Glorious morning last Thursday: we started our lessons about spices. Teachers and students were sitting around the table on which stood out a gorgeous and colorful tray full of aromatic herbs and spices, partly bought together at the open market last week, partly collected from teachers in their gardens.

Who entered the class-room could intensely smell the fresh fragrance of mint, of thyme, of laurel mixed with the exotic aromas of cinnamon, of cloves and of other Asiatic spices.

Each pupils had prepared researches about one or two spices/aromatic herbs and explained their origin, their commerce, their use in ancient and in modern times – in cosmetic, in cuisine, in medicine, in religion - and also the myths and the legends connected to some of them.

We all liked this “cross-senses” lesson, we liked to smell, to touch, to taste each spice or plant and we appreciated the different shades of colours. We also had a big map of the world rolled out on the table and we put every spice on its home land in order to get clearly which one belongs to our Mediterranean area and which one comes from very far, from Africa or even from the far East, from India or from China.

Benedetta is watching and analysing somepink  crystals of Himalayan salt

And Beatrice is carefully holding a piece of star anise (anice stellato in italian)