Welcome to the Z Michelson Travel Podcast

Speaker 1 0:07

Welcome to the Z Michelson Travel Podcast, where every journey is a story waiting to be told. I'm your host, z Michelson, and I'm so excited to take you on a ride through the world's most incredible destinations, hidden gems and unforgettable experiences. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just starting to plan your next getaway, you're in the right place. Each episode, we'll be diving into everything from must-see landmarks to off-the-beaten-path treasures, speaking with locals and travel experts and sharing stories that will inspire your next adventure. So sit back, relax and let's wander the world together, one destination at a time. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Speaker 2 0:56

Z Meiselson is here again and I am with Diana again and we are talking day four in Italy, and, of course, it's Celtic Tours that put all of this on for us, and we love that. Celtic Tours is not just Ireland, it's Italy and more yes, and it's pack your bags and relax. I like that you don't have to worry about doing anything other than saying here's where I want to go and you take them right there.

Day Four in Italy with Celtic Tours

Speaker 3 1:20

Yeah, I tell you Z, this is probably one of my favorite places to go, with what Celtic Tours does, Right, Because it's exactly that. You know you just you unpack and you do all your tours from one location. So this is probably one of my favorite tours because I really get to experience Italy. We have so many tours to offer and we do also other Italian tours.

Speaker 2 1:45

But right now you're in Tuscany, we're in Tuscany, correct yeah.

Speaker 3 1:49

So it makes it nice because you're just in one location.

Speaker 2 1:51

Right, and I'm sure, celtic tours. If you want to go to the, I'm going to say, the main areas of Italy, celtic tours can take you there too.

Speaker 3 1:58

We do have. We also have tours that would do some of the other locations.

Speaker 1 2:02

Like Rome.

Speaker 3 2:06

Like yep have tours that would do some of the other locations like like yep, yep like roma, venice, milan right amathicos, right, you know. So, yeah, so we we have definitely some tours that can do that. Or again, we can kind of customize anything that the clients are looking for the travel agent client.

Speaker 2 2:17

That's there, my people so, which is really nice, right. So it's nice to get it customized. But today you're going to be doing something that I don't particularly care to do, because I'm not a cook. I'm not a cook, but I love to watch people cook and I love to eat what they cook, but I don't like cooking. But what are we doing today with cooking? Well, let me tell you.

Speaker 3 2:38

I'm not a cook either. Oh, you're not? No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I mean, I can cook and I'm a good cook because my mother did teach me how to cook.

Speaker 2 2:45

My mother taught me too.

Speaker 1 2:46

I don't like to cook.

Speaker 3 2:47

Right, I don't enjoy it. I'm just not, you know, one of those people who enjoys spending enough time in the kitchen. Nobody will starve with us.

Cooking Class with Mama Anna

Speaker 3 2:54

Right, but it's not like a favorite thing, but the nice thing about this is I didn't have to go out and do the shopping. All I had to do is follow direction and then I had to sit down and enjoy. And, the best part, I didn't have to clean up after myself. Oh, that's even better. I like that a lot. That works and the kitchen there is actually at the villa, and we had a wonderful day with Mama Ana. She is the chef there at Villa Casa Grande.

Speaker 2 3:21

So Mama Ana is going to be doing this cooking class for us today Correct and she's going to be doing this cooking class for us, correct, correct, and she's going to be teaching us how to cook what today Pizza, pizza, pizza and bruschetta.

Speaker 3 3:34

Oh, yes, yes and bruschetta.

Speaker 2 3:37

So now are you cooking all day. Yeah, how many people actually did the class so everybody did the class, oh everybody did, everybody did the class.

Speaker 3 3:45

So everybody did the class, oh, everybody did, everybody did the class. And again, this is not something that you had to do, right?

Speaker 2 3:48

We did have a few people who just kind of sat on the side and just watched the process Like hey, I would sit and, watch and wait, and then eat it Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 3 3:57

They just kind of watched the process or they watched, you know, how everything was done, or they nibbled on something, you know. But you don't have to take part in the cooking class if you're not interested, you know. I honestly I just took part here and there because I wanted everybody else to experience it a little bit more, so but it was really really nice and it's such a large kitchen, oh huge, huge kitchen, large kitchen.

