Villas and house for rent in Lucca. Come and enjoy the comfort of a luxury holiday

14-DAY ITALIAN COUNTRYSIDE TOUR: CHEESE, BREAD & WINE — an adventure in FERMENTATION
From 4 to 18 SEPTEMBER 2011

• 3 regions: Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont
• 12 wine experiences: Visits to vineyards, guided tastings with sommelier, food and wine pairings; Nobile di Montepulciano, Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Barolo, etc.
• 3 bread experiences: focaccia, potato bread, visit flour and corn mill
• 3 cheese experiences including a whole day at Slow Food Cheese fair at Bra
• 2 cooking lessons: pici of Siena, porcini of the Garfagnana
• 3 festivals including the Luminaria of Lucca
• Sightseeing: Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, Arezzo, Barga, Lucca, Parma

Transfer from Chiusi-Chianciano Terme train station to La Palazzina, Radicofani, our accommodation in the Val d’Orcia, a World Heritage Site, for the next six nights. Guided wine tasting and welcome dinner with master winemaker.

Our first wine experience is at a Nobile di Montepulciano vineyard, where we tour the vineyard and the cellars. We taste wine from the barrel, a privilege usually reserved for wine professionals.
Montepulciano is our next stop, where you are free to have lunch and explore. Next to the magnificent Renaissance Piazza Grande is one of the last coppersmiths in Tuscany. Dinner at La Palazzina.

Off to Mount Amiata—an extinct volcano. Renowned for its wild mushrooms, truffles, chestnuts, olive oil, game and wild berries, it is also home to the Cinta Senese pig, a breed dating back to at least the 14th century, which until 20 years ago was nearly extinct. After a visit to the farm, we have lunch in the nature reserve where you can taste the Cinta and find out how lucky it is that it was saved from extinction. After lunch we return to La Palazzina for a pasta lesson with Eliana.

Today our sommelier takes us to a family vineyard that makes Chianti outside the ‘Classico’ area. We tour the original 19th century cellar dug into tufa rock, taste their excellent wine and learn what makes it different from Nobile di Montepulciano. The afternoon is free to visit the ancient hill town of San Casciano dei Bagni, indulge in treatments at the award-winning spa Fonteverde, or simply relax at La Palazzina. Visit: www.fonteverdespa.com

A self-sufficient morning at Il Casale making ciaccia, as the Val d’Orcians call focaccia, in a wood-fired oven. The flour and oil
come from the farm. For lunch we’ll eat our bread with cheese, also produced at Il Casale. In the afternoon, free time in Pienza. Dinner at La Palazzina.

Today we encounter one of Italy’s best known wines, Brunello di Montalcino. With our sommelier we find out why it is also one of Tuscany’s best loved wines. Lunch in Montalcino and free time for sightseeing. We return to La Palazzina for our farewell dinner of historical dishes matched to appropriate wines.

We bid farewell to the Val d'Orcia and head to the Garfagnana in northern Tuscany. Luckily we arrive at Arezzo in time to lunch at a restaurant with one of the top wine sommeliers in Italy. Arezzo merits a visit in its own right for its churches and art, especially the Piero della Francesca cycle, 'The Legend of the True Cross'. We continue to agriturismo La Costa on the lower slopes of the Appennine Mountains north of Lucca, our home for the next four nights. Dinner tonight at a village festival.

We help Vitelina make caprino, goat's milk cheese, and ricotta from the milk of her own herd that grazes in the mountain woodlands. We visit the maturing room and taste the cheese. We have a lunch appointment at the festival of pork butchers in a fortified hilltop village, after which we stop for free time in Barga.

Get involved in making wine. Learn to pick and select grapes at a biodynamic vineyard, see wine in the early stages of fermentation, lunch and wine tasting. In the afternoon a cooking lesson with fresh porcini.

A free day to explore the exquisite walled town of Lucca. Among its treasures are its landscaped Renaissance walls, the amphitheatre still bearing traces of its Roman and mediaeval origins, many churches, paintings and sculptures. We lunch in a 16th-century palazzo. Tonight Lucca glows in the light of thousands of candles as it celebrates the Volto Santo, a carving of Christ, which according to legend arrived miraculously in the city in 742 AD.

