I'm starting to write this on the 12th day of Christmas, when according to legend the three Wise Kings arrived in Bethlehem bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. My gift to you are twelve artisans who have been an indispensable part of my tours and courses almost since they began. They and their families are  dear to me. I rejoice when a baby is born and when a child decides to follow in its parents’ footsteps. I cry when someone is injured and when elderly relations die.

I don’t purport to be a ‘wise king’, but much of the wisdom I attempt to pass on to you, my valued clients, I have thirstily lapped up from these artisans, who possess the wisdom of a life of doing, a variety of wisdom not taught in academic departments. Some of you have told me I’ve changed your life, of which I’m immensely proud. In fact, the credit is due to these artisans to whom I introduce you today, and to the multitude of others who I will try to bring to you in future blogs.

Massimo has been teaching our Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany since it started in 2010. He follows his grandfather and father as a butcher and norcino (butcher who cures pork). His 95-year-old father still works in the shop. Massimo brags that the only thing they've changed over the years is reducing the amount of salt in their sausages and salami. Even the spice mixture is the same. The secret recipe has been mixed and ground for them at the same drogheria (here spices are called drugs) in Carrara for 100 years. Attention to detail is important. He says that only crazy norcini would take the time to clean all the tendons from the shoulder muscles before chopping them to make sausages and salami.

Since he doesn't have any children of his own, I was overjoyed when his niece decided to join the family business five years ago. Since then they've opened a tiny wine bar where we have our tasting lunch after the workshop. Massimo is a great connoisseur of wine, as well as salumi. He also loves to talk about his philosophy and about tradition. I've learned from him about the strong connection between a product and its environment and that it should be mandatory to visit a place in order to taste its characteristic cuisine. He's the reason why you have to come to my artisans' workshops to learn how to make their products.

Vineyards clothe every hill in Tuscany. You can find hundreds of vineyard visits online and book your own. You don't need me to help you. Yet occasionally a vineyard is special because the owner is special, and I feel compelled to take my guests to experience it. Fattoria di Bacchereto is one of those. I felt Rossella's inner strength as soon as I met her. She has a clear vision of how to allow her vines to yield up their best grapes and how to make wine with respect for her grapes. When she started working with her father, he was farming like his neighbours: lots of inputs of fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. Rossella had a different idea. She wanted to step back and allow the vines to find their own way to be strong and resilient. For example, she doesn't irrigate or add fertiliser which would encourage the roots to proliferate on the surface. If you don't give them anything, their roots will grow deep and find what they need in the soil. Maybe your yield will be lower, but the expression in your wine of your unique terroir will be stronger. When she took me to the vineyard, I observed her observing the vines as if she were continually trying to understand their personalities, as if they were people she could communicate with.  

In the cellar she has that same perception and understanding of the interactions between the grapes, the must, the natural yeasts, the temperature and the rhythm of winemaking. From Rossella I learn the art of close observation, of allowing the natural world to tell you what goals to set and how to achieve them. We go to Bacchereto on the Tastes & Textiles: Wine to Dye For and the Autumn in Tuscany tours. ​

Francesca has been a friend from even before I started Sapori & Saperi Adventures. She befriended me looking bewildered at an agricultural meeting near her farm just outside Barga. She had abandoned graphic design to buy a run-down farm to try her hand at beekeeping. She renovated the farm buildings to become her house and two apartments and a double bedroom for paying guests. Meanwhile her two donkeys were eating their way through a hillside of brambles to reveal an olive grove which she didn't know she had. Producing olive oil joined the honey and agriturismo (not to mention caring for a young daughter). She has a warm heart and open house. Her friends flock to her place, and I spent many a joyous Christmas and Easter there. And I was with her during her very difficult divorce. I've learned from her how you can be tough while also being warm and hospitable.

Wanting my clients to experience the warmth of Italian hospitality, I took them to learn about bees and mono-floral honey, but especially for pizza parties with her friends, a chance to mix with locals. Now she's a chef. She was at the forefront of a new initiative by Coldiretti, her agricultural association, to teach people with agriturismi how to use their produce more interestingly in their restaurants. The only stand-alone cooking lesson I offer, 'No shopping list, no recipes', is taught by Francesca. If you're looking for an idyllic place to chill out surrounded by exquisite mountain scenery, you can't do better than Francesca's Al Benefizio. (She speaks excellent English but the website is in Italian. Best to phone or send a message on WhatsApp.)

