What a fun Zoom event!
This past week, ECA had the privilege of hosting a virtual travel and cooking class in Florence! Thanks to local guide Camilla Sinding-Larsen we were able to explore the Ducal Kitchen of the Pitti Palace, popularly dubbed as “Cucinone” (big kitchen), as well as watch and participate in a cooking demonstration by wonderful chef Loredana Bagnoli.
The Pitti Palace
Camilla and Loredana are both terrific partners who, for years, have been supporting ECA with our custom tours in Tuscany and our tour A Taste of Tuscany & Piedmont: they share our same passion for travel and ensure our clients enjoy a truly authentic experience!
Attendees had the opportunity to learn new recipes to cook a fresh summer antipasto - a stacked savory salad, torta fredda, with tomatoes and cucumber and they also learned how to make pici pasta from scratch and cook them with cacio and pepe sauce, following chef Loredana’s lead.
Pici Pasta
The Pitti Palace once hosted 4000 guests for the wedding of Maria de’Medici and King Henry IV of France in 1600. While it’s difficult to imagine the immense 6-meter-red-fireplace and original stone and beautiful tiles of the Ducal Kitchen, Camilla provided us with photos and a presentation to make us feel as if we were really standing within the palace walls.
Event attendees learned new recipes and new sites to visit once in Florence, here are some reviews of our very first Zoom travel event:
Beth, among many others, had great things to say about our Zoom event, sharing “I have had the good fortune to travel with Erica in Cuba, Puglia, Italy & most recently through a Zoom meeting to Florence. I can't say enough about how fun, engaging & enriching these trips have been. Erica, herself, is a wealth of information, but she also has a knack for partnering with amazing local tour guides & hosts to add a real depth of understanding & warmth to the experience. At last week's Zoom meeting we watched an Italian chef make 2 delicious dishes & visited a medieval kitchen from a Medici palace and were able to really feel almost as if we were standing at the butcher block island that has been in place for 300+ years. I look forward to taking more of these awe-inspiring trips with ECA Travel Consulting!”
“You are amazing. We admire your passion and drive as well as the partners you choose!”
“I’m ready to try my hand at making some pasta and booking flights to Italy!” and we’d like you to do the same as we hope to host more virtual travel events in the future.