Day 1

Transfer from Pisa airport, Pisa Centrale or Lucca train station via the Devil's Bridge to Agriturismo 'Il Venturo', our farm home for the coming week. Aperitivi and introduction to the tour before our welcome dinner at the farm's restaurant with a menu composed almost entirely of ingredients produced and prepared on the farm.

Day 2

Stefania's ravenous silkworms await us to give them Sunday brunch, and Stefania illuminates the complicated process of turning the cocoons into fabric. Lunch at a nearby restaurant whose owners are active members of Slow Food. Our next stop is Villa Torrigiani where our private tour takes us behind its extravagant baroque façade to an interior where original silk bedclothes mingle with granddad's needlepoint. Next a village festival or return home for dinner at the farm.

Day 3

Cerasa farm is trying to save the Garfagnina breed of sheep. Signora Gemma shows us how she makes pecorino cheese, and we find out why ricotta isn't cheese. Her daughter Ombretta takes over the dairy to dye some of their sheep's wool. Papa Mario joins us for the homemade lunch and philosophises about life when he was a boy. We spend the afternoon at a modern mill that weaves cashmere scarves for top international fashion houses on traditional Garfagnana handlooms and shop at the factory outlet. Dinner at Andrea's parallel gastronomic universe.

Day 4

In the morning we have a private tour of the Laboratorio Maria Niemack in Lucca. Niemack made a definitive collection of traditional local textiles and dress, handsome and simple fabrics made of wool, cotton and locally grown hemp; the collection includes a number of traditional floor looms. Then free time to sightsee, shop and lunch in Lucca. With its renaissance walls, its churches, its towers, its amphitheatre and its human size, Lucca offers many attractions. We return to Il Venturo for a cooking lesson to learn to make ravioli with our Cerasa ricotta and nettles we pick ourselves.

Day 5

This morning we go to the mountain village of Petrognola to learn to make traditional Garfagnana potato bread with the village baker, Paolo Magazzini. While our bread rises, we'll see the colossal farro-polishing machine. Farro (emmer) is an even more primitive wheat than spelt and is still grown today on terraces around the village. While our loaves bake in the wood-fired oven, Teresa Bertei demonstrates spinning hemp with a distaff and drop spindle. Lunch will be the bread we baked with typical dishes made with farro. We stop at the water mill that grinds Paolo's farro on the way to a pizza party with a beekeeper.

Day 6

First to Carlo Galgani the blacksmith who makes agricultural tools and kitchen implements using water power. Then to Romeo Ricciardi who, as a pensioner, has learned to weave traditional textile patterns of Lucca with hand-spun hemp. Picnic lunch at the Nottolini aqueduct, followed by a session learning to make and use local seasonal dyestuffs to dye the Cerasa wool, which you can keep. On the way home we stop at Barga, with its sublime romanesque cathedral and one of my favourite family restaurants, where we have dinner.

Day 7

This morning we head to San Pellegrino in Alpe, high in the Apennines, to its ethnographic museum, full of weird and wonderful objects that will provoke many a game of Twenty Questions. Find your own lunch in one of the village restaurants, after which an optional walk to see the wild gentians in flower and to work up an appetite for our farewell dinner at Il Venturo.

Day 8

Transfer to Pisa airport or train station.

Price

Per Person €1875 (Euros)

Single Supplement: none

Includes

Friendly knowledgeable English-speaking guide throughout your stay

7 nights welcoming, relaxing accommodation, en suite bathrooms

Local ground transportation for 8 days

Daily continental breakfast, 4 lunches, 6 dinners

Cooking lessons, guided visits with artisans, museum and villa entrance fees

Does Not Include

Airfares

Travel and cancellation insurance

Wine and drinks, other than those served with meals, additional meals

Personal expenses such as telephone, mini-bar, etc.

Meeting Points

Pisa airport, Pisa Centrale train station, Lucca train station

If you are flying from outside Europe, we suggest you arrive a couple of days early to recover from jet lag so you can fully enjoy your time with us. We are happy to advise about where to stay and eat and what to do before and after your tour.

Dress

Informal. Jeans or smart trousers are acceptable everywhere. Raincoat/jacket advisable. Good walking shoes are required for optional walks.

Weather in May

10 – 22°C/50 – 72˚F, precipitation 61 mm/2.4 in

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