This morning you'll make your own loaf of Garfagnana potato bread, a Slow Food presidium, with Paolo, the village baker, in his wood-fired oven. While the bread ferments and rises we find out all about farro of the Garfagnana (an even more primitive wheat than spelt). Paolo's wife cooks our lunch which we wash down with farro beer made next door. We continue through rugged mountain scenery to Parma, where we eat at one of Parma's most traditional restaurants. Our wine will be the local Lambrusco, usually undrinkable in the rest of the world, but absolutely delicious in its home territory.

Making parmigiano reggiano is a much more complicated and lengthy process than pecorino or caprino. We arrive at Davide's farm in time to witness the dramatic raising of the parmesan. We tour the dairy ending in the farm shop for a tasting. Next we visit the specialist who matures Davide's parmesan - imagine a warehouse full of 50,000 cheeses! Now we cross the Po Plain to our final destination, Slow Food's cheese fair at Bra. Our accommodation for the next three nights will be at Cà San Ponzio just above the town of Barolo, Piedmont.

All cheese is made from milk and rennet and undergoes fermentation, yet there are thousands of different cheeses, many of which are present at Slow Food Cheese. A free day to investigate the stalls lining the streets of the town, to attend workshops and tastings (sign up on line nearer the time) and discover a new world of cheese. Dinner at Boccondivino, a Slow Food restaurant.

Explore the picturesque town of La Morra before we tour an artisan mill that grinds biodynamic wheat and corn. Our lunch at the mill will consist of pizza, focaccia, polenta and cakes made with flour from their mill. We'll bring some farro of the Garfagnana to compare with the even more primitive monococcum wheat polished at the mill. Free time in Barolo before a tour of the cantina and wine tasting at small family winemaker that clings tenaciously to the old methods of producing Barolo. Farewell dinner at La Cantinetta, Barolo, where the best of Italian cuisine meets its best wines.

Departure. Transport provided to Bra train station with connections to Turin and Milan.

Fattoria La Palazzina, Radicofani
An 18th-century villa on Etruscan foundations which sits on a tranquil hilltop overlooking the rolling landscape of the Val d'Orcia.
Visit: www.fattorialapalazzina.net

Agriturismo La Costa, Fosciandora
A former monastery divided into huge apartments, restored with attention to historic details. Panoramic views over the Serchio Valley and Alpi Apuane.
Visit: www.agriturismo-lacosta.com

Cà San Ponzio, Vergne
Two brother builders have lovingly restored their family farmhouse as a B&B. Breakfast includes homemade cakes and jam. The wine cellar is open to guests.
Visit: http://www.casanponzio.com/english.htm

Heather Jarman
Ex archeologist ,chef and orchestra and art manager now shares her knowledge of this captivating land with her guests as she leads them on these poetic artisan food tours over her adopted homeland.

Lucia Norrito
Shares her communities cultural traditions with people who travel to learn , compare cultures and
exchange ideas as a means of relaxing and regenerating their minds, bodies and souls.

PRICE PER PERSON: €3,850 (Euros)
SINGLE SUPPLEMENT: €355 (Euros)

Itinerary is subject to change if necessary due to weather or agricultural conditions or other events outside our control.

INCLUDES

• 14 nights nights in welcoming, relaxing accommodation, en suite bathrooms
• Local ground transportation for 15 days
• Daily continental breakfast, 9 lunches, 13 dinners
• Entrance to wine tastings, cooking lessons, guided visits with producers

DOES NOT INCLUDE

• Airfares
• Travel and cancellation insurance
• Spa treatments
• Wine and drinks, other than those served with meals, additional meals
• Personal expenses such as telephone, mini-bar, etc.

Dress
Informal Jeans or smart trousers are acceptable everywhere.
Good walking shoes and socks are required for pig farm, truffle hunt and olive picking.

The weather in October
Val d’Orcia: 9–15°C/48–60°F, Rain 69 mm/2.7
Lucca: 11–21°C/52–70°F,Rain 119 mm/4.7 in

Weather right now:
http://www.weather.com/weather/today/ITXX0037