Cooking, Wine & Walking Extravaganza Tour
in Piedmont's Barolo Wine Country, Cinque Terre
and Tuscany's Brunello Wine Country

Wine tasting in Tuscany with winery owner in Montefollonico

Three Spectacular Landscapes in Italy
Three Italian Cuisines
Three Wine Regions in Italy
Enchanting Experiences You'll Always Remember
Barolo Portovenere & Cinque Terre Southern Tuscany

Cooking Tour Itinerary

A Detailed Cooking Tour Description--You'll feel you're in Italy!

Immerse Yourself in Three Spectacular Landscapes in Italy

In Southern Tuscany, you'll stroll through pristine, medieval towns and on peaceful country roads with vast, dramatic vistas of rolling hills--velvety green, gold or brown fields, with olive trees and vineyards. Our drives from town to town give you breathtaking panoramas. Enjoy beauty and peace in Italy at a slow, leisurely pace, forget your harried world at home.

Cooking Tour Itinerary

Three wine regions in Italy for all of you wine lovers too!

Some of Italy's top red wines--Piedmont's Barolo and Tuscany's Brunello rank equally high. In Piedmont you drink robust Barolo, elegant Barbaresco, full bodied Barbera, fruity Dolcetto, fresh white wines like Arneis and dessert wines like fragrant Moscato.

Cinque Terre has refreshing white wines and a nice dessert wine, Schiacchetra.

In Southern Tuscany you drink famous Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano as well as good "rosso" wines and vin santo.

Your Historic Hotels: Unwind in lovely, peaceful refuges and enjoy the old world atmosphere

Piedmont, Italy: On the Guided Tour version, you stay at the Real Castello in Verduno where you feel you're going back in time to a slower, country way of life.

The Real Castello was the summer home of Italian King Carlo Alberto in the 1850's, and has country style rooms with traditional looking decor (no phone, no TV), frescoed dining rooms, quiet garden, a down to earth feel and views of the Alps on a clear day. A wonderful refuge for you and very friendly service from the Burlotto family owners.

On the Explore on Your Own tour, you'll enjoy a beautifully and lovingly renovated, tastefully decorated, 15th century home, now a B & B with six rooms, each with private bathrooms in Barolo wine country hill town of Novello. Breakfast is in the cosy kitchen with the owner.

Hotel Real Castello in Verduno in Piedmont,
former summer home of King Carlo Alberto in 1840s

Portovenere, Italy: Guided Tour: The four star Grand Hotel Portovenere, with 54 rooms and suites, sits right on the waterfront at the harbour. Windows look over the sea to the Island of Palmaria on the right and across the gulf to the Tuscan coast on the left. Originally a Franciscan monastery built in 1616, it is now a modern, first class complex with a large restaurant on a terrace with a magnificent sea view.

For the Explore on Your Own Tour, you'll stay at a nice, three star Liberty style hotel with views across the Bay of Poets in Portovenere, just steps up the street from the Grand Hotel.

In Southern Tuscany: For the Guided Tour, you stay'll stay at Il Chiostro in Pienza or La Vecchia Oliviera in Montalcino.

Il Chiostro, a former 15th century convent, is a Relais-Chateau hotel right in Pienza's historic centre, where you can relax in the quiet gardens or in the pool as you admire wonderful views of Val d'Orcia. Rooms feature modern bathrooms, country style furniture, vaulted ceilings and some have frescoes.

La Vecchia Oliviera, a former olive oil mill, now beautifully renovated, is perched high up at the gates of historic Montalcino, Italy. Rooms are tastefull furnished in a casually elegant Tuscan style with rustic wood beams and bathrooms even have hyrdo massage. By the pool or in the garden, you'll love dramatic panoramas looking north to velvety hills, vineyards and olive groves. A short walk takes you to the heart of the historic centre, where you can buy honey or taste the famous Brunello wine in wine bars or shops. See their web site at www.vecchiaoliviera.com for a good picture gallery.

For the Explore on Your Own tour, you'll stay at a lovely B & B in the heart of medieval Montalcino. The spacious six rooms are beautifully decorated with antiques and have private bathrooms. The owners are a very hospitable couple.

In Pienza, the 16 room, pretty, modern, new three star hotel sits steps from the medieval walls of the town. From the garden patio, the views across the valley are magnificent.