Speaker 2 4:19

Everybody was in the kitchen. Now, this was after birth. This thing you guys did.

Speaker 3 4:22

So, yeah, that's a really yeah good question, because I do recommend, especially for because a clean class started at 10 am. Okay, so you're thinking, oh, I'm not going to have breakfast, you know, because I'm going to be eating. No.

Speaker 1 4:34

No, you don't eat until like 1, 1.30.

Speaker 3 4:36

Right, when everything is done and you're cooking and you've got all this food in front of you. I made that mistake. I made that big mistake and I didn't eat anything before.

Speaker 1 4:45

Because I'm thinking, oh, you know, I'm going to be munching and you know what you know.

Speaker 3 4:48

Melana is going to slap your fingers if you start eating too much of the stuff.

Speaker 1 4:51

She doesn't want you doing it.

Speaker 3 4:53

So I do recommend, yes, absolutely going down having breakfast there at the Villa. It is included, of course, in your stay. And don't forget your double espresso cappuccino. Oh, no, so yeah. And then everybody met in a lobby at 10 o'clock, okay, and Mama Anna came in and introduced herself. She did have an assistant as well, because there was 27 of us. That's a lot. So she did have an assistant as well. And then she took us down to the kitchen.

Speaker 3 5:20

Now I'm thinking, okay, this is going to be a small kitchen. No way, this kitchen was absolutely huge for 27 of us to get in there. It was absolutely huge. And in the side room she had water for us and she did have some little munchies because, again, she doesn't want you eating the food that you got there. So, you know, she had some little munchies on. So, thank goodness, because, like I said, I was getting, I was really getting hungry making, you know, watching everybody make all this food and getting involved in this process. So, but the process was really, really amazing. So first we said we made the bruschetta.

Speaker 3 5:53

So, now, bruschetta is what Bruschetta is bread with tomatoes and olive oil and garlic on top of it.

Speaker 1 6:01

It's like an appetizer Right.

Speaker 3 6:04

And it is pronounced bruschetta and not bruschetta.

Speaker 2 6:08

A lot of people say bruschetta.

Speaker 3 6:10

Yeah, and they don't say it over there. So that's something I learned how to say bruschetta. So again, she tries to get everybody involved. So when you've got so many people, you know, and they're all standing there in front of the chopping block. So, she gives people the tomatoes I and they're all standing there in front of the chopping block. So she gives people the tomatoes I'm going to teach them how to cut the tomatoes. And then she gives you know, somebody the garlic and they have to cut the garlic.

Speaker 2 6:31

So she's giving everybody something to do. Next time you go, you have to ask this tip Blank out for me how do your hands get not sticky when cutting garlic? It doesn't happen it doesn't happen.

Speaker 3 6:45

She did show us how to kind of take the knife and pound. She showed us some of the tips and tricks, you know, of chefs that a chef would do. But yeah, everybody got involved with fresh tomatoes and the garlic and then the olive oil Of course they're from Villa Casa Grande because they make their own olive oil as well and then we put everything in and we put it aside. Then we made focaccia bread.

Speaker 3 7:06

Now they actually prepped that before we got there, because it does have to sit a little bit. So she made that beforehand, Right, and she gave us a little tip, because certain foods and I'm not going to go into everything because I don't, I'm again not a chef but certain foods they have to be warm, like certain breads and certain doughs.

Speaker 3 7:22

So, she actually set it on top of the oven to warm it. So the focaccia bread. And then she showed everybody how to make the focaccia and how to put it in the pan and how to put on the focaccia. And she made a couple different focaccas. She made it with the herbs and garlic and the oils.

Speaker 2 7:38

Now, was she making the focaccia bread for the bruschetta or was she making it for the pizza?

Speaker 3 7:43

No, she made focaccia bread separate, just the bread Separate.