Nadia wasn't one of my original weavers, but a thread links her to those who I began with and have either died or become a nonna, too busy to weave anymore. She seems quiet; even timid; but not a bit of it. She takes new challenges in her stride. In 2000 she took advantage of a free one-year course offered by the comune on traditional Lucchese weaving. It unleashed her creativity, and she continued weaving, figuring out how to get a stand at craft fairs in Florence and Lucca, where I met her in 2019. Her next giant step was to take a permanent shop in Lucca and move her loom in. Despite having to figure out the logistics and bureaucracy and having to meet a monthly rent bill, she's thriving. She can't weave enough of her gorgeous scarves in muted colours to fulfil the passing trade. She taught me that if you have a solid plan and work diligently, you can succeed.

Now we collaborate on a 'Weave your own souvenir' workshop during my Tastes & Textiles: Hanging by a Thread tour. Each participant weaves a square of cloth in a typical Lucchese pattern which she (so far no men) can take home to make into a little bag or glasses or cell phone case.

If you drive along the narrow river valley of the Torrente Pedogna, carefully avoiding the main road to Pescaglia, and turn onto a dirt track just before your road crosses the river, you'll see in front of you an unremarkable stone building. Get out of your car and peer through the door where in the gloom you'll discern a small man crouched over a glowing piece of iron held beneath a hydraulic hammer. This is the blacksmith Carlo Galgani. He's 85 years old, or maybe 86, and has been working in this forge since he learned the craft from his father. The Galgani family have been blacksmiths in this valley for 500 years, as documented in the Lucca archives. The forge is powered entirely by water, channeled off the river up valley. I fit a visit to Carlo into every tour I possibly can: Artisan Bread Course Tuscany and Tastes & Textiles: Hanging by a Thread.

This story brings tears to my eyes. Carlo has three adult children. The sons moved to other parts of Italy, but his daughter stayed in his village and has two sons. As teenagers they helped Carlo during summer holidays, and Nicola decided to continue working with his grandfather. He had learned the necessary skills to make farm implements and household tools, but Carlo worried that he still needed to teach him to repair the antique machinery for which parts are no longer available, not to mention maintaining the water canal and tubing. At this point Nicola came to the sad conclusion that he couldn't earn enough money working with his grandfather. Carlo owns his house and forge outright; he has a Fiat Panda which never wears out; he doesn't want a cell phone and anyway there's no signal at the forge; he cooks his own lunch on the forge fire. Nicola, on the other hand, is a young man and needs money for a house, car, phone, evening out with his friends. Two men working with their hands simply can't produce enough at a price the locals are willing to pay to fund even a modest modern lifestyle.

I keep trying to learn from Carlo the patient fatalism of the many elderly people I know. Sometimes you have to accept that a way of life which has sustained craftspeople for 500 years will die.

In this stall and this rudimentary dairy at the end of a dirt road, Enea Giunti lives quietly off the grid, with his wife Valeria, as a goatherd, cheesemaker, cereal farmer and baker, never deviating from his principles of self-sufficiency. He has been one of the teachers on our Theory & Practice of Italian Cheese course since it began in 2015, but not always. His trust in nature to guide the timing of his activities means sometimes in April, when I run the course, he doesn't have any milk because his goats didn't kid in time. Or it's too cold in his unheated dairy for the lactic coagulation of his French-style goat cheeses. But when we do visit him, he impresses the course participants with the ease with which he makes what is regarded as a difficult category of cheese. Which starter cultures does he use, professional cheesemakers ask. The ones on his skin and in the air in the dairy. They've been his friends for many years, and he doesn't need to import strangers. His favourite times of day are early morning and evening when he goes out to pasture with his goats, never with his cell phone.

I've learned from Enea that if you work with nature instead of against it, you can produce a small quantity of a fine product with less effort. I've tasted a lot of chèvre made by other diaries small and large, and his stands out for its texture and complexity of flavour.

If you want a real-life example of carpe diem, Paolo is it. He makes the Slow Food Presidium Potato Bread of the Garfagnana; he's a farro and potato farmer; he hulls farro for himself and other farmers; and he's a cattle farmer. The first and third of those resulted from crises. His mother was the village baker. She got cancer at an early age, and on her death bed she confessed to Paolo how sad she felt that her bread would no longer be made in her village. How can an Italian boy resist a plea from a mother? Even though he was already a full-time farro and cattle farmer, he promised her he would carry on making her bread according to her recipe, with her sourdough starter and baked in a wood-fired oven. True to his promise, he's still at it. He was instrumental in registering it as a Slow Food Presidium. He now delivers to shops and restaurants down the Serchio River Valley to Lucca and beyond without ever making an effort to sell it to new customers.

