My Studies in Florence!

Since the main reason I am in Florence is for my classes I thought I should dedicate a post about my classes, which are fabulous!

My first class is Wine Service and Beverage Management. What a wonderful way to start my week. My first class I walked in and the first thing my professor did was go to the cellar and get some wine. He is a middle-aged Italian man who spent a few years in Australia, so his English is pretty good. Sometimes he even talks so fast that I can't understand him. The one thing I can't get over is his crazy curly hair that bounces like springs on his head. The class mostly focuses on serving wine, but each class we try 2-3 wines. So far we have focused on how to properly open and serve a bottle of wine table side and the role of a Sommelier at restaurants. We have tried a lot of red wines from Tuscany. So far my favorite was the Chianti Classico we tried.

Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Beginning Italian. Thankfully Laura is in this class with me or I would never make it. Our professor is very nice and patient with us, but I pronounce everything wrong. I keep trying but everything is mixed up. The "a" is ah. The "e" is pronounced A. "I" is E. Even if I get it right on paper, I can't say it right. I tend to butcher everything with English or French pronunciation. It's nice to have the French background so that I understand how to learn a language and because some words are similar. I guess I speak some kind of FrenchItalianEnglish mess. However, I'm glad that I'm in Italian because it's helping me around Florence. I always greet Italians with a Bonjourno or Ciao, but beyond that I'm pretty clueless. I can now successfully order gelato or go to the market alone and get by with the little Italian I know. I can tell that Italians appreciate when I try, no matter how bad I am.

Food, Culture, and Society in Italy is my next class. I really, really like this class. My professor is a crazy young Canadian woman who moved to Italy when she was 11 with her family. She is very passionate about Italy, cooking, and wine. Her stories are always very entertaining and she is quick to give us tips on where to go in Italy. Our first class we learned how to make spinach and ricotta crepes with an alfredo-like sauce. They were absolutely fantastic and I have remade the crepes with nutella and fruit at home. The next class we made Coccole and Cecina Al Rosmarino. Coccole was a dough that we made and then fried and covered with sugar, similar to funnel cake. Cecina Al Rosmarino was a bread covered in olive oil and rosemary that we baked into a crouton like snack. Today was my favorite day. We went on a walking tour of Florence with our professor and she showed us some of her favorite places. First up was wine tasting at a local wine shop, La Divina Enoteca, that only sells wine from small farms in Tuscany. The sommelier was so cute trying to teach us everything he could about wine in less than 30 minutes. Next up we headed to a very popular gelato shop, Grom, that serves the freshest gelato. I found out that the shops that have all the great colored and heaping mounds of gelato are not the best because when the gelato is exposed to air for so long is starts to go bad. This place had all of the gelato covered and it is made fresh daily. It was extra creamy and good, but they're all good to me! Lastly, we headed to Panini Tartufati for tiny truffle sandwiches. They were fantastic. I am beginning to like mushrooms, but I have never tried truffles and they were so good. The difference between the two is that truffles are grown underground and can only be found using pigs or dogs to find them. This also makes them more expensive. It was quite a day exploring Florence!

Wednesdays I have Everything Chocolate: From Therapy to Pleasure. I can't think of a better class. Unfortunately I missed the first class because I switched into this class last minute. Last week I walked into class to find that we were doing a chocolate and wine pairing class. Perfect.

My professor makes his own chocolate and has a shop in Florence. He is a typical crazy passionate Italian man and reminds me of Duff. Duff Goldman is a pastry chef on the Food Network and is on Ace of Cakes. In class we tried three wines, five chocolate truffles, and chips of white, milk, and dark chocolate. Wine #1was Brunello Di Montalcino 2005. It was my favorite and very full of flavor. It went really well with the bitter dark chocolate and the cinnamon truffle. Wine #2 was a 2007 Bran Caia Il Blu mixed Cabarnett and Merlot. It was sweeter and very smooth. This paired well with the coffee and mandarin truffle, as well as with the creamy dark chocolate truffle. Wine #3 was Moscato Passito. Moscato is usually one of my favorite wines because it is so sweet, and this one did not disappoint. However, since it was already so sweet I didn't particularly enjoy this with any of the chocolates. Most of the class seemed to enjoy this with the violet and lemon truffle and with the milk chocolate chips. This class will most likely be my favorite since I have a huge sweet tooth. Tomorrow our class is going on a walking tour with "Duff", which I'm sure will be amazing!

Lastly, I have Sustainable Tourism. I had high expectations for this class since I am very interested in tourism and have started learning more about sustainability. My first tourism class at Missouri State was in the recreation department and we focused so much on where to go, what to do, and personal experience. It was so interesting and made me even more excited to take this class. So far most of the class has been on the history of tourism and definitions, but it's starting to pick up. We just got assigned a project about creating a plan for a sustainable visit to Florence and what tourists should do. Most of the research for this involves personally exploring Florence, so I am all for that!