Speaker 2 7:46

yeah, just for the bread, just for the bread.

Speaker 3 7:47

Yeah, she just made it separately. She already made the bruschetta Right, so she already had the bread. So we made that. We mixed all that. We made a chicken spread which was, oh my goodness, so amazing. Pearl onions it was pearl onions with chicken and mayo and she put it in a blender, blended it up, and that actually went on fuschia as well.

Speaker 1 8:10

On the toast On the toast so, oh, that was really so simple.

Speaker 3 8:16

Italians don't use a lot of stuff in their food.

Speaker 2 8:21

It's more natural.

Speaker 3 8:22

It's more natural. It's just very, very little, not a lot of herbs, not a lot of seasoning, I think sometimes because I used to make a marinara Right and I used to put oregano and marjoram and thyme, and this and that into my marinara and you don't need all that?

Speaker 2 8:38

No, you don't need all that.

Speaker 1 8:39

It just needs to be simple, yeah.

Speaker 2 8:40

And everything was fresh and just really really tasty yeah where Americans were not used to all this fresh, correct yeah.

Speaker 3 8:48

So it was really, really simple, so that was amazing and tasty as well. So then, after that, we had to start on the pizza Right.

Speaker 2 8:57

So now this was all kind of the appetizers before the pizza. Yeah.

Speaker 3 9:00

Then we had to start on the pizza and we had to start on the dough for the pizza and she told us about the certain dough that you have to eat, the certain flour that you have to use for the dough. So what was the trick? Yeah, so it's called zero flour. It's zero and you can't get it here in the States. You actually, you can get it through Amazon. I lied, you can get it through Amazon, but it's zero, flour zero flour zero flour and and it sounds interesting, yeah, and how?

Speaker 3 9:25

yeah, so you don't roll the dough either, which a lot of people don't know. A lot of our piece of places roll them, roll it out. We don't roll. They don't roll the dough, she scratches it out.

Speaker 1 9:36

I'm showing you.

Speaker 3 9:37

So um and then you kind of just stretch it out, and of course you know you have to. Once you make the bread, you have to let it rise, and then you stretch it out and put it in the pan and then she put broccolini and tomatoes and different vegetables like mushrooms and some onions.

Speaker 2 9:57

Did she have sauce on?

Speaker 3 9:58

it no sauce. No sauce on the pizza. This was a no sauce pizza. Oh wow, yeah. And then she only used one cheese Parmesan cheese. She only used Parmesan.

Speaker 2 10:09

Just.

Speaker 3 10:10

Parmesan, parmesan.

Speaker 2 10:14

And, of course, the Parmesan was fresh. Oh yeah, no, no, no. And we had to actually grind the Parmesan grind it up.

Speaker 3 10:21

It wasn't like already done. We actually had to take the cheese and grind it up Right. Oh my goodness, it was three hours of nonstop cooking.

Speaker 2 10:31

Three hours of cooking? Yeah, and it went quickly. How long did it take?

Speaker 3 10:36

to cook the pizza. So the pizza took probably about 20 minutes. Maybe it wasn't very long, not long at all, just enough. Yeah, just enough. I mean we were all kind of sitting around because afterwards, after we got done cooking, we went into this beautiful room that was right off of the kitchen. I had no idea it was there and it's a beautiful large room where there were tables and there was, of course, wine.

Speaker 3 11:02

You know, and there was wine and we had olive oil. And then Mama Ana came around and she was giving us first the bruschetta, then the pate.

Speaker 2 11:12

Now everybody got to taste it.

Speaker 3 11:13

Everybody gets to eat all of their hard labor. And then we were waiting for the pizza because the pizza had to cook.

Speaker 3 11:19

That was the last thing we made Did she put people in teams like teams of four. No, not really, not really. She let them get involved the way they wanted to. So where people were standing, she'd say, okay, you guys do this, you know you do this and you do this. And then she really, really went into explaining the recipes and why Italians do what they do when they cook, and how cooking is such a part of the Italian lifestyle. It is.

