After reading about the Perusia Chocolate Festival trip in Bus2Alp’s trip options, I knew I would do what it took to get there. So clearly, I booked it. The city is located in the region of Umbria, with is southeast of Tuscany and has a similar characteristic to many hill-top Tuscan towns that I have {Read More…}
After having a serious talk with one of my roommates the other day about living in a completely unknown environment for three months, I realized something. Had I not been pushed into a group of 10 other students, forced to wear un-flattering pastry apparel, and condemned to arrive at the bakery at 6:30am on some {Read More…}
I was recommended that I take a visit to Trattoria Zaza located right next to the San Lorenzo market in the center of Florence. I was told that their pasta was decadent, the prices were great, and the experience would cultivate lovely food memories. I made sure to get reservations, because the place gets hopping. There {Read More…}
After having the most incredible rustic Tuscan countryside experience at Agriturismo San Leo, I figured that I should take Jared to share in a similar situation. However, I didn’t want to take him somewhere I had already been. I wanted us to be able to experience something new together. So after hours of researching on the internet, {Read More…}
So although I have had the absolutely INCREDIBLE opportunity to bake pastry 24/7 until it is coming out of my ears, eyes, and nose, I have had this lingering itch to cook Italian. And when I say “cook,” I mean produce food that isn’t primarily made of butter, sugar, and cream.Something that can be eaten {Read More…}
As I start midterms today, I thought it would be beneficial to take a few moments and reflect on what I have learned so far as a Baking and Pastry major at Apicuis International School of Hospitality in Florence, Italy. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be writing study sheets about {Read More…}
Last weekend, I took a day trip titled “Tuscany and its Vineyards.” As you can see from the picture, the views were impeccable. In fact, multiple times throughout the day, I was simply left… speechless. We were bused first to the small medieval town of Pienza, south of Firenze. The town, conceived by the Pope Pius II sits onto of {Read More…}
Before I boarded my plane to Italy, Rachel Ray and I had a very important discussion (via magazine). She made sure to tell me her favorite Italian restaurants and that two of them were in the very place that I was going to. Woah. So, obviously, I have already been to two of them, and {Read More…}
After spending an entire afternoon on the history of traditional Italian restaurants, the topic changed to bars and panini shops. A “bar” in Italy simply refers to place that sells coffee (and typically, pastries). But first, because we were going to be focusing on pastry, our teacher surprised us with several industrially made cookies. In {Read More…}
This weekend’s seminar titled Restaurants and Wine Bars was completely fascinating. So much so, that I thought it would be beneficial for me to share a few tidbits of the plethora of information that my brain consumed. We were introduced to a few very very old restaurants throughout the city, and went on a walking tour to {Read More…}