Villa Arrival and First Day of Classes

We took one last look around Florencebefore we left for Villa Lucia. In the square in front of the Duomo, I wittnessed the cities flag throwers. The were there because the shoe company Ascis had just sponsored a big race. The Flag throweres were twirling the flags and throwing the flags to each other to the beat of drums. The flag throwers were also wearing costumes. After the performance ended we went to a nearby gelato shop. I ordered lemon geleto. After we finished, we walked back to our hotel, grabbed our suitcased, and walked to the train station where the head of the villa piced us up and drove us to the Villa. We waited for 45 minutes for the car to pickus up. The car was not late, we were just very early. Once the car arrived, we left the city of Florence. Getting out of city was a bumpy experience due to the cobblestone roads. The car ride took us through the Tuscan Hills of Italy. We were in the car for an hour before we arrived at the Villa. This is my second time at this Villa. I lucky enough to come to this Villa when I was in 4th grade as well. However, the first time, I did not take the cooking classes. The Villa is rather large and contains three buildings. Two of which are four stories tall and originally built in the 15th century. The third has only a few rooms and a very large kitchen where the classes are held. The villa also has 3 pools, a hot tub, a large field with two junior sized soccer goals, a large garden and a tennis court. The first day the chef perpared lunch and dinner for us.

When we woke up the second day, breakfast was a very simple fruit ad pastries. Right after breakfast was our first cooking lesson. For lunch, we made Fritto Misto which is a deep fried appetizer. We made squid, zucchini blossom, and rockfish Fritto Misto. For the first course, we had a red wine risotto with asparagus. Which is a rice made with parmesan cheese. It was delicious. For the main course, we made rabbit wrapped with pancetta. Rabbit tastes like chicken only sweater and tenderer. For dessert, we made sabayon. Sabayon is egg yolks and sugar whipped together to make a sweat cream with the consistency of whipped cream. It is usually served at room temperature over fruit. As you can see, we made and ate a lot of food. Every meal we make is a 4 course meal. After lunch, My grandma and I went and played tennis for an hour. Serving is a lot harder than it seems. Then, we went back to hour room and I did a night of math home work until dinner. For dinner we had another lesson and prepared another 4 course meal. For and appetizer we prepared fennel salad. For the first course we made chicken ravioli from scratch. To make ravioli, first you have to mix the flour, egg, and olive oil with your hands. Once that is done, you roll it slightly flat with a rolling pin. then you feed it through a pasta maker which is just 2 rollers that get gradually closer together. You feed it through enough times to make the dough thin enough for ravioli, then you put a spoonful of filling on the dough. Our filling was a chicken and spinach filling. Then I placed another piece of dough over the top and sealed it. Once it is sealed, you cut out the ravioli and cook it. The ravioli was very good as well. For our main course, we had neapolitan cod. Finally, for the dessert, we had Pana Cotta. We started dinner at 9:30 and did not finish until 11:30. Then we came back to our room and i wrote this blog post. Now I am going to bed. Enjoy the pictures.