Crisis number 2. Farro is a primitive wheat. Unlike modern varieties of wheat, it's not free threshing, which means the grain doesn't come out of its hull without a special process. It used to be done by millers who covered their millstones with cork and squeezed the seeds out of their hulls without damaging the grain, after which the chaff was winnowed from the grain which could then be ground into flour or cooked whole like rice and pearled barley. One night Paolo's miller died of a heart attack. In the next few days while standing in the car park of his village desperately cranking a small stone mill to hull his farro, he realised that rice farmers have the same problem. After a quick phone call to Zanotti, a manufacturer of rice polishing machines, a trip to their factory in Piedmont to test a sack of farro, a small grant and a large bank loan, Paolo was the proud owner of a farro hulling and polishing machine. He notified all the farmers around him that he could now process their farro. Like his bread, knowledge of the service spread by word of mouth. He paid off his loan and now his two sons, who tried university only to discover they were farmers at heart, are now running that part of the business.

I've been taking clients to Paolo since I started Sapori & Saperi Adventures in 2005 and he is, of course, one of the teachers on our Artisan Bread Course Tuscany. I've learned many things from Paolo. He's a model of how to maintain a good life-work balance, while probably never realising that he's doing it. But above all, when you lose a key element in your life, you can view it as an opportunity and go for it.

Daniela and her husband Valter are cattle farmers. They farm on the upper slopes of the Montagna Pistoiese, part of the Apennine mountains. I discovered Daniela several years ago from the wrapper on her butter which I bought down in the valley near Lucca. It was actually a ricotta wrapper, so I knew she made cheese, because you can only make ricotta after you've made cheese. I also figured she was a small cheesemaker; if she had been a big dairy, the butter would have been wrapped in the correct label. I went to meet her and was impressed by her calm demeanour despite the pressures of the animals, the dairy, an agriturismo and a young family.

She started herding sheep when she was 9 years old and was the head cheesemaker on her father's farm by the time she was 12. When she married Valter, she moved to his cattle farm across the Lima Valley and transferred her cheesemaking knowledge to cow's milk. She has a small modern dairy and produces enough cheese, ricotta, yoghurt and butter to send to shops and restaurants as far away as Pistoia and Lucca. She took advantage of courses given by a highly respected cheese consultant from the Alps and modified her cheesemaking processes accordingly. Her range of cheeses are excellent. But what I admire most about her is the ability to mix modernity and tradition. The family still practise transhumance, walking their cows from their winter stable up to summer alpine pastures.  Daniela cuts the curd and ladles it into moulds by hand. She decides by eye rather than a pH meter when it had drained enough and is ready for salting. She is one of the cheesemakers who teaches our Theory & Practice of Italian Cheese.

In 2012 when she was snowed in, a friend from the city made her way to the farm and helped her write her autobiography, entitled Come le Stagioni (Like the Seasons). Her life reminds me that living in the countryside and caring for your family and your animals, whatever the seasons may bring, can fill you with love, purpose and joy.

Marzia still makes cheese in one pot over a burner in the minuscule dairy where she learned from  her mother-in-law. She's the most traditional of my cheesemakers and has been teaching the Theory & Practice of Italian Cheese course since it began in 2014. I imagine that her family, her house, her farm are pretty much the same as small Tuscan farms have been for the last century. The stone house is in one of those picturesque mediaeval mountain-top villages. It has been added to and divided up according to the exigencies of the families living in it. Like the house, the family land has been added to and divided up and is dispersed inside and outside the village. The stalls are below the village, so milk has to be brought up in the jeep. Every member of the family has his or her role whether milking or making cheese, or ploughing and planting potatoes and beans, or tending the bees and extracting honey from the hives, or harvesting chestnuts and carefully drying them for grinding into flour. Roberto, Marzia's husband, travels to farmers' markets to sell their produce. They work hard and they're not rich in financial terms, but they're comfortably off with time to be together, and I sense the richness of the love and respect they feel for each other. The happiness that radiates from Marzia's face comes from being satisfied with what she has and not wishing she could live someone else's life.

