a close. However, our schedule is still packed! We are looking forward to a class taught by Iside de Cesare, a Michelin-starred chef and friend of Marco and Chiara who owns La Parolina restaurant near Pulicaro, a visit to Civita di Bagnoreggio, a tiny town perched on a small outcrop of tufa stone, which you can only reach by walking across a foot-bridge, followed by an afternoon swimming in the Lago di Bolsena, the fourth-largest lake in Italy. The last two days the students will work together to plan, prepare, and serve their Cena Finale (Final Feast) to all of our friends we have made along the way.
A presto!
Farm-to-Table Italy 2016