If you are obsessed with good food and gorgeous scenery, Italy has to be on your bucket list. We visited in October, swapping the rain in London for a week in the Tuscan sun.
One of our favourite memories of the Tuscan country side and food was the Pizza and Gelato cooking class, organised by Walkabout Tours. For those of you who love eating and cooking as much as us, we couldn’t recommend this class more.
We were picked up and taken to a beautiful farmhouse set in the Tuscan hills about 20 minutes from the centre of Florence. We were first taken through an amazing vegetable garden, growing everything from eggplants to zucchini flowers, and given baskets to fill with toppings for our pizzas (these toppings could give Dominos or Pizza Hut a run for their money any day).
Once the vegetables had been picked, we were treated to some fresh ‘fettunta’ (bruschetta) and Chianti wine – now that’s our kind of cooking (and you come back for a top up at any point!)
For the actual cooking, we started off with prepping the gelato. Each pair picked a different gelato flavour, which we made from scratch using recipe cards. We decided to make hazelnut gelato 🙂 Chef Lavinia showed us how to make the creamiest Gelato using regular freezing technique and with liquid nitrogen. Top tip from Italian locals on how to spot good gelato – avoid the huge mounds of heaped mounds of brightly coloured ‘gelato’. We also found out that pistachio gelato is in fact not bright green (it’s light brown) and all these years we had been pronouncing pistachio wrong.
While the gelato was cooling, we went back to the outdoor wood fired oven to learn how to make true Italian style pizza. Chef Luca was absolutely hilarious and will definitely soon be a TV sensation or at least a Youtube one. Check out the videos on our Instagram page for a sample of his “unique” teaching style. He showed us how to make pizza dough (or “babies” as he called them) from scratch. The wine was flowing the entire time and the Tuscan countryside views were stunning.
At the end of the class you eat your own pizza in a beautiful glass conservatory overlooking the hills, and everyone shares all the flavours of gelato that have been freshly made. We would recommend doing the afternoon class at 2:30pm, so you can enjoy cooking in the daytime sun, eat pizza during sunset and have gelato under the stars.
Our top recommendations for food in Florence
Two words: Truffle gnocchi…yum yum yum. Writing about our meal here makes us want to book a flight right now just to get there just in time for dinner. If you’re in a 200 mile radius of Florence, you have to come here. This restaurant is packed with locals any night of the week, so you definitely need to book in advance to get a table.
This was literally the BEST meal we have ever had out in our lives (probably tied with Osteria Santo Spirito). A hidden gem packed full of locals, decorated with plates all over the wall (if you’re lucky they’ll give you a plate for you to create your own design to be hung up). We opted for the sharing pasta platter and cheese board – the perfect way to sample lots of their food. There were 4 delicious plates of pasta goodness: spinach pasta, aubergine and tomato rigatoni, vegetable cannelloni, and a four cheese pasta (for the carnivores out there, don’t worry there are meat options available). The cheese board was a selection of all kinds of different cheeses, pears and chutneys. We were also given some freshly baked bread on the side with two heavenly toppings: a fava bean purée and a bruschetta like tomato topping. The atmosphere was wonderful with conversation, food and wine flowing freely – we even made friends with the couple at the table next to us.
This is the perfect spot for a casual quick breakfast and their cappuchino is to die for!
Normally food places next to tourist sites can be overhyped and overpriced. This is the exception. Right by the Duomo you can always see a long line outside Panni Toscani. As Brits, we saw a queue and naturally thought we would check out what all the fuss was about. While waiting we were given a whistle tour on different types of cheese and bread (meat eaters can also sample different meats) to help us decide what we wanted in our panini. Every bite was worth it!
Check out more photos on our Instagram page @eat.through.travel
Eat.Through.Travel 
Very interesting…travel.through food.
Would love read your blog. Best wishes.
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