Speaker 3 11:47

It is so important to the family. Like every Sunday, everybody gets together and they all get involved in the cooking process and everybody helps. It's very enjoyable for them?

Speaker 2 11:59

Yeah, and they sit down. Like we said from the other podcast. You know your light lunch? Yeah, even that is something where it's to be savored. Yeah, people sit and enjoy. Don't rush the meal. Enjoy the meal, enjoy the company and that sounds like what's going on here at the villa. Yeah, they enjoy doing that. So now, how was all this food that you tasted?

Speaker 3 12:23

There wasn't enough, because I think I only got like three pieces of pizza and I wanted more.

Speaker 1 12:28

But they were small pieces, they were real.

Speaker 3 12:30

But yeah, no it was plenty to go around. She made plenty, but it was really really just amazing.

Speaker 2 12:36

So that that stayed almost.

Speaker 3 12:46

I was good with that.

Speaker 2 12:47

Okay, bye. They showed their bellies then and walked away, and we all walked away. We walked away.

Speaker 3 12:52

Now.

Speaker 2 12:52

Mama Anna, she does all the meals at this facility. She does, she does.

Speaker 3 12:57

Yes, yeah, this is her kitchen, that's her kitchen.

Speaker 1 13:00

It's her kitchen. It's Mama Anna's kitchen.

Speaker 3 13:02

Yeah, she's been there for quite some time. I don't remember exactly how long, but she has been there for quite some time.

Speaker 2 13:07

That's her place.

Speaker 1 13:08

Yep it's her place. Good for her, yeah the day is half over now.

Speaker 3 13:13

Yeah, the day is half over. I'll tell you one of the nice things about our tours with Celtic Tours is, even if you decide that you want to go and book an individual stay at Villa Casa Grande, you don't do an entire tour, right, because you just want to do your own thing, right, you know, will entire tour right, because you just want to do your own thing, right? You know you can actually book a cooking class with mama anna, because she doesn't have cooking classes there.

Speaker 2 13:34

So, in other words, if a couple decides well, we want to go to this villa, we don't want to go on the big tour, we want to stay at the phyllis, will celtic tourists do that?

Speaker 3 13:42

yes, yes, they can actually we can book their entire stay at villa casa grande. We can book their cooking classes. We can book their train because the train station is only 10 minutes away. Right, so we can book their cooking classes. We can book their train because the train station is only 10 minutes away. Right, so we can book their train. And then they can take the train into florence or they can take it into pisa. They can take it anywhere within.

Speaker 2 13:59

I can see something like that for like a second honeymoon? Yeah, right, because it has the spa, the pool, like relax there or go out to a nice dinner or go into like fl, like Florence, yeah, so now that everybody's kind of been sad a little bit yeah and kind of chilling out. What did they do late day? Well, the rest of the afternoon was for us. Oh so we could do whatever we wanted to do so.

Speaker 3 14:24

We had a couple of ladies book the spa and they one got facial, one got a full body massage. Now, did you experience a spa? I did not, I did not, I didn't know this time, I know I know, and you know, it really really was not that expensive. I think a facial was like 35 euro or 40 euro. That's nothing, it was really, really not expensive and you can book it when you're there.

Speaker 2 14:54

It doesn't have to be pre-booked, right of course, depending on season, right when they go, but if you want it, if you definitely want it, I would definitely recommend that they free book it.

Speaker 3 14:58

Just be on the same side? Sure, absolutely, but I mean it was available and the pool is inside the spa, so it's very tranquil. It had a couple of ladies who just went and sat by the pool and just enjoyed the pool and the music inside there in the area.

Speaker 2 15:12

Sure they know the songs. They can lounge poolside, which is indoors. Indoors yeah, because if the weather's a little chilly and you still want to go for a little dip, yeah, it's nice, it is yeah, so we had some people doing that.

