Italian Food...they should have a tour for it...oh yeah, they do.

So, I wanted to share with everyone the best experience of my trip so far. I was so fortunate to have my aunt Anne and uncle Gord get me the 'Taste Florence' tour. Offered by a girl my age from North Carolina who moved here seven years ago, it takes you to wine tasting, cheese tasting and gelato tasting over a 5.5 hour period -- what better way to experience Florence, Tuscany.

So, I arrived on Thursday morning to the meeting point and met with a brother-sister from Los Angeles, the tour guide Tony and her Italian boyfriend Johnny. (Side note, Ashley the American girl works for So You Think You Can Dance and is coming to Vancouver in January to help kick off the Canadian tour). Our first stop (at 10 in the morning) was a heritage wine shop in the heart of the market district. It dates back to the 1840s but has been owned by the same family for the last sixty years. I should also mention that Johnny works at a vinyard and Tony is training to be a sommelier! We sample three wines and learn all about the history of wine making in Italy (if anyone is ever interested, it is a great story!). From there we head to the main market where we sample a variety of cheeses, spreads, relishes and sauces including cocoa, fig and chile! So good! We then went around the market sampling various prosciutto, roasted garlic, olives and olive oils (including the one that is recognized as the best in the world).

After a stroll past some of Florence's most noteworthy monuments, we found ourselves at a gelato shop, also a historic site. We had four, yes four bowls of gelato and they combined flavours like chocolate, parsimone and orange and ricotta, cinammon and pear. Amazing! We capped off the trip with some hot chocolate (read hot melted chocolate) and our day was complete. Five and a half hours of pure ecstacy! The day was sunny, the food was great and the company was uncomparable...a most memorable experie4nce.