Inside Tuscany Wine and Food $1900 September 6-13 2008
Travel in Italy, shown left with our happy group lounging outside Casa Luisa. We love sharing our favorite insider spots in Tuscany with you. Whether day-tripping to food and wine destinations, or living inside local traditions gets your travel compass resonating, we've got two different one-week itineraries with a perspective on this different culture to inform your world view while there, and may change it upon your return. (Warning: this travel may be addictive!). All of our groups consist of six travelers, plus Nancy and Gary. You can bring your own group of six, or come solo and see Italy with fresh eyes. For an itinerary, call 214.696.2327 or email sales@flavorsfromafar.com . Comments from our travelers: "A simple Thank you isn't good enough. Our trip exceeded our expectations - beginning with the villa, then all of the wonderful excursions, topped off with the absolute best food ever..." Jenna C. "It was such a wonderful experience and you both were amazing hosts. Thanks again for the trip of a lifetime!" Marsha V. "In all, it was just simply a marvelous trip. It was nothing like any tour I've ever taken. Gary and Nancy made everything in Italy so easy for us. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!" Jene G.
Our Inside Tuscany Wine and Food Trip Includes:
A villa stay near Siena
Day trips to Florence, Montepulciano, Deruta, San Gmignano, Siena
Wine tasting in Chianti
Cooking Class in Siena
Ceramics shopping and lunch with Luca Pimpinelli's family in Deruta
Olive oil and wine tasting with Betty and Cesare Nadalini
$1900 ($2400 after May 1) includes lodging, ground transportation, tastings and classes, breakfast and happy hour munchies
New! Trip to Sicily September 14-21 $3000 Includes Almost Everything Except Air
Sicily is our new love. It's an island as Greek as it is Italian, with terrain that changes from ocean to hills to plains and back again. If you haven't been, it's time to go with someone you know! We'll travel with natives and get behind the scenes, as always! Click here for a complete itinerary. Gio Passalaqua, our guide, will be here in June to tell you the stories of Greek temples, salt flats, fabulous food, visits with local producers, and 4-Star Hotels. Questions? Give us a call and come on down!
Picking Tuscan Olives and Slipping Through Time
Picking olives in Tuscany plants you firmly in the boots of those who have worked here for centuries. As sun streams down the Tuscan hills, time dissolves as asynchronous church bells in the valley argue the hour. The work of picking is repetitive and meditative; it tolls the hours as well, and its stillness stills you.
We traveled last fall with a group of “migrant workers” from Dallas and Atlanta and met Carolyn Adair, retired Director of Student Activities at Texas A&M, who has found her true calling here on the Tuscan hillsides growing olives and producing her “Amici” olive oil. Her grove is part of a hillside parcel owned by partner Daniele Raspini, who restored I Camini, the farmhouse where we made our home for the week. I Camini (“the fireplaces”) stands on the side of a terraced hillside and was on its way to crumbling back into the ground when Daniele had the vision to restore it and recreate it as livable space. Now, with its large fireplace in the capacious main room, and second-story deck overlooking the town below, the farmhouse provides a context, brimming with a sense of layers of lives lived and meals shared inside. Click here for the rest of the story.....
More Travel News:
Local author and food writer Sharon Hudgins recently returned to Texas after working as the Resident Expert for National Geographic Expeditions on an 18-day tour across Russia and Mongolia—6,000 miles on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, from Vladivostok to Ulaan Bataar to Moscow. The tour visited many of the places she described in her award-winning book, The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of Life in Siberia and the Russian Far East ($19.95 at Flavors From Afar).
Here is an excerpt from her story "Dinner in the Diner - The Trans-Siberian Express"
After working for eight days in Russia on a food article I was writing for an American magazine, I boarded a chartered Trans-Siberian train in Vladivostok, in Russia's Far East, along with 70 other passengers from the United States and 35 Russian crew members.We were embarking on the longest continuous railroad journey in the world, across the largest country on the planet, on the iron road that was the greatest engineering achievement of its time—the Trans-Siberian Railroad, built between 1891 and 1916.
Italy Through a Golden Eye: A Quick Trip with a Tuscan and Umbrian Focus
Landing in sun-drenched Italy soothes even the most jet-lagged souls. Cruising down the Autostrada and diverting down side roads when the mood strikes is the reward for navigating the Milan airport car rental counter and its maze of airport exits. We started to unwind when the sunburnt sienna and ochre hues of the impossibly beautiful landscape began to unfurl before us: every moment a photo-op, a movie set, but it’s real and just keeps on coming......Click here to read on..
Places to Stay in Tuscany
Renting a villa in Tuscany is one way to sense more surely the essence of the area. We have stayed in these three places, and would recommend them all.