The Rocchi’s are the first norcini I met when I started my company and were the inspiration for our Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany. When I first met them in 2005, Gino had just come back to the family business after university and a miserable stint working in a bank. He told me to come early on Tuesday morning, the day when he, his father Severino and his uncle Ubaldo did the week's salumi production. I was fascinated by how the sausages, salami, soppressata and biroldo were made, but what struck me even more was how well they worked as a team. Although they joked and laughed as they worked, each man knew his role and did it without even speaking to the others. Gino disappeared and came back with the natural casings from the cellar. Severino headed to the prep room to get the freshly ground spices. Ubaldo opened the cauldron to check whether the boiling heads were soft enough yet. I suppose after four generations, they had the procedure down pat.

But now everything has changed. In the last four years the natural cellar in which they matured their salumi has become hotter and hotter, first in August, then July and August and now often in June and September and even October. There are now not enough cool months in a year to produce enough salumi to last through the hot months, and nowhere to put the salumi when the cellar is too hot. They had to make a difficult decision. Either abandon the natural cellar which had worked for their ancestors, or close. Gino decided to invest in a temperature- and humidity-controlled cabinet. It took a while to get the hang of it. Before this everything was done by feel and experience; now instead of nature deciding, Gino had to set the temperature and humidity day by day. I worried, what if he guessed wrongly? It was a big investment and they needed to produce enough to pay for it. I also hated the idea of abandoning the traditional method for a new one that requires loads of energy. I'm glad the transition has worked for them. And I've learned from the pragmatism of these artisans that sometimes you have to evolve, and if you don't, you'll go extinct.

 Mirko is the only teacher on our Art & Science of Gelato course. Usually I have at least two and often five different teachers to show you different minds and different hands, but there is no one else who understands gelato and the business of running a gelateria as well as Mirko. Although he's a risk-taker, which takes guts, he's kind and soft-hearted, too, a combination rarely found in the same person. When he lost his logistics job in the 2008 economic crisis, he had to find something else to do. He asked himself what he liked best when he was a child: pizza and gelato! He chose gelato only because it has a longer shelf life. But his idea of gelato was one made with natural ingredients, made with knowledge and an artisan's experience. He took gelato courses and found out how to buy a sack of premix, put it in the batch freezer and push a button. He had to do something more daring to realise his dream of making natural gelato. He bought a camper van, packed up the family and toured Italy in search of the grandfathers of gelato, the ones who had never heard of premix or even scales, who did everything by eye and dipped a finger in the mix to test whether it was correct. To learn this method takes years of apprenticeship, and Mirko didn't have years. He came across a man who had figured out what it was that the grandfathers were testing with their fingers and how to codify it. With a few important tweaks and lots of practice on the job, Mirko has refined this scientific side of gelato and now concentrates on inventing new flavours, the art of gelato, and growing his business.

Many people go through life dissatisfied with their work but have no idea of what they would like to do. Maybe they should look to their childhoods and ask themselves what did they enjoy most before they were railroaded onto the conveyor belt of 'respectable' careers. I've learned that to make a living with a traditional product in the world of today, marketing is nearly as important as the product. One thing I'm not sure about, and I watch, sometimes with dismay and sometimes joy, as Mirko takes another risk. In the back of my mind I wonder whether it's possible to keep expanding and still stick to his principles. I hope I'll find out that it is.

Ismaele has been one of the norcini teaching our Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany since its birth in 2010. No, I lie. Two weeks before that one he informed me that he would be walking the Camino di Santiago de Compostela, but all would be OK with his substitutes. He has never been missing since. Like all skilled craftspeople his materials are one with his body and mind. Breaking down a pig has never looked so elegant and easy. He's not worried about climate change. He has an instinct for suitable natural places to mature his salumi. He's equally at home making bread; restoring the buildings on his agriturismo; cutting wood for hot water, heating and his several wood-fired ovens in his three restaurants; rearing pigs, cattle, sheep, donkeys and hens; cultivating farro and formenton otto file (8-row corn), driving his vintage Fiat 500, making wine and vinegar. He once tried cheesemaking, but decided he didn't have time. He avoids mechanisation. He uses a small electric meat grinder, but his sausage and salami stuffer is hand-cranked. He is kind and tolerant of staff who, of course, can't compare to him. I was distraught when his marriage fell apart and glad that he and his ex-wife have remained together on the farm and in the business. I was overjoyed when his five children came into the business and when he sent me a message about the birth of his first grandchild.

So many things I've learned from Ismaele. One is diversify, diversify if you want to survive in the agricultural sector. Another is to treat your colleagues and clients with kindness and fairness and they will reward you in return. There is no such thing as competition. We're all in this together, and if we all pull in the same direction, we have a chance of arriving at our goals.

What qualities have I discovered that are present in these several artisans?

