May 19th Day 9 Florence:
Kristina’s FitBit Information: 11.59 Miles walked
& 27,632 Steps
“On our fifth day in Florence,” said Victoria. “We
went to Apicius International School of Hospitality (http://www.apicius.it/). I was so excited I love to cook in my normal
life but to take a class in Italy was like a dream come true.”
Melinda said that “walking to Apicius, the local
cooking school in Florence was a straight shot down the road our hotel was on.
We walked in and got started right away with our aprons that the school gave
us. We all took spots at random stations. We had no idea what to expect.”
Our class was held in their beautiful Beginner
Kitchen. Two groups prepared the homemade pasta, another made zucchini flan,
one group made tomato sauce, and two more made panna cotta for desert. We were
pretty impressed with how delicious everything turned out and how relatively
easy the recipes were. Our chef instructor was there to guide us through
everything. He was patient and made sure that all of our dishes were executed
to perfection.
Beth was in the group in charge of making the past.
She said that in order to make the dough, you need to “first [form] a little
mound with the durum wheat flour [which will create] a crater in the
When it comes to Kristina, she said that she “very
rarely cook[s] so [she] was a little nervous!” She was also in the spaghetti
group and said it was “harder than she expected. But everything came out
delicious!”
Once everyone else was finished making their part of
the meal, we all sat down and got to enjoy what we just created! The pasta had
an amazing texture, perfectly chewy yet soft, with a light tomato and basil
sauce coating each strand of pasta. The zucchini flan was chilled, cheesy, and
delicious, and the panna cotta was sweet and smooth, yet perfectly flavored and
tart from the berry sauce on the top of it.
Taylor M. “had a great time learning to
cook in Italy, it was an opportunity of a lifetime and [she] will never forget
it!”
Victoria sums everything up by saying that “the
class was a great experience and made [her] feel like [she] could cook anything
from scratch.”
Later that afternoon, we met near the Ponte Vecchio
for a tour of the hotels in the Lungarno Collection.
“With
Leonardo Ferragamo as President, the luxury hotels Lungarno
Collection is inspired by the
hospitality and the grand style that his family is known for. Traditionally
Italian, yet beautifully
international - just like its founder, Salvatore Ferragamo.”
-www.lungarnocollection.com, 2015.
These hotels were absolutely fabulous! Each one had
its own distinct features. We got to tour a few rooms at Hotel Lungarno, all
beautiful and luxurious, complete with living rooms spaces, modern furniture,
oak and marble touches, Jacuzzi tubs and high thread count sheets. One of the
associates explained to us that the check in process for this hotel takes forty
minutes with each guest; they ask them a list of forty-two questions in order
to gain a better understanding of the guest’s needs to properly accommodate
them throughout their stay. They can even put personalized pictures in the
frames in the hotel rooms so that the guest feels more at home during their
stay.
We visited two other hotels in the collection, the
Gallery Hotel Art and the Continentale. The Gallery Hotel Art was very modern
yet luxurious in its décor. The outside of the hotel was covered in decorative
spoons, representing the Universal Milano Expo about international food and
nutrition happening this year. The Continentale was also very modern and luxurious,
even the elevator had a long couch with comfy pillows in it! This hotel also
customizes the guests or client’s stay (just like Ferragamo customized his
client’s shoes) and does so by asking specific personalized questions in a
pre-arrival questionnaire. The Continentale had a lot to offer its guests:
lounge and meeting spaces, but also incredible service standards and dedication
to the people staying there.
Magen thought that “The Lungarno Collection hotels
were the most beautiful things [she] had ever seen; [she] could even compare it
to Michelangelo’s work if [she] really wanted to.” Magen goes on to say that
the “first hotel tour of the collection was my favorite, and naturally the most
expensive of them all. We toured the Portrait Firenze and I made a promise to
myself that if I ever won the Mega Millions I would without a doubt buy one of
those hotel rooms and live in Florence every summer… (I have big dreams
people.) From the individualized
service, to the views of the Ponte Vecchio from the rooms, to the signature
scents from Salvatore Ferragamo (!!!), I was blown away by the Lungarno
Collection to say the least.”
“These hotels were amazing,” Morgan said. “Each
hotel was designed to fit a different personality or taste than the previous.
Although they were all different, they each had a few similarities. One being
iPads in the elevators. This allowed for guests to not only choose their own
elevator music but they could also take pictures. Our tour guide said that when
the hotel has guests, they want the guests to feel like they are a part of the
Lungarno family. So they use the iPads as a ‘picture frame’ to capture self-portraits
of all of their family members.”
Upon our return to the Hotel Arizona we were offered
wine & snacks which was graciously provided to us by the hotel for the
inconvenience of having to switch rooms during our stay. We all gathered to
reminisce about the day and plan the evening.
After watching our last sunset on the
Piazza de Michelangelo, Beth “had fabulous cream and truffle ravioli for dinner
before going back to our hotel to rest for our last day in Florence.”
“Unfortunately, later that night,” Jennie said. “A
group of us broke down and went out for wings and beer. At some point everyone
begins to miss something from their own culture. Sadly, for us that was wings
and beer. However, it taught us a lesson about respecting foreign cultures in
our own home and what it’s like to miss the comfort food you know so well.”