Speaker 3 15:25

So we had some people doing that. We had a few people who decided that they were going to go to Florence because we had a whole afternoon free and you can take the train Again. Train station's just a short little walk. How long was the train ride? There's different trains, so I do yeah, I do suggest, you know, taking a look at the train schedule, because if you get the express that goes to Florence, it's about 30 minutes, not a 5 minutes.

Speaker 3 15:50

No, now you can get on another one. That might take you a little bit longer, because it makes a lot of stops along the way, so check the train schedule. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 16:02

And it was only like six, six and a half euro, I think, and again, that's not very expensive, that is nothing, that is nothing, and you can get the tickets right there at the train station, if that's something you want to do and put together an entire thing. We can do it.

Speaker 2 16:12

We can put that thing together for you.

Speaker 3 16:14

So some people went to Florence. Were you one of the ones? I was one of the ones who went to Florence, but but I wasn't gonna. I needed to take care of you know, of everybody make sure they were all taken care of. So I actually talked to Mama Anna, who is also a sommelier oh, she's a sommelier.

Speaker 3 16:30

Yes, and an olive oil sommelier. So she does both and I talked to her and I said would you be free this evening to do a wine tasting for the 10 people that decided to stay behind? And she said, absolutely, oh, so of course there was a charge for it. She did this entire wine tasting for the group and then they did a tour. They did an entire tour of the areas that you really can't go to in the villa the owner areas, the private rooms where I think I mentioned in one of my last podcasts, the Pope's bedroom.

Speaker 3 17:03

Yeah, the Pope's bedroom is still there 13th century furniture. The Pope actually slept on hemp. Yeah, it was no wonder they slept on hemp, like yeah, it was no wonder they slept so well, right, you know. So, I mean, it was just that. And she talks about the history, she talks about the furniture and Mama Anna actually takes you on this amazing tour of the villa before the wine tasting. Yeah, she's part of the villa.

Speaker 2 17:27

She is, she really really is. That makes it nice, because they enjoy what they do. She's part of the villa, she's part of that family and she loves it.

Speaker 3 17:35

Yeah, and that expression of love relates to Hachouris, oh absolutely Especially in her in when she did the wine tasting, her passion for the wines and how to taste them and how I mean. I again I wasn't there. I went to Florence, but let me tell you I had a video. Somebody took a video because I said I want to see her in action, and it was just her passion for the wines and and actually how they grow and how the different tastes.

Florence Side Trip Adventures

Speaker 3 18:04

It was really just a great experience. We'll be doing that the next time I go back they don't put a lot of the preservatives that we do over here. No, and that makes it nice. It's all organic.

Speaker 2 18:13

And the taste you can taste it.

Speaker 3 18:15

Oh, absolutely, you can taste the difference.

Speaker 2 18:16

Yeah, that's great. Now they did this, and then you and some others went to Florence, florence, so what?

Speaker 3 18:24

did you do in Florence? Florence, and we just kind of did walking around. We went to the leather market and did more shopping. I did Well, of course, the leather market. I didn't buy anything at the leather market. I was really, really shocked and amazed. I didn't buy anything at the leather market, but it was really neat to see because a lot of people talk about the leather market in Florence. You got to go, you got to go.

Speaker 2 18:46

Italian leather is amazing. Oh, yeah, it is. My daughter went with her friend over to Italy years ago. Her friend had to buy a leather jacket. Yeah, so I mean the leather in Italy. Yeah, I would have to stop at the leather market. I love leather shops. Yeah, we walked.

Speaker 3 19:02

Of course we walked to some of the piazzas, took a look at some of the that. I knew that we weren't going to be doing on our tour, because we do tour Florence as well, but we just kind of did a walk around. We went looking for wine windows. Wine windows they're very, very popular in Florence. They're small little windows where you can go and order a glass of wine and they're actually very old and they're historical and each of them has a little history behind the wine windows.

Speaker 2 19:35

Wow, Almost like when you're going for a slice of pizza in New York. You just got out of the window and you're going to slice the pizza and keep walking.

Speaker 3 19:41

But they're very small.

Speaker 2 19:42

They're tiny.