• First and foremost, each one has a vision, not just of where he or she wants to go, but of correct behaviour toward other people and toward the natural world.
• They seek to get the best from the raw materials to hand.
• They are stubborn. They stick to the truth as they see it.
• They see opportunities even in the midst of despair and are brave enough to seize them.
• In their hearts they are kind and gentle. Other people feel good in their presence.
• They are happy. Not always. There are events in life that will make you grieve. But I discern a deep love of life that is too often missing in others.

I end with the words of Daniela Pagliai:

By Alison Goldberger

When I wanted to learn how to make salami I knew travelling to Italy was the only way to do it, so I booked onto the Advanced Salumi Course in Tuscany with Sapori & Saperi Adventures. The course was incredible, and I learned so much.

I was also so impressed by Erica and her company that I asked her if we could collaborate. I’m a Scottish journalist and organic pig farmer but have lived and worked in Austria since 2015. Now I assist Erica with social media and online marketing. I absolutely love telling people about my time on her course and now I am excited to share with you why I think travelling with a local expert in 2022 (and beyond) can only enhance your holiday experience!

One of the most wonderful experiences I had was to dine in restaurants uncovered by Erica after years of eating and living in Tuscany. You can be guaranteed you’re not just eating in the restaurant all the other tourists found online! We were treated to dinner at Il Vecchio Mulino, where Andrea brought out course after course of exquisite local food. Many of Erica’s courses and tours also include meals in private homes. In Capezzano I was welcomed into Gabriella’s home where I ate the best seafood I’ve ever had. The freshest seafood cooked to perfection and an extremely warm welcome – it was an unforgettable experience.

Do you have a passion for prosciutto like I do? It’s unlikely you can just stroll up to any producer and they’ll tell you how it’s done. But when you travel with a local you certainly can, and they are happy to answer all your questions. When learning all about salumi in Tuscany I visited numerous artisans and gleaned the knowledge they’ve garnered over a lifetime. On these tours you’re also supporting these very small businesses, creating wonderful slow food with a passion you’re unlikely to find in large-scale producers. What’s more, you get to taste their incredible products! 

You want to visit a local organic olive oil producer, or have always wondered how chestnut flour is produced, or perhaps gelato is more your thing? These were all requests during my course and every one was fulfilled! I took home a bag of chestnut flour after seeing how chestnuts are dried and milled. I sampled the best pistachio gelato at Cremeria Opera in Lucca and bought the tastiest new-season olive oil from Claudio Orsi of Alle Camelie. Erica has built up so many contacts across the region and she is happy to help visitors find what they’re looking for.

Erica drove us during our course so she was always on hand to answer questions and give us explanations about what we were seeing as we travelled. It was information born from a passion for Tuscany and gave us a wonderful insight into the history of the region as well as what it’s really like to live there. This is a feature of all tours and courses from Sapori & Saperi. For instance, on the Tastes & Textiles tours participants learn all about Lucca’s rich tradition of producing textiles. Meeting local craftspeople provides a wealth of knowledge you couldn’t get elsewhere!

By Alison Goldberger

2020 is definitely a year none of us will ever forget, that's for sure. It all started off so promisingly with lots of excitement about meeting all of you who had booked on a tour or course! Of course we all know how it ended—with a year very difficult for a small tourism business. Although we were disappointed we had to cancel many tours and didn't get to meet you, we were buoyed by all your messages, interaction on our social accounts and hope you enjoyed the virtual tours we ran. And of course, it wasn't ALL bad, and Erica and I have survived the year in good health! So we'll start our review at the beginning, before we had even heard of the virus that would characterise the year...

One of our first posts on Facebook was this stunning photo taken from Erica's window. She captioned it: 'The view from my window. Must be a good omen for 2020!' It makes me laugh a little now looking back at this.

As I said in the introduction, 2020 started off great! The Art & Science of Gelato course got into full swing and we welcomed the super talented Sorravee 'Gin' Pratanavanich. Gin had grand plans, after learning with us she was due to head off to take up a chef internship at a hotel in Abu Dhabi. Looking ahead, Gin would like to open a pastry shop and gelateria in Bangkok. 

We were also delighted to be able to run the Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany in January. Two of our artisans met during this course, Mirko who leads the Art & Science of Gelato course learned how to make salami from artisan norcino Massimo Bacci. 

Mirko wasn't the only one learning however. We met lots of interesting participants during the January Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany. Here we see them learning all about knots. Knots are important to hold things in place and to squeeze air out. To produce a nice looking product, you need to tie tidy knots. And as you can see, our participants were taking this very seriously!

