TUSCANY WITH PATRIZIA

It's Sunday and we visited two palaces and a perfumery today. The Santa Maria Novella Perfumery has been in operation since the early 1600's - first started by the monks who lived in the church monastery making medicinal tonics and salves. Palazzo Davanzati was the home of a noble family in the mid-1300's. This museum house gave us a good example of the life style and decorations during that time period. We had lunch then continued to Palazzo Medici-Riccardi originally built in early 1400's and added on to in the 1600's. The wealthy and famous Medici family lived here for about 100 years then it was purchased by the Riccardi's who redecorated in the Baroque style. A few photos today are "borrowed" from Google images since photography is not allowed in some places we visited. We ended the day with a pasta dinner in our own courtyard. More later . . .

A few more pics at:

https://plus.google.com/photos/117865786937374085925/albums/5932073933968533377/5932073986604288338?pid=5932073986604288338&oid=117865786937374085925

It was a rainy day in Florence but it did not put a damper on the fun we had at the pasta making class at InTavola cooking school. From noon until 3 p.m. we enjoyed making three different pastas and sauces plus a great dessert. Our chef - Francesco - was great to work with and we really did learn some good cooking tips, After the cooking we went down to the wine cellar to our culinary rewards and each dish was delicious! All that chopping and kneading and rolling was well worth it when we sat down at the table with the food and wine. A good time was had by all ! We walked home in the rain and were glad to have the rest of the afternoon to nap and relax after all that good eating! More later . . .