WINE TASTING & CULINARY TOURS IN TUSCANY
| The following tours are only a part of what we can offer to a curious visitor who seeks to get in touch with genuine Tuscan food. Each of the following tours can be combined with other gourmet itineraries. Please note: Our tours are available upon demand for PRIVATE GROUPS or INDIVIDUAL TRAVELLERS and are NOT scheduled tours for mixed groups.  CHEESE: It's easy to make good cheese. Just take the opposite to our frenetic daily life - time and respect for the rhythm of nature - and milk becomes delicate scent and distinctive taste. Our guided tour introduces you to the art of pecorino cheese making: step by step, you will follow the entire course of cheese production, from the flock of sheep peacefully grazing on pasture to the fermentation process, the maturing techniques and final refinement with local herbs and spices. The tour ends with a guided tasting of 5 types of Tuscan pecorine cheese.Duration: 1 - 1,5 hrs. Location: Volterra Tasting: price on request  WINE: Some time ago, Tuscan wine was just a pleasant every-day beverage, not a competitive product on international markets. A virtual revolution in cultivating and producing techniques has created Tuscan wines that offer outstanding quality and unbelievable variety. Our guided tour takes you from the vineyard to the final bottled product. This journey at the estate of a selected Tuscan wine-producer is an ideal way to get a short, enjoyable and profound introduction to the fascinating world of our wines. The tour will be complemented by a guided tasting of 3 types of Tuscan wine in the estate's winery or in the garden.Duration: 1,5 - 2 hrs. Location: San Gimignano, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca, Vinci, San Miniato Tasting: price on request  MEAT, SAUSAGES AND HAM: The bounty of Tuscan meats includes wild-boar-salami typical for San Gimignano, marble-white Colonnata bacon or famous Florentine Chianina steak. They offer infinite possibilities to get to know our region's century old roots in a rural world. Our guided visit to a quality meat producer introduces in the craft of genuine Tuscan food. The tour ends with a guided tasting of 5 types of Tuscan sausages and prosciutto.Duration: 1 - 1,5 hrs. Location: San Miniato Tasting: price on request  LARDO DI COLONNATAThis lard was traditionally the meal of the quarry workers who sliced it and accompanied it with bread, raw onions and tomatoes. Our guided tour introduces you to the traditional art of lard making in Colonnata followed by a tasting of this unique natural product, free from preservatives and colouring. After the tasting you will visit an open air marble museum in the Fantiscritti quarries where our guide will illustrate to you the entire history of marble quarrying form Roman times up to our days. Duration: 2 hrs. Location: Carrara Tasting: price on request  TRUFFLES: The province of Pisa is privileged habitat for truffles! Their search and use in local gourmet restaurants has a long tradition. Here, the white truffle embodies rural and social micro-history. In the San Miniato area and in hilly Volterra, fairs and village banquets celebrate the maturing of these tasty fungi, which thrive under oak trees and poplars. During our guided tour, you will accompany a licensed truffle hunter and his trained truffle-sniffing dog in an exciting hunt for truffles. After this you will participate in a delicious truffles tasting!Duration: 2 hrs. Location: San Miniato, Volterra Entrance fee (privat truffle hunting reserve) and tasting: price on request. .jpg) PASTA: It is hard to say who first had the idea of mixing ground wheat with water and salt to make pasta dough. However, it is certain that Italy has always been the major producer and consumer of pasta, i.e., noodles made from durum semolina flour. During our guided tour in the workshop of a traditional pasta manufacture, you assist the entire process of producing Italian quality pasta: from the art of mixing the pasta dough to the forming of different pasta types in the extruder up to the drying process and final packing.Duration: 1 - 1,5 hrs. Location: Pisa  OLIVE OIL: Olive oil is the protagonist of a famous form of nutrition known as the Mediterranean Diet. Yet it is more than just a healthy and tasty ingredient in Italian cooking! Throughout the centuries, cultivation of olive trees has created the vibrant civilization of the Mediterranean area crossing political and linguistic borders. Our guided tour takes you from a Tuscan olive grove to various parts of the production process in a traditional olive oil mill. We immerse ourselves into the history of a hard and persistent rural labor. The tour will be followed up with a guided tasting of 5 types of olive oil during which your food guide will explain you the professional tasting tecniques.Duration: 1,5 - 2 hrs. Location: Pisa, Lucca, Vinci, San Miniato Tasting: price on request  COFFEE: The art of roasting coffee beans was probably an invention of Ethiopia and did not arrive in Europe before the late seventeenth century. Today, coffee is the second most important beverage, right after water. In our guided visit of a roasting house, we will introduce the art of Italian roasting and - with all your senses - you'll discover the amazing world hidden in a daily cup of Italian coffee. Our coffee tour is completed by a tasting of 3 types of espresso.Duration: 1 hr. Location: Vinci Tasting: price on request  CHOCOLATE:According to a popluar shorthand immage of Tuscany this region of central Italy is exclusively based on the production of great art works, wine, olive oil and pecorino cheese. In the last decade, however, in the Arno valley between Pisa and Prato a great quality artisanal production of chocolate has developed. Our guided tour in the laboratory of one of the best artisan chocolate makers (Chantal Coady, The Chocolate Companion) is thought to promote the idea of excellency in chocolate making far from the procedures of the chocolate industry. An essential part of this tour is a guided tasting of 6 types of choccolate during which your food guide will illustrate you the art of a professional tasting of olive oil. Duration: 1,5 hrs Location: Pisa Price: on request *** A Taste of Tuscany (5 days) |  |
Wine & Bistecca Fiorentina
Pecorino Cheese & Pasta
Truffles & Caffè: 
Chestnut & Cake
Chocolate:
