Italy is the heart of many food staples that I consider to bring meaning to life. Pizza, pasta, tomatoes, gelato, and pesto. Just thinking about it makes my stomach growl and is enough to convince me to pack my bags and drive to the airport. (Damn you, adulting responsibilities). If you consider yourself a #foodie, someone that loves cooking or if you are like me and enjoy the art of indulging in anything (#foodislife) then while you are galavanting around and falling in love with Italy. I recommend you find yourself in an Italian kitchen, elbow deep in dough, learning how to craft some of Italians finest cuisines.

One of my life goals is to move to a small town in Italy, find myself in grandmas kitchen learning the art of creating the perfect bolognese sauce. Every morning, riding my pink bike with a basket on it to the local market to pick the freshest ingredients and being locked in a daze of the aroma of herbs and spices. Yes, I know this sounds like Master of None. But, I’ve been dreaming of this before I had a Netflix account; Aziz Ansari just had the resources to beat me to it, Allora.

But alas, I found myself in Florence on a beautiful afternoon, with gelato dripping down my face and camera in hand. My sister & I decided the rest of the day was best spent eating, obviously. We enrolled in Florence Town pizza & gelato making class with our guide Alessio, who drove us to the Tuscany region, to create our own magic (in the form of pizza) and watch the sunset over the Italian vineyards.

If you find yourself in Italy, you would be doing yourself an injustice unless you partook in a cooking class. If it can’t be three months in a tiny village with grandma; then I would personally recommend Florence Academy. There are a number of different classes you can choose from pizza, pasta, gelato, wine ( brb drooling🤤 ).

I can’t recommend it enough: Florence Academy! No matter what, take a cooking class!

We chose to do pizza and gelato for two reasons. One: my hermanita is the pickiest eater in the world and actually loves pizza 🍕 . Two: gelato🍦.

The tour takes you out to the Chianti region where you learn to master the art of dough folding, the proper technique for gelato mixing and get to witness magic as the sun softly falls behind the landscape of the Tuscany fields.

Do a cooking class, your stomach will thank you!