Food Channel Tastes of Tuscany July 2 to 8, 2012 July 2 ARRIVE FLORENCE! Arrive and check into your hotel, located in the historical center of Florence with a roof-top garden looking out over the red roof tops of Florence. Your hotel is conveniently located right across the street from the world headquarters of Ferragamo shoes! This afternoon you will have a local orientation tour of Florence including Michelangelo s David. Then it s off to dinner Italian style! Welcome Drink and Dinner included. July 3 Taste of Florence Tour and Tuscan Oil, Wine and Truffle Tasting! Your first stop is at the market, where the locals do their shopping. Here, you taste several cheeses, including pecorino and parmigiano, sauces and chutneys, balsamic vinegars and extra virgin olive oils, crostini and wine. To wash down these wonderful tastings we ll visit a local wine shop that is a hidden treasure! Here, you taste Tuscan and Italian wines and learn about their origins. Of course we finish with Florence's oldest and best gelato shops, where you try gelato, sorbetto and semi-freddi. Afterwards an optional visit to the Uffizi or shopping! You may want to visit the gold shops on Ponte Vecchio! Dinner will be an experience of the best that Tuscany has to offer with a focus on olive oil, wine and truffles. You have heard about how terroir affects wine but did you know that it affects olive oil as well. Tonight you will taste olive oil made from a variety of kinds of olives and learn why the Tuscan oil is considered the gold standard for olive oil! You will also get a taste of the amazing truffle and you ll wonder how such an ugly tuber can offer up such a delicate flavor! We ll have a wine expert on hand to tell you about the Tuscan wines and an oil expert to fill you on the variety of oils. In short, tonight s wine and food experience will be about Paradise! All food tastings, Olive oil tastings, wine tasting and your local Italian food experts included. Dinner included as well. www.tuscanytours.com 800 634 3460 Copyright Tuscany Tours 2010
July 4 Market to the Table market day and cooking school! Today your driver will take you to the medieval town of Certaldo where you will take a cooking class with Giuseppina. Your class begins at the market in Certaldo where you ll get to meet local characters and bargain for the ingredients to make your Tuscan lunch. You will create authentic, mouthwatering Tuscan recipes and discover the secrets of Italian cuisine when it's prepared in the region where it originated. After a day in the Tuscan kitchen you will travel on to your home deep in the Chianti vineyards. A long cypress-lined drive takes you into Dievole, a private eight hundred acre vineyard estate located in majestic Chianti Classico hill country. VILLA DIEVOLE is set in tranquil surroundings, nestled in the beautiful Tuscan hills. Cypress and olive trees, farreaching vineyards, hidden villages and magnificent medieval buildings dominate the landscape. Reputed wines have been produced at Dievole for over 900 years. Cooking school, lunch, introduction to Dievole wines and light dinner at Dievole included.
July 5 - lunch in the family vineyards Sleep in and then it s off to lunch in Claudio and Alba s vineyards, where you will meet their family who will be your hosts for the day. You ll drive down a back road and pass row after row of grape vines and olive trees. Finally you ll arrive in the middle of the rolling green Chianti hills at one of the most beautiful intersections of woods, vineyards and olive groves that we know of. You will spend the morning in the kitchen with Alba and you ll feel like part of the family as you help prepare your lunch. You will learn how to make a light and airy béchamel sauce using olive oil instead of butter. Wild boar lasagna is on the menu and a fruit tart once again using olive oil for the crust instead of butter! You will have a five course lunch, each course accompanied by the wines of the vineyard. Afterwards the family will take you to visit their cantina. This day in the vineyards will be a highlight as you dine in famiglia. Lunch and lots of wine included. Light dinner at Dievole included.
July 6 SIENA and JEWELRY TASTING Your driver will pick you up and you are off on a magical tour of Siena. Your local Siena guide will take you to visit the splendid cathedral and cathedral museum, and the square where Siena s famous horse race, The Palio is run. You will meet one of Siena s most famous characters, Antonio De Miccoli in his Antica Pizzicheria. At Antonio s you will discover why Tuscans have a love affair with all things home made. Hanging from the ceiling are hundreds of hand-cured hams (prosciutti); on the shelves all kinds of sheep milk cheeses some cured in walnut leaves and some in grape skins, some young and soft and buttery and some aged and crumbling as you reach for the slices served on thick Tuscan bread. Then there are the hundreds of bottle of carefully selected Chianti and Brunello to wash it all down. Home to your villa to rest and have a swim before dressing up for tonight s SPECIAL EVENT a WINE and JEWELRY TASTING PARTY with Sebastian and Megan of Del Brenna Artisan Jewelers. Tonight will be a special time to taste and wear the delicious creations of Sebastian a third generation artisan jeweler while mingling with the wine maker and chef of Dievole. Candlelight and music and a night of feasting Lunch and Dinner included!.
July 7 Artisan Producers! Every Tuscan meal begins with hand sliced salame. But do you know how many kinds of salame there are? Today is devoted to meeting some of the best producers of salame and the other famous product you will find on every Tuscan table pecorino cheese. You will visit a family butcher shop where you ll be given generous samples of many different types of salame. Next stop, the family run cheese farm where you can line up with the locals (who say that this cheese reminds them of old days when their mother s used to make cheese at home) for a taste of the just-made-fresh ricotta. Ten other kinds of cheeses are made from the milk of the heard you will see grazing in the field next door. You can sample them all, including one particularly ugly one that is called Buccia di Rospo (toad s skin) and was first created by mistake! It s the one the locals now love the most! You ll learn how the cheese is made and you ll sample all nine kinds! Then at Dievole an outdoor barbeque in the Rose Garden as the final farewell dinner. Weather permitting you will eat outside as the sun sets over the Chianti hills. Sip your super-tuscan wine from Dievole and reminisce about your favorite flavors and sites from the past week. Dievole s chef will be on hand to answer any questions you have and make your last night s meal a festival to remember. July 8 Buon Viaggio! The bus leaves at 9 AM to take you to the Florence airport or train station. Transfers to Rome or other points can be arranged at a separate cost.
Dates: July 2 to July 8, 2012 Cost: $3965.00 US dollars per person based on double occupancy. The cost is based on double occupancy and a minimum of 16 participants is required. Register now to hold your place A deposit of $350 deposit is due March 15 th with final balance due April 15. The trip is escorted by Tom and Leslie Carter of Walk and Talk with Tom and Leslie. There are local excursions using local authorized (and hand picked!) guides. Included in the price is: Lodging 2 nights lodging at central Florence Four Star Hotel Tornabuoni Beacci http://www.tornabuonihotels.com/ 4 nights lodging at the Wine Resort Villa Dievole http://www.villa-dievole.com/english/home/ Hotels subject to availability Meals: All breakfasts, all lunches (except arrival day), all dinners, Wine Tastings at least 4 wine tastings Olive Oil Tasting Cooking School All admissions to scheduled museums and attractions. All scheduled ground transfers after arrival at the Florence hotel. Tuscany Tours cancellation policy is as follows: CANCELLATION POLICY Cancellation 60 days or more before the tour: 50% refund Cancellation 30 days or more before the tour: 25% refund Cancellation less than 30 days before the tour: 0% refund For other terms and conditions, please see: http://www.tuscanytours.com/terms_conditions.cfm We recommend and can help you purchase trip insurance. Please note that trip insurance often must be purchased within 14 days of your first trip payment in order to cover pre-existing conditions.