The Most AMAZING Cooking Class

We have officially had our single best experience in Italy! Everyone who comes to Florence must take advantage of the cooking class at the Villa Monteoriolo! When we (Tim and Florann were with us!) arrived at the villa, we met Eleonora, our amazing hostess and teacher, who gave us a tour of the entire property. She showed us the inside of the villa, the vineyards, and her family's cellar where she stores her homemade olive oil. After spending some time relaxing by the pool, we made our way into the kitchen. We started the evening by learning how to make pasta noodles from scratch, and we made homemade ravioli with a delicious ricotta cheese and basil filling. These were covered with a tasty tomato sauce. We also made an incredible rub which we used to season pork tenderloin and roasted potatoes. As we were cooking, we had incredible white wine that was made from a local vineyard and pecorino cheese. We ate our freshly cooked food in the large candle-lit dining room in the villa. After dinner, we all went out onto the terrace and enjoyed our homemade peach tiramisu and some amazing dessert wine. It was such a treat! We fully intend to stay in contact with Eleonora, and we are hoping to take another class from her before we leave.

Our friend Kendall came into town for a couple of days, and she treated us to the best dinner we have had here yet! We enjoyed their famous balsamic and blueberry steaks. To die for!!! It is officially our new favorite restaurant! We made friends with the people at the table next to us, and we all went out together after dinner. It was a blast!

The traveling is officially beginning today! We are taking off for Southern Italy, Greece, the French Riviera and Germany. We could not be more excited! We are looking to do some exploring of these new places and then a lot of relaxing on the beach. To end the trip, we are going to visit our friend Mari in Germany. We will be out of touch for a while, but we will definitely have some fun updates when we return.

The Week of Dinner Parties

We had the "week of dinner parties" last week! It was so much fun to really experience the culture of life in Italy! It started with our bosses cooking us a traditional Lebanese meal, which was so fresh and incredible. It was also exciting for us to try something new and different. We know this sounds terrible, but we are in serious need of something other than Italian food (a bean and cheese burrito from Titos sounds unbelievable right about now!). We then returned the favor to our bosses by cooking a gourmet "American" meal for them. Jess made Cheryl's famous meatloaf, and then we put together mashed potatoes and a salad. They were so impressed by this! Towards the end of the week, it was back to pizza, pasta, and bread when a few of our local friends made us an amazing home-cooked Italian meal. It was mouthwatering! We never thought penne with bolognese sauce could taste so good. After dinner, we went straight into an impromptu dance session. So much fun! Our week ended with a seafood feast at a restaurant in Santo Spirito with our friend Carlos. We sat outside under the stars with a violinist playing in the background. It was beautiful!

Chris, Florann and Tim are in town. Allie has spent the last several days with them cruising through Verona, Venice, Rome, Siena, and Florence, of course. It has been quite the adventure, to say the least! They have gotten a nice taste of the Italian train system, and they have made a point of enjoying gelato at every opportunity they get. We have done our best to really show them what Italy is all about! Jess has been such a great sport about working by herself! She has done an incredible job of holding down the fort at the leather store while Allie played tour guide to her family.

Everyone has told us to prepare for extremely warm weather in August, and It seems to be getting hotter by the day! Also, a lot of Italian businesses close for the month of August, and people use this time for vacation and rest. We are expecting a quiet and relaxing month. Luckily, some of our friends will still be around, and we will do our best to keep this town alive. We are also going to use this month to figure out our traveling plans for October. At this point, we have a very extensive list of places in Europe to check out, but we are open to more suggestions. :) Ciao!