Cooking in Italy... Mamma Mia and I!

After meeting my mom in Bologna, we rented a little Fiat and drove about two hours south to a small town in Tuscany called Arezzo.

I drove and our noisy Tom Tom navigated - I spent ten minutes in the rental car lot trying to figure out how to change the Tom Tom language from Russian to English only for it to make the weirdest noises during our whole drive. Go figure.

Besides the random beeps and noises, the only other driving snafu came at the toll booth - I had to take a ticket, but I couldn't find the button to roll down the window. Eventually when I figured it out, I couldn't reach the ticket, so I had to unbuckle, climb out and maneuver myself between the ticket machine and the car door. The large, impatient truck behind us was not too happy...

Other than that, it was just us and the open road! Until we reached the steep, never-ending gravel driveway that was littered with potholes. To set a picture for you: my mom was laughing in the passenger seat; I was swearing under my breath, dodging the potholes, sure that we were going to pop a tire, and despite the fact that I am literally flooring the little Fiat, it's still only moving 2mph.

Finally, we arrived at Tuscookany, our home for the next four days (because you could not have paid me to drive that car down the driveway and back up again).

We spent the next two days learning to cook from our teacher, Franco, and his wife, Paula. There were eight people in our class total; one Australian, two British and the rest American.

We made homemade Italian favorites like ravioli, pizza, tiramisu, foccacia bread, chicken cacciatore, pork medallions, eggplant pudding and more! After cooking up a storm in the kitchen, each night we'd gather as a group and have a sunset dinner on the terrace.

On Thursday we went for a day outing with the group. Our first stop was wine tasting at an old Italian winery. Next we had lunch at a family-run olive oil producer. And in the afternoon we toured a linen-making factory and milked goats. Yes, my mom and I milked a goat (but only for a second because it was too bizarre).


The area surrounding the cooking school is known for it's truffles (the fungus, not the chocolate kind unfortunately). Truffles are actually pretty hard to come across, unless you have a specially trained dog that's a Lagotto Romagnolo. This is the only dog breed is recognized for truffle hunting. While at the cooking school, we got to watch two dogs hunt for truffles; they don't eat them- just sniff around the base of the tree and when they find the spot, they dig them up.

We also ate the best cantuccini I've ever had in my life (more commonly known as a biscotti) with almonds and dark chocolate pieces. Homemade, and yes, we have a recipe. 

When it was all said and done, we had a ton of new Italian recipes, learned a few cooking school tricks and have a lot of memories from the experience. And yes, we also made it safely back down the hill with the Fiat in tact - an accomplishment in itself!