Nov 2 Day 29 Ufizzi and Cooking School

 A warm, sunny day - perfect for a walk from the convent to the Ufizzi and here are some photos from the walk.

This was just so odd that I had to snap a photo.  This older man was walking along the banks of the Arno River where the wet, boggy grass was about a foot tall and he cut a fairly large bunch - like a bouquet - then carried it up the hill to his bicycle and rode off with it.  If I had a creative writing class, I would ask the class to write a story about what he did with the grass.

The Ponte Vecchio is gorgeous, there is just no doubt about it.  It was the only bridge in Florence that the Nazis did not bomb and destroy and it would be nice to think that it was deliberately saved (the books indicate that it was).

This is a view from the Ponte Vecchio itself, near the bust of Cellini (the greatest goldsmith of the Renaissance) and, appropriately, near all the gold and silver jewelry shops.







I became an official "Friend of the Uffizi" and was able to scoot to the front of the line to go into the museum (naturally that's my favorite thing).  It was truly spectacular, as everybody says.  So much art, though, and therefore I was only able to stay about 2 hours before I had major overload.  I went through the Medieval section, then early Renaissance, and about half of the blossoming Renaissance.  It was wonderful to see Botticelli's Allegory of Spring and his Birth of Venus and Leonardo's Annunciation and his Adoration of the Magi.  I will go back for the sculpture wing and look some more at the Renaissance paintings.  On the way out, I walked through the Bronzino exhibit (Agnolo di Cosimo), a great Florentine painter, which contains collections of his work from all over the world.  It is all just too splendid to rush through.

The cooking school started this afternoon and we made a nice meal of crostini coi funghi, tortelli di patate, and zuccotto.

There were only 3 of us in the class (taught in English, thankfully), so we got a lot of hands-on experience.

I will bring home all of the recipes and force some of you to be my guinea pigs and eat the Tuscan food that I cook!


One of the things that I learned was one theory about the derivation of the word "cappuccino."  It is said that the brown foam looks like the cowls worn by Cappuccin Monks.  I don't know if that is true, but it certainly sounds good - and the coffee is the best.