"Weekends are Made for FUN"

This weekend was another fun weekend here in the magical land of ITALIA.
On Friday, with my Fashion Marketing class we went to the Ferragamo Shoe Museum.
Yes, there is actually a museum for shoes.  It was fantastic.  I really enjoyed it.  But, why wouldn't I?

The largest shoe I have ever seen 

Shoe chairs 

The shoes that were in the movie "Ever After" 

Learned how the shoes were made: one at a time
and by hand. It was such a long process

After the museum, we had a cooking class with our program.  We first made an eggplant dish that basically looked like an eggplant Big Mac.  It was a layer of eggplant followed by a mixture of potatoes and spices grounded up into a "smashed" potatoes then followed by a piece of cheese and then repeated once more.  It was then baked for about 30 minutes and then it came out into a very delicious antipasta (appetizer in Italian). 

For our main dish, we had spinach ravioli, that we made for scratch, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

It was quite a process.  At the beginning of the cooking lesson, we combined flour and egg to make the dough, I never thought that was all that was added.  We then beat the egg, while combining the flour, until it became a dough-y substance.  Then we used our hands to make it perfect! 

After that, we rolled out the dough into very thin strips.  The rolling part was very difficult at first, but Kat was manning it and eventually got it.  She was pro by the end of it. Lauren and I were responsible for filling the pasta with the spinach, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and spice mixture.  We taste tested it during and clarified that it was going to be a great meal.  After this, the chefs that were assisting us made a sage sauce and boiled our ravioli.  The nicest thing about this meal is we all got huge portions, which is one big thing that has been missing from our Italian meals.  We all got 11 pieces of ravioli.  Thank god.  

The dessert was tiramisu.  Of course I was happy about that.  It still didn't live up to the one I made before this. I am so proud of myself for that. 

Us with our chef assistant

It was a great meal and I think it was one of the best here in Florence. Maybe just because I made it myself.  

On Saturday, the program went to Orvieto.  It is another medieval town about an hour and half away from Florence.  It was not a large town, so there was not much to see, but we did get to see was pretty cool.  First, we went to a park that overlooked the country side.  Then we went down into this well, that was 200 or so steps deep into the ground. It was a long hike to the bottom, but once there you looked up and saw a pretty cool view of the sunlight beaming in at the top.  

Bottom of the well

Looking down from the top 

The view overlooking the country side

After the well, we went down into these caves, that weren't scary at all, but just really interesting.  The caves that followed the first ones used to house pigeons.  There were tiny cubbies in the walls that showed where the pigeons would sleep. 

The day ended well and it was a successful trip to Orvieto.  Of course I had to add my favorite picture from the day... 

Weekend coming soon...

So, my weekend consisted of a lot of day trips.  On Friday, which you already saw a post about, I lied low for the weekend to come. On Saturday, my program went to Assisi, which is the most perfect medieval town.  It was about a 2 and half hour drive, consisting of heavy napping.   It is a town that stands on a hill and basically surrounded by a fortress.  As we traveled throughout the tiny town we were able to see the most beautiful views.  Every turn was a new sight of the country side of Italy.  The rolling green hills were unbelievable.  I am pretty sad that my pictures don't do it any justice.   Another aspect of the beautiful town is how religious it is.  The town is a very catholic town and our walking tour was all churches and tombs of  religious figures.  We went to St. Francis, which was a gorgeous church that stood on a hill and beyond it was the countryside.

ANOTHER great thing about Assisi was the food and treats I had while I was there.  I was starving so I had a huge slice of pizza and a stuffed pizza.  Then I wanted gelato, so of course I had it.  But it doesn't stop there.  I had candy as well.  I need chewy, sweet candy, which I really miss from home.  I miss Sour Patch Kids and gummy bears.  I at least found gummy bears at the candy shop.  Let's just say, I am so glad we do a lot of walking in Italy.
On Sunday, we went to Siena and San Gimingnano.   Two more cute medieval towns.   We first went to Siena and were able to see the churches, Duomo, and the most famous piazza of the town.  One of the most interesting things about Siena is that it is segregated by "wards" or "neighborhoods."  That means that there were plaques that distinguished when a neighborhood ended and began.  The plaques symbolized the "ward" that it belonged to.  A lot of the "wards" got along while others didn't.  It was weird to think that certain people weren't allowed to live in an apartment because they weren't part of a "ward."  Also, neighbors could possibly be enemies, or at least our walking tour guide said.

 

 

The most famous piazza of Siena is Piazza del Campo.  It is where the horse races take place that occur every July and August. The replace the whole outside of the piazza with dirt for the horses to run on and the center becomes a places for all the spectators to watch.  Around the outside of the piazza, in the homes and on the balconies, people can watch the race as well.  I really wish I could have be there for the horse race, it would be amazing to see.  And of course I got gelato while I was in Siena.

After Siena, we went to San Gimingnano.  It was the picturesque town with the countryside leading up to the town, which was on the top of a hill. It was a very cute and small town and I wish it wouldn't have been raining so I could have enjoyed it more.   It started to rain hard when we got there, so at the end of our tour we were drenched.  In the town they were having Carnivale, so it was so much fun.  There was confetti covering the ground of the whole town and when we finally got to the center of the town, to the carnivale, we saw floats and clowns singing and dancing.  As we walked into the Carnivale, there were two clowns that threw confetti straight into my face and right into my mouth.  It made me choke and it was not enjoyable for about 2 seconds.  Despite that, it was so much fun.  We all threw confetti at each other and danced through the center of the city.  At the end, it was covered in rain and confetti and couldn't be happier.  Carnivale goes on in many cities in Italy throughout the next weeks, so after my experience in San Gimingnano, I want to go to another one.

 

Well, the weekend is coming up soon, so hopefully I will more great stories of the places I went.... because this weekend I am going to the Ferragamo Shoe Museum with my class, cooking class, and Orvieto with my program.  Great, huh?