It was AMAZING.
There were 8 people on the tour; the 4 of us, an ex-pat couple living in Berlin who were in Florence for a conference and a mother son pair from Cleveland Ohio. It was a fantastic group of tour mates. In advance I let the guide know about Ally’s eating preferences and mine. Our guide Toni, who owns the tour company was fantastic.
We made about 7 stops for tastes and tried many new foods and left with a map of recommended places to eat all over Florence.
Waiting for the bus to downtown.
Walking thrubthe city to find the starting point for the tour.
The meat and cheese shop we started in. We learned about Parmesan cheese and salame
Check out Ally trying some Parmesan below:
After 3 samples of prosciutto and Parmesan we headed out to the next place.
Ally trying a mini pizza. We told her she had to try 3 things. She tried more than that.
Beth with a sandwich of sausage and cheese. These were at our 1st stop, Reno’s bakery.
Next we went to the Mercato Centrale. A food market with many vendors. Our first taste here was a beef sandwich. Ally has roasted turkey. It was all delicious/
Becky took a picture of the sandwich before she ate it:
Group shot!
This bakery case was entirely biscotti. It must have been 15’ long filled with biscotti.
Next up was the cheese shop. We tasted 3 kinda of cheese.
And some honey!
Ally even tried the cheese with honey. Still doesn’t like cheese.
They were really pretty cheeses.
Next we tried fresh pasta.
Amazingly delicious ravioli with a walnut sauce.
They made Ally a plate of gnocchi. She did try it and then we shared the plate with our tour mates. It was a hit.
I love this picture of Beth with the giant Elvis behind her. I call him “pasta Elvis”
Our first look at the Doumo.
Ally’s selfie inside the beatific wine cellar. We tasted a variety of cheese and 3 balsamic vinegar and 3 red wines.
Ally was the best sport ever. All of us watched her taste the true pure balsamic vinegar. We learned that most of what we use as balsamic is a blend of vinegars and not pure.
Ally ready to taste it.
Into her mouth it goes
Down the hatch and swallowing
Ewwwwe
Ewwwww where is my water?
Yuck.
In all fairness it was pretty yucky. Very strong stuff.
Becky loved every minute of this experience.
The wines and vinegars
Our last tasting stop was an artisanal chocolatier who also made gelato. Delicious.
Ally was exhausted so she and I took a cab back to the hotel and Becky and Beth headed bavk to the market for some shopping.
They took the bus home. But the buses hear are weird, there is no map and it’s all very tricky. It was a 10 minute ride into town and they were on the bus about 45 minutes on the way home. They saw a lot of Florence.
Becky was pretty tired when she got home.
Becky was pretty tired when she got home.
But she rallied and went to the pool with Ally and Beth.
After swimming Ally and I stayed home and the sisters went out to dinner. Ally and I had fun snuggling and watching Netflix.
Meanwhile they ate a fantastic dinner, one Becky reported was the top 10 meals she has ever eaten.
The menu.
After they came home Ally and I got dressed again and we all went out to get gelato at a Food Tour recommended place 1 block from our hotel.
No comments:
Post a Comment