Packaged adventures:
Olive Oil, Chestnuts + Polenta
Sunday 9 – Saturday 15 November 2008 (OCP08/1)
Sunday 16 – Saturday 22 November 2008 (OCP08/2)
Late autumn and the world wears a gold theme — the chestnut leaves are yellow and falling fast. It’s time for the olive harvest. The oil is called ‘Lucca gold’, which is why it’s so surprising to see that the newly pressed oil is grass green. But then, almost everything is surprising about this Adventure. You’ll discover that oil vintages are as important as wine vintages. And who would have thought that you could taste the difference between five polentas made with different maize flour — and want to take some home to cook it again and again? Activities include:
- Wine and olive oil tasting
- Pick and press olives, and bottle your own oil
- Visit Bruno Bertoncini at his castagneto (chestnut estate) to see chestnuts drying in a metato (traditional drying house) and taste cakes and beer made from chestnuts
- Visit Ercolano Regoli, fourth-generation miller, at his eighteenth-century water mill where wheat, maize and chestnuts are still being ground on traditional millstones
- Visit Alvaro Ferrari, maize farmer and champion polenta cook, to understand what makes ancient 8-row maize distinctive
- Free day in the walled town of Lucca for sightseeing and shopping, or rent a bicycle and tour the tops of the 17th-century walls
Picking olives |
Removing corn from the cob |
Cooking polenta |
Lucca cathedral |
- Learn to cook with local autumn ingredients with Lucchese chef Gianluca Pardini
- Polenta, salumi and wine tasting at Andrea Bertucci’s parallel gastronomic universe, the Osteria ‘Il Vecchio Mulino’, beneath the 12th-century fortress in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana
- Special guided tour of the gardens at Villa Reale, Marlia, one of the villas owned by Elisa Bonaparte
- Grand finale: dinner at Michelin-starred restaurant La Mora
- Optional concert or other cultural event
 Accommodation: Hotel Villa Volpi, Mastiano (Lucca, Tuscany)
An elegantly restored, 18th-century, traditional farmhouse with 4* amenities including en-suite bathrooms, air-conditioning/central heating, swimming pool. Some events take place at the adjacent Villa Volpi restaurant which is run by Piero Morelli, leader of the Serchio di Lucca Slow Food Convivium.
Price: €2150
Single supplement: €190
Notes
More details of the programme will be sent nearer the time. The weather is variable and can be chilly with occasional rain, a good reason to relax in front of the hotel fire with a grappa, but for outings layered clothing, rain gear and wellies or waterproof walking boots are recommended.
Meeting points
Pisa International Airport (Galileo Galilei)
or the following train stations:
Pisa Centrale
Lucca
Ponte a Moriano
International travel advice
For more information on flights to Pisa International Airport, please click here.
For information on arriving by train The Man in Seat Sixty-One gives much good advice.
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