Our Best of the Best!Our Rick Steves Tour, the "Best of Venice, Florence and Rome (2012)," was packed with more “ooh ahh” and “wow” moments than a New Year’s fireworks display in Beijing! This being said, if we were to choose one unexpected part of the tour that we've continued to talk about since returning home, it would be the time we had with our newly formed “gang of six” (Bill, Don, Denise, Valerie, Nancy and Lucy) preparing our own Italian feast at “In Tavola”, a cooking school in the heart of historic Florence. Six strangers, having just met in Venice for the first time in a room with knives and hot flame, how could this not be an adventure?
Imagine spending the morning working up an appetite while traipsing about the city's tiny artisan workshops responsible for the restoration of many of Italy’s many treasures only to find yourself crossing the Ponte Vecchio and landing in front of an Italian cooking school nestled around the corner from the Pitti Palace. No need to negotiate a foreign menu or practice our newly acquired Italian with a strange waiter this time my friend, we were told that we were to be responsible for preparing our mid-day sustenance under the tutelage of one of In Tavola’s master teachers! This site is devoted to that singular experience and its menu consisting of a “selection of typical products and ancient recipes to represent the customs and secrets of the a thousand-year cooking tradition”. So, enjoy our walk through the menu and the recipes we found as accessible as we found enjoyable. And remember, as we came to find out while on tour…….“Non tutte le ciambelle riescono col buco” or to paraphrase “Things don’t always turn out as expected!”. |
La Trattoria Italiana
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