A Week in Italy: Day 8

Breakfast in the hotel was hectic. Due to Covid-19, the usual breakfast buffet was turned into a counter service with only one man working the entire room. He understood very little English and was set up at a station that separated the room thereby causing two lines to form on each side. He was bouncing back and forth between platting foods and making cappuccinos - it was clearly a job for two rather than one. I felt bad causing him distress but as a broke college student, I know not to pass up free food.

To begin the day we took a class excursion to the Galleria dell' Accademia - an art museum that was founded in 1784 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. It started as a school for artists and progressively cultivated a rich collection of art - mainly paintings. Today it's known as the home of Michelangelo's David and houses an abundant collection of sculptures, busts, and paintings. Walking through the gallery, you're surrounded by renaissance sculptures of mythological and biblical figures. David steals the attention of all guests with his ginormous size and domineering presence.

Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze

After departing, I wandered around the street markets searching for souvenirs. The overwhelming presence of Italian leather made it extremely hard to decide what was authentic and made with quality materials. Vendors are extremely confrontational, approaching customers and giving elevator pitches left and right. Personally, I find retailers aggressively marketing their product to be a bit offputting so I usually end up walking away from street vendors. Sadly, I walked in looking for souvenirs and left empty-handed because of the overwhelming atmosphere. Streets artists made my day, expressing the creativity that put Florence on the map as an art capital.

I carried on walking towards Pointe Vecchio - a medieval stone arch bridge over the Arno River that once housed butchers, tanners, and farmers but is now occupied with high-end jewelers. Crowds are inevitable, the jewelry is insanely expensive, but the views are gorgeous.

My stomach began eating itself around this time so I naturally gravitated towards the closest panini shop: Il Panino del Chianti. A crowd had formed spilling out of the shop and the Italian language filled the air but I still managed to find the competence to approach the counter and order. For €4,5 I got the most delicious panini with mozzarella, tomato, freshly sliced turkey, and thick pesto. Florence is the capital of paninis. Little did I know Florence would show me the amazing sandwiches I was missing out on.

Il Panino del Chianti

While nibbling on my panini I walked to join my professor Lizzy at the Uffizi - a U-shaped, prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria that holds a priceless collection of Renaissance art. First opened to the public in 1765, the Uffizi has grown to become the most visited art museum in Italy and one of the most well-known in the world. It holds famous paintings such as Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Leonardo da Vinci's The Annunciation, Caravaggio's Medusa, and Raphael's Madonna and the Goldfinch. Currently, the museum is under mass construction so the exterior is partially covered in scaffolding and the interior bottom floor is a maze of chipboards. The museum starts on the top floor and consists of two floors filled with rooms dedicated to individual artists.

The Uffizi Galleries

After logging some steps in the hallowed halls of the Uffizi I returned to my hotel to mentally prepare for my next endeavor - an Italian cooking class. Giglio cooking is a culinary school in Florence that was started by chief Marcella in 2009. She aimed to create an atmosphere free of competition, where everyone's inner talents are brought out in the kitchen. It's named after Marcella's birthplace, Giglio Island.

The twenty of us were split up and given tasks. My group began with making pasta from scratch - a handful of semolina flour, a pinch of salt, and one cracked egg. I'd made pasta before but this was much simpler - kneading a single serving size. We pulled out the pasta machine and cranked out sheets of pasta that were swiftly cut into Tagliatelli. After struggling but successfully making pasta we switched over to cutting tomatoes for the sauce. We worked as a conveyor belt cutting and chopping ingredients and then passing them along to be added to the pot.

For our meat course, we skinned and cooked chicken in a large pan. I grated parmesan cheese for ages going through block after block of cheese until I had a leaning tower of cheese. We even got to make Tiramisu from scratch again working as a team to whip up and build the creamy goodness. I personally folded the fluffy egg whites into the custard.

Eventually, once all the food was plated, aprons were removed, and wine was poured, we got to indulge in our hard work. Starting with the pasta, eating the chicken, and finishing with a large serving of delicious Tiramisu. Team bonding at its finest. It was rewarding mentally and physically.

Gigliocooking

As the night wrapped up we walked back to the hotel through the quiet streets of Florence. I impulsively stopped for gelato - yet again - at the gelateria, I had discovered the previous day - yet again mango and raspberry. I have no regrets, it was truly divine. Basking in the chilly evening breeze and devouring a large cone of gelato during my last night in Italy. The inner peace that Italy brought me was truly amazing. I miss it. A lot.

Step Count: 16,901 steps