Today we had a different chef because luca is on a holiday with his family (three days off, what most Americans would call a long weekend). Our new chef's name is Tomas. Today we focused on pasta. However, mother made a slight mistake. She told the old chef that she was a vegetarian but she ate some fish. This opened Pandora's box in mother's eyes. Today as a surprise Tomas brought sea bass, calms the size of an open palm, and little octopus. My mother doesn't do too well with this kind of stuff especially when Tomas is cutting the head off the octopuses telling her to eat it! However, once everything was cooked it was amazing and mother even ate it.

We made several kinds of pasta, a few kinda of ravioli, stringy pasta, gnocchi, and lasanga. Did you know that no where in Italy do they put ricotta cheese in lasanga? Instead they use a gravy like sauce! I will include some pictures with some details of the food.

After lunch mom and I came back to the room and thankfully we didn't have a tour this afternoon. We decided to take a short nap which is extremely dangerous!

We woke up four hours later.

Today mother and I had our first cooking class. Our chef, luca, couldn't have been nicer. We focused on breads today and we learned so many new tricks. Don't worry I took notes so I can make it again. For lunch we are the breads that we made. It was very good but the good just kept coming and coming! I swear I am going to burst from the seams!

After mom and I had about fifteen minutes before we went on our excursion. Our guide, Claudio, was amazing! He took us to so many places and was constantly cracking jokes. He took us to several small towns, a couple medival towns, and some amazing little shops. I will tell more details with the pictures below.

I have started to admire the people here. They are so intuned with the land and with life. With our food for example, luca and Claudio talked about how it is better to take time and feel how the ingredients are responding. Food is apart of the land and becomes apart of you so you need to take all the time you can to make it perfect.

Today we took a train to Florence which was utterly lovely. On the way there we saw a wall that was built 600 years before Christ!!!  Then we got picked up and taken to our new hotel where we will be attending our cooking school.  It is interesting so far.  We having really been told anything about where or when we were suppose to meet anyone and people's English is a little rougher here than in Rome.  They added another wine tasting tour on to the agenda and I think we will skip it.  I don't mind learning about how it is done and the history but two tours is one too many.  Telling people here that we done drink is new.  The idea is so weird to them and even though we turned away the wine with dinner they brought us a free dessert drink so I guess the message didnt carry threw translation.  I had the most amazing meals today!  When was the last time you took an hour for breakfast and just sat and read a book while you munched on homemade sausages?  Dinner was even better!  I had a three course (practically four) meal which various styles of bruschetta, home grown tomatoes, lamb chops, and tiramisu (sorry my spelling is awful).  I am soooo full it is wonderful.  So far I think I will favor Florence over Rome.  The pace of life is slower so it is easier to stop and enjoy each and every moment  I am most definitely going to get fat here :)

Oh and sorry about all the door and window pictures. Everything here is just so beautiful and unique that is seems a shame not to preserve it all in my memory.

I am sorry i didn't write anything yesterday but once I got to the room after everything I was so tired it was all I could do to take a shower and go to bed. But I want to tell you about Rome. I have see only the smallest part of it but all I can say is that this city is truly amazing. The old and new have just seemed to be squished in together living side by side. The people as very nice, loud, and beautiful.

Our hotel is very close to things and is up a very large hill. Our room is average in our averaged des but very large in theirs. However the largest part of the room is the terrace. Which is utterly stunning. I enjoyed people watching there for a while. After I fought with version for a while over phone issues mom and I went on a walk. Over about a five mile walk (there not back) we saw the Spanish steps, the trevi fountian, the pantheon, the ruins of an ancient castle included with a moat, and several other ancient building that I have no idea what they are! I found myself wanting to know everything about this place. About its people, culture, history, and all it buildings. There is something truly beautiful and special about beginig surrounded by history. The past is so enlightening for the future. It is almost like you can feel the life and society that was here thousands of years ago.

As for food I had my first Italian gelato with was amazing and totally over priced. We have had one meal here which was good but I am expecting it to get better. I haven't been pinched yet but I have been called at (mainly by old men) and offered free wifi. On the way back to the hotel we decided to walk instead of taking a shuttle and Ofcourse we got lost. We made it back to the hotel just before it was pitch black out side and mother had a nervous breakdown! As for now mother is out running and I am about to grab some breakfast. We are going to train to our cooking school this afternoon. And so another adventure begins.

I just read my last post again and I wanted to apologize. I actually can write coherently I am just typing on my mother's iPad and I am a little low on sleep. I meant to apologize for the inconvenience of switching blogs and I hope that this blog with work. I am about to board now so the next you hear from me I will be in Rome :)