​On the blog in January we also shared a beautiful piece by Lin Hobley about her experiences of the Tastes & Textiles: Woad and Wool tour. Read it here. 

February saw us on the Advanced Salumi Course Bologna-Parma. We left Tuscany for Emilia (the northwestern part of Emilia-Romagna). This region of Italy is particularly famous for not one, but two delicious types of salumi— Prosciutto di Parma and Mortadella di Bologna! Check out the blog post here for more pictures and information about what happened during this tour in February! 

March of course brought with it COVID-19, and in Italy things became serious very quickly! It was still an unknown entity in March, and we weren't sure how things would play out. We welcomed a couple of intrepid souls onto the Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany in March, in what would be the last course for a while! We were still hoping that things would all blow over but were concerned about the impact the travel bans would have on those looking to come on courses and tours in the near future. Anyway, Australian vodka producer Katie Krauss and American head chef Seamus Platt joined us. They managed to learn everything the course had to offer before dashing off on the last flights home! 

Erica quickly had to get used to life under lockdown, long before many other countries started to introduce such measures. It did, however, result in her having a bit of an adventure! As flights started to get cancelled across Europe, one unexpected result was the car of some friends trapped in the Pisa airport car park, which was due to close. After calling in various favours the car was freed...read exactly how in the blog post here or click the car image above! 

It also allowed for a bit of cooking and exploring the beautiful surroundings outside her door. More information and pictures are here in the March round up blog post. 

Across Italy people started to pull together in the face of tough lockdowns, travel bans and an unknown virus. Many sang and played music from balconies and out of windows. Antonio Daniele, head cheesemaker at Caseificio Prime Querce, and one of the artisans who teaches our Mozzarella & its Cousins course made this graphic and said: 'We must withstand and fight. We'll come out of this stronger than before.' 

In April we started to adjust to the new normal. For Erica, even cooking dinner turned into an epic adventure! This meal took her on a journey to remember people she'd met along the way and about the history of the ingredients. It really is a fantastic story, you can read the whole thing here - or by clicking the image above. 

Lockdown meant Easter alone for Erica, but her neighbours certainly wouldn't see her starve! She wrote in a Facebook post: "Under lockdown they couldn't invite me to eat with them. At 11.30 am the doorbell rang. It was Eugenia with three slices of pie with different fillings—rice, lemon and chocolate. At 12.30 the doorbell rang again. It was Daniela bringing her homemade tortelli and sugo. I was only planning marinated and grilled goat chops with cannellini beans and insalata with local red wine. Now I had a three-course lunch. Such kindness and generosity, and I certainly didn't feel alone."

In April we also ran one of our first 'virtual tours' to give you all a taste of what you would have been experiencing, had you been allowed to visit Italy. We all travelled around Sardinia on the Celebrating Sardinia tour and had a great time! You can read the whole thing for yourself in the blog post here, or by clicking the image above. 

In May we would have been running the Theory & Practice of Italian Cheese course, but that was not to be of course. So we also offered a little preview on Facebook. We visited Enea Giunti's goat farm and learned how to make fresh goat cheese. We stayed at Agriturismo La Torre at Fornoli and met Vitalina who shared her extensive knowledge of cheese making. We milked cows at Marzia Ridolfi's and drove up to Daniela Pagliai's to see her small modern dairy and how she makes a number of different cheeses from one pot of milk. And all this in the company of Maria Sarnataro, a real expert on cheese! Read all about what else we saw in the blog post here. 

The Tastes & Textiles: Woad and Wool tour was also meant to run in May, but instead we ran it as a virtual tour. It was a fascinating tour with so many interesting sights and photos, which you can see here in the blog post. 

Another month and another virtual tour, this time it was the Tastes & Textiles: Hanging by a Thread tour. Card weaving, farm accommodation, vineyards, Garfagnana potato bread, knitting, felting, weaving, wonderful food, an ethnographic museum, a woolen mill - it was all there and more. Read all about it in the blog post here. 

After the tour Erica shared some of the delicious meals she'd been making. She had been experimenting with ricotta. The people who sell it in the open-air market won't sell a small amount. She has to buy a whole one. This spring she tried this simple sauce for short pasta made with fava beans (broad beans) and ricotta -  delicious!