Speaker 3 19:43

They're very tiny. They're probably about maybe two feet by two feet wide, maybe three feet by three feet wide.

Speaker 2 19:50

Oh wow, Very small wine windows and it's called wine windows. It's a wine window and they actually have.

Speaker 3 19:56

well, they have an exit where you can find wine windows. Yeah, wine window app you can find all these wine windows and then you just tap on it. You know if it's not open, sometimes they'll be open. So then you just tap on it and you tell them what you want and they give you a glass of wine right there. Right there. And you can continue wandering. Yep, you can't go very far because it is a glass.

Speaker 2 20:19

So it belongs to. You have to stay in the area.

Speaker 3 20:21

So you want to return the glass and some of them will give you a plastic, but you don't drink wine out of plastic.

Speaker 2 20:29

And they have like little cafes and you can sit down.

Speaker 3 20:31

Oh, absolutely yeah. There's so many restaurants and cafes, especially in Florence. Florence is a very, very large city, so you can actually see there are so many restaurants in every piazza, right and people. There's so many Americans everywhere as well. I mean, you're walking and you just hear people talking. Everyone said there's a lot of Americans. Did you eat dinner that night in Florence? I did, I did. I actually really just wanted a salad. I've been eating so much pasta, so much rich food. I actually just ordered a salad. A've been eating so much pasta, so much rich food. I actually just wanted a salad, a nice large salad.

Speaker 2 21:06

And I'm sure it just wasn't a salad, it was a.

Speaker 3 21:08

Mediterranean yeah, with cheese and olive oil, with cheese and olives and some bruschetta, you know, and stuff like that. So yeah, so you had a nice salad.

Speaker 2 21:19

So everybody kind of had a nice time, yeah.

Speaker 3 21:22

And then you eventually wandered back to the villa Eventually, eventually. So, it was really, really nice to see Florence at night because you'll get a different perspective and I don't want to go into too much detail about Florence because I'll save that for my Florence day but to see the river and to see just certain things that you me.

Speaker 2 21:41

And again, dinner is usually late, so I'm imagining that Florence is open late. Yeah, very, very late, right, so we still roll up at 8 o'clock at night.

Speaker 3 21:49

We actually got the last train back. Whoa, so we were very lucky. We had to check the train schedule and we had to run back to get the last train back. Which was what time? It was almost 11 o'clock at night. Well, not too bad. Yeah, not too bad. So it was a long night. Yeah, a long, good night.

Speaker 2 22:07

So then you went back to the hotel or villa. You went back to the villa and filled out and got ready to the next day. Yeah, wow. So again here we are. We were doing a cooking class all day, and then we had some people doing wine tastings, and then we had a little trip to a little side trip, to Florence. And now, tease us, where is day five going to be? Okay, so we're going to keep that a mystery.

Speaker 3 22:32

So day five is drum roll, drum roll. Where is day five?

Speaker 2 22:40

we'll find out on day five. Day five we're going to find out next time. Diana comes and chats with me. She's keeping it a secret. I'm keeping it a secret. All righty. Well, thank you again for coming and sharing the day of cooking and, like I said, I would probably be the one sitting there eating the snacks, watching everybody cook and then waiting for it to brew, and I'd finish eating.

Speaker 3 23:01

Yeah, yeah, I mean it was. It was really, really just a great experience. You know, to be able to cook in Italy like that and with all of those natural. Natural, you know ingredients and flavors Very, very nice.

Speaker 2 23:14

Well, thank you again for joining me. Thank you Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 23:20

Well, that's it for today's episode of the Zine Michelson Travel Podcast. I hope you enjoyed our journey and found some new inspiration for your next adventure. Remember, the world is full of stories and sometimes all it takes is a plane ticket to start your own adventure. If you loved today's episode, be sure to tune in every week and don't forget to share your favorite travel moments with me on social media. I'd really love to hear about where you're headed to next. So until next time, keep exploring, keep discovering and, as always, keep traveling with your heart wide open. I'm Zee Michelson and I'll see you on the next adventure.