¿Dónde está Lauren?

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Cooking Class: Look Only If You Dare

Took a Tuscan cooking course in Florence... probably one of the best tours i've done this trip: we learnt how to make damn good bruschetta, pasta, meatballs and panacotta. We were taken through the amawing produce markets to learn the various purposes of meats, seafoods, cheeses, vegetables, fruits and other various deli products. The interesting thing was that our chef, Roberto, was actually a guy from Melbourne who trained at Jacques Reymond, but had been living in Florence for most of his life. Now all i have to do is remember how to make these recipes for when i get home.

Mercato Centrale

The cooking school's dining room

DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH

One of the most interesting and key themes in the class was the concept of utilising all parts of an animal, brains included. We even got the privelage in seeing a butcher completely dissect a lamb. Of course this was too awesome not to document...

Florence

Well it's been decided. If, by the slim chance that i don't live in Buenos Aires (and i mean very slim) i will be residing in Florence. Not only is it a beautiful, quaint town with gorgeous buildings, wonderful Tuscan food and mind-blowing Renaissance art, BUT the nightlife is pretty great given the amount of university kids currently studying in and around the city.

Ultimate dream? Do both.

View from top of the Duormo

Climbing up the Duormo

Ponte Vecchio

Tuesday market with Kat: Mercato Delle Cascine

Our picnic lunch

The salesdog

Leather demonstration

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Roma

Apologies for my neglectfulness over these past 10 days: moving from place to place every few days makes it difficult to assign time for updates. But i will fill you in, no worries. Right now ì'm staying with our newly discovered cousins in Marseille... the very hospitable Gilles, his daughter Juliet, his wife Sylvie and their gooorgeous daughter 3yr old Lilou.

Last week was spent in Rome: of course the history there makes it the incredible city that it is. And i did discover a few cute cafes and restaurants (namely in the Trastevere area), but for the most part i thought the vibe was a little dull. The bars that i visited with Warwick and Erica's friend, Drew, were quite exclusive and probably not the most interactive places to go as a solo traveller. Notheless i still had a great time exploring the city, not to mention discovering the magic of night photography...