Enjoy a Taste of Tuscany

How a Language School in Florence Teaches Culture through Cuisine

By Nicole Rosenleaf Ritter

In September my husband and I spent two weeks in Florence-one of the most pleasant times of the year to visit one of the most beautiful places in the world-learning about Italy in a way that I highly recommend. The Koine Center program combines language learning in the morning and cooking in the evening. Call it cultural immersion with your mouth as the guide.

Each day began with a 4-hour language class. Neither of us knew much more than musical terms and what we had gleaned from repeated viewings of The Godfather, so we knew we'd be starting from scratch. Luckily, Koine has 20-plus years of experience in teaching newbies, and it shows. I have taken many intensive language courses, but I have never encountered a better method for teaching beginners.

We dived headlong into language classes peppered liberally with real-life applications. On the first day the teachers took us on a tour of Florence. Knowing that we would have ample opportunity to explore the tourist sites, they took us instead to places we would actually need to find-the post office, the pharmacy, the market — and taught us the survival words to function there. Another morning our highly enthusiastic teacher took us to the market for a scavenger hunt-forcing us to find out what produce was in season and learn things like the difference between proscuitto crudo and proscuitto cotto. All the while we were forced to interact with regular Italians — the key for building skills and confidence.

That emphasis on immersion continued in the cooking classes, held in the afternoon. On our first day, we accompanied our teacher, a delightful culinary wizard, around Florence to learn the best place to buy the staples. As we walked, she shared the secrets that only a lifelong Florentine would know — the best gelato, the best pizza, the best cooking supplies. We felt like VIPs.

The school teaches the culture through the cuisine, so with every dish we prepared our teacher offered the history and secrets of the preparation and ingredients — in Italian and English. The teacher also made sure that we kept busy cooking — while passing along gems of Italian slang and kitchen know-how. We made dishes ranging from a classic spicy tomato sauce to Tripe Florentine to tiramisu — enough dishes to make our own "essential" Tuscan cookbook. And we got to eat everything we cooked, with wine that had been hand-picked to complement the dishes.

A Tuscan Marriage of Food and Wine

A certified sommelier held forth on two afternoons (in Italian) on the elements of wine-what to look, smell, and taste for in a range of Italian wines. Perhaps more importantly, we were taught the importance of thinking about the wine before the food. In order to make the food and the wine taste their best, the menu must be developed in concert.

On a full-day excursion to a small, prestigious vineyard, Cennatoio, we got to see the whole operation-from the vineyards to the cellars — and taste the results with the proprietor. We also were treated to an amazing lunch in a Tuscan hill-town trattoria before we made our way to Greve in Chianti, the center of the Chianti Classico wines. We went on a similar excursion the second week.

The final level of immersion was living with an Italian family in a residential section of the city. Our homestay host offered us a capacious room in a beautiful, high-ceilinged flat near the Fortezza da Basso. While it was within walking distance of the school, we found that renting bicycles was more convenient and fun for getting around. (Florence by Bike rents no-frills city bikes for only about $60 a week.)

By the end of the two weeks we were able to communicate basic needs and understand a great deal more than that, plus we had recipes and wine sense enough to host excellent dinner parties for years to come. Most importantly, we are now able to say with confidence that we experienced a small slice of real Italian life... that definitely left us hungry for more.