This recipe in particular got my mouth watering! There is a self-seeded cherry tree hanging over Erica's orto (veg garden). In June it produces a small crop of mildly sour cherries. Every year she makes one focaccia with the cherries, but it never turns out exactly the way she wants it. Until this year. It's exactly the thickness and degree of sweetness she'd been searching for. Persistence pays off!

With some restrictions lessening in Italy, Erica took the chance to do some travelling! At the end of July she headed off to Pompei. She first saw the sights of Napoli and was welcomed by her collaborator on the cheese courses, Maria Sarnataro. First they tried some tasty delicacies, including the famous sfogliata. 

While in Pompei Erica hired a wonderful private guide, Francesco Tufano, an archaeologist who could answer all of her questions and more! Read all about the trip here in the blog post. 

The second half of Erica's trip took her from Pompei to Salerno where she and Maria visited some mozzarella dairies. She was very impressed when she visited Caseificio Barlotti and met brothers Enzo (pictured) and Gaetano Barlotti. She hopes to bring future participants on the Mozzarella & its Cousins course for a tasting in their beautiful garden. She had some samples of his bocconcini, ricotta and a new brie-style cheese, all made with the milk of their own buffalo herd. The mozzarella and ricotta are among the best she'd tasted. Read all about this part of the trip in the blog post here. 

Erica also took a research trip to Le Marche for the Tastes & Textiles: Woad & Wool tour. It's during these types of trips she meets the artisan's we visit on tours and finds the incredible restaurants we dine in! Perhaps you don't know where Le Marche is. Le Marche means 'The Marches', which in English refers to an area of land on the border between two countries or territories (eg, the Welsh Marches). In fact, Le Marche borders three other regions, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria, with the Adriatic Sea to the northeast. Before the unification of Italy in 1861, they had a lot of borders and ports to protect, which means lots of spectacular fortresses and castles to visit! This photo above was one of my favourites from the trip, showing masked men waiting for their wives to finish shopping in Urbania.

During the trip she also met some fascinating people, including Federica Crocetta, who has a passion for dyeing textiles with natural plant dyes, and Emanuele Francione, who learned the craft of textile block printing with rust from his grandfather. Read all about the tour in the blog post here. 

In September Erica was back home, and making passata! You can read all about it in the blog post here, or by clicking the photo above. 

There was also some excitement for Mirko, who teaches the Art & Science of Gelato course as he opened a new Cremeria Opera just outside the walls of Lucca. Erica and Mirko had a little celebration...wearing masks of course!  

In October Erica attended a fantastic lunch cooked by her favourite Lucca chef Damiano Donati. She said: 'His restaurant in the centre closed during lockdown. I was forlorn. Now he's popped up at Fattoria Sardi vineyard better than ever. He calls his fixed menu for Sunday lunch Fuoco e Materia (Fire and Matter). He was always fascinated by contrasting textures. Now he has a wood-fired oven in his kitchen and is playing with smokey flavours too, and it works. Here he is relaxing on the terrace after lunch. The dishes included: squash cooked two different ways and wrapped in chestnut leaf parcels, beetroot risotto, chicken stuffed with pork accompanied by smokey crushed potatoes. If you opt for the wine tasting, you get a different delicious biodynamic wine paired with each course.'

There was also a little time to squeeze in some truffle hunting for a private tour! Truffle hunter Riccardo instructed Brendan in how to use three of his senses—sight, smell and touch—to assess whether the truffle is poor, mediocre or excellent. This 66 gram truffle is excellent, and after his truffle lunch with his wife and child, he decided to buy it so they could go on indulging in truffles for the rest of their holiday.

We were also delighted to be able to hold a REAL LIFE Art & Science of Gelato course in October! We welcomed Niels, chef on a super-yacht. On the October course we teach how to make sourdough panettone as well as gelato so you know how to do it in time for Christmas. For his unique flavours Neils created pineapple and rosemary sorbetto, date and whisky gelato and Piña Colada sorbetto! 

In November Erica went to Frantoio Lenzi to get her year's supply of olive oil. At the height of the harvest, frantoi (olive mills) are open 24/7 and it's always chaotic. She picked up bag-in-box new oil. You can recycle the box, but not the bag. However, by excluding air it keeps the oil from oxidising so rapidly and preserves the health benefits and the flavour for longer. The oil is fruity (tastes like olives!), medium picante and medium bitter. Her conclusion: a nice rounded flavour. 

2020 would have brought us the first participants on our new Olive Oil: Tree to Table in Tuscany course, but it was not to be. Nevertheless, we ran a virtual tour to whet your appetite! Read all about it in the blog post here. 

