The second day of touring began with breakfast at the Innocenti house and then the arrival of our guide and driver, Carlo’s son Romeo (pronounced “roh-MAY-oh”). Romeo speaks English very well (his mother was British) and enjoys taking the cooking school guests on daily tours of Tuscany. He actually lives in the town we visited on this date. His wife is a therapist and they have two kids, a 4 year old boy and 6 year old girl.
Grosseto is a handsome Tuscan town, but it lacks one of the typical ingredients of its sister cities and towns: it’s not on a hill. In fact, Grosseto is located in what was once a vast swamp land, where the flatness of the terrain made it almost impossible for natural rainfall to seek its way to the ocean. The entire area was drained by the digging of canals in the late 1700’s … a huge civil engineering project advanced by Leopold II, the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Leopold’s family ruled Tuscany from Vienna after the decline of the Medici family, which had held sway over the grand duchy for generations. When Leopold, as the emperor's second oldest son, inherited only Tuscany, he moved to Florence to take up the job. This statue honors Leopold’s success in draining the swamps of southwestern Tuscany and bringing an end to the malaria that had always plagued that area in prior years. Notice the lady at his left side (she represents the town of Grosseto) holding a dead child (representing the unfortunate victims of malaria). Behind Leopold, a huge snake (malaria) is being killed by a griffin (the symbol of the rulers of Florence). So this statue tells the malaria story in one shot, giving credit to the Grand Duke for spending Tuscan money on this project instead of conducting wars with neighboring princes.
Upon our return to Arcidosso in the afternoon, Carlo and his partner Pascale (far left in this photo) take over and engage the class in making the night’s dinner. This evening we started with a lesson on various forms of Tuscan bruschetta. It was also our introduction to making pasta. This was Pascale’s specialty and each of us was expected to make our own pasta for the evening supper. She walked us through the ancient process of combining a finely ground flour with an egg, a generous pinch of salt and a local olive oil. Mixing the dry ingredients first, she then had us make a deep depression in the middle of the flour mix (making the little hill look like a volcano). Then the liquids are inserted in that hole. Pascale said it was best at first to start tossing the egg/oil mixture around with a butter knife (her favorite) or a fork, slowly incorporating the flour on all sides.
When the dough ball began to form, we sifted to our impeccably clean hands and commenced a full 15-minute process of rolling and kneading the dough to build up the long gluten strands that would hold the dough together. Then the fun part. Using a stainless steel pasta press, we rolled out longer and longer “flats” - - each one being pressed slightly thinner than the previous run-through. In the end, we had beautiful, pasta which could easily be sliced into linguini noodles by a quick adjustment to the roller press, but we had a different use in mind. We laid the finished flats on the long wooden work table (which had been sprinkled with simolina flour to keep the dough from sticking to the table) and plopped little scoops of a spinach and ricotta cheese mixture about every 4 inches along the flat. With a fold-over and several cutting and fork tong pressings, we had our fresh tortellini, ready for boiling - - our main course for the evening's delicious feast.
Grosseto is a handsome Tuscan town, but it lacks one of the typical ingredients of its sister cities and towns: it’s not on a hill. In fact, Grosseto is located in what was once a vast swamp land, where the flatness of the terrain made it almost impossible for natural rainfall to seek its way to the ocean. The entire area was drained by the digging of canals in the late 1700’s … a huge civil engineering project advanced by Leopold II, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. 
Leopold’s family ruled Tuscany from Vienna after the decline of the Medici family, which had held sway over the grand duchy for generations. When Leopold, as the emperor's second oldest son, inherited only Tuscany, he moved to Florence to take up the job. This statue honors Leopold’s success in draining the swamps of southwestern Tuscany and bringing an end to the malaria that had always plagued that area in prior years. Notice the lady at his left side (she represents the town of Grosseto) holding a dead child (representing the unfortunate victims of malaria). Behind Leopold, a huge snake (malaria) is being killed by a griffin (the symbol of the rulers of Florence). So this statue tells the malaria story in one shot, giving credit to the Grand Duke for spending Tuscan money on this project instead of conducting wars with neighboring princes.
Upon our return to Arcidosso in the afternoon, Carlo and his partner Pascale (far left in this photo) take over and engage the class in making the night’s dinner. This evening we started with a lesson on various forms of Tuscan bruschetta. It was also our introduction to making pasta. This was Pascale’s specialty and each of us was expected to make our own pasta for the evening supper. She walked us through the ancient process of combining a finely ground flour with an egg, a generous pinch of salt and a local olive oil. Mixing the dry ingredients first, she then had us make a deep depression in the middle of the flour mix (making the little hill look like a volcano). Then the liquids are inserted in that hole. Pascale said it was best at first to start tossing the egg/oil mixture around with a butter knife (her favorite) or a fork, slowly incorporating the flour on all sides. 
When the dough ball began to form, we sifted to our impeccably clean hands and commenced a full 15-minute process of rolling and kneading the dough to build up the long gluten strands that would hold the dough together. Then the fun part. Using a stainless steel pasta press, we rolled out longer and longer “flats” - - each one being pressed slightly thinner than the previous run-through. In the end, we had beautiful, pasta which could easily be sliced into linguini noodles by a quick adjustment to the roller press, but we had a different use in mind. We laid the finished flats on the long wooden work table (which had been sprinkled with simolina flour to keep the dough from sticking to the table) and plopped little scoops of a spinach and ricotta cheese mixture about every 4 inches along the flat. With a fold-over and several cutting and fork tong pressings, we had our fresh tortellini, ready for boiling - - our main course for the evening's delicious feast.