One of the most popular blog posts of the year was about the abandoned farm houses of Casabasciana. Wonderful photos and stories, can be seen in the blog post here. 

The year wound down with a poignant blog post featuring a video about the death of peasant farming. It was made by farmers in Umbria, but it could have been made anywhere in Italy—or in many other countries in fact. We visit many small farmers during tours and one of the things that was important when setting up Sapori e Saperi Adventures was to help preserve this way of life.​ You can watch it in our blog post here. 

After such a trying year it was nice for Erica to join her local community to decorate the village Christmas tree, a long-standing tradition which was just a little different this year. 

We hope you have had a healthy 2020 and wish you all the best for 2021. We'd love nothing more than to welcome you onto one or more of our tours and courses. Get in touch with Erica at [email protected] for more information or for answers to any questions you may have.

If you landed here by chance and would like to be notified of future posts, you can sign up here. If you’d like periodic news about our tours and courses, sign up here. 

This blog post is part 2 of my recent travels around Italy. You can read the first part 'Food & Wine in Napoli & Pompei' here. But for now, let's start with the second half of my tour...

I take the train from Pompei to Salerno and change for the regional train heading south. Maria Sarnataro picks me up at the station at Vallo di Lucania. We arrive at her home just in time for dinner.

It’s butter encased in caciocavallo cheese and it has a story. The people of Basilicata who take their Podolica breed of cattle to alpine pastures for the summer make caciocavallo which they mature until they descend to the valleys in autumn where they sell it. ​They make ricotta from the whey, but there’s too much for them to consume fresh. It can’t be kept for more than a few days and there's nowhere to sell it. So, by an ingenious and complex process of draining, heating and cooling, they extract the butterfat from the ricotta. 

​By Alison Goldberger

Every month there’s something happening at Sapori & Saperi – lots of interesting people visit and we take lots of photos of our tours and courses. We thought it was about time we shared some with you on a regular basis. Here’s our January round up, giving you an extra insight into the tours and courses with Italian artisans you could attend with us, as well as some snippets of life in Italy! 

​As the new year rang in Erica feasted on a New Year’s Eve meal, typical for the region she lives in. She ate cotechino with lentils. As they’re round, they symbolise money and will make you rich. We’re still waiting! Maybe next year. The good news is that you can learn how to make cotechino during the Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany!
​

During the first course of the year we welcomed the talented Sorravee ‘Gin’ Pratanavanich — find her on instagram. As a qualified pastry chef from the Culinary Arts Academy in Switzerland, she wanted to learn how to make delicious natural gelato — so naturally Sapori & Saperi and our artisan Mirko were there to help her. 

Gin learned the true science of gelato too – and that’s not easy! How to balance the fat, sugar, milk solids and water to make sure the product not only tastes incredible but has the perfect texture too. 

Friday on the Art & Science of Gelato course is always ‘crazy flavours day’, and Gin really went for it with her recipes. She created the incredible ‘Coffee B’ gelato made from coffee, caramelised walnuts and Baileys! She also took some inspiration from the Thai street food ‘garlic and pepper chicken’ and used soya, black pepper and crispy garlic in her gelato. A brave experiment. She learned it’s valuable to let your imagination run wild — whether you create something delicious, or you learn what doesn’t quite work!

We had an unusual first day on the Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany as Mirko joined in to learn how to make salami and sausage with our artisan norcino Massimo Bacci. Will Massimo learn how to make gelato next? 

We had a great group taking part in the course – here you can see them intensely watching artisan norcino Ismaele Turri as he prepares Tuscan prosciutto. Check out our student, former chef to the Ambassador at the British Embassy Prague and now head of charcuterie at Amaso, Vojtech Kalasek, who posted lots of great images on instagram throughout the whole course. 

During our tours and courses we like to slip in some surprise extra visits. This time we visited Pastificio Martelli which makes pasta in the Renaissance hilltop town of Lari, where our prosciutto specialist Simone Ceccotti has his butcher shop. We left wondering how many machines you can use and still be artisan. We decided that one important thing is that it's natural: only Italian durum wheat and water and dried very slowly for 50 hours. And just as important, that it tastes good and the slightly rough surface holds the sauce.
 
January also brought us a wonderful guest blog post from Lin Hobley, a weaver-artist and past participant on the Tastes & Textiles Woad & Wool tour. We published a review of the year, and Erica gave a run down of our different hotels and accommodation on Slow Travel Tours.
 
If you’d like to join us, check out our website. Can’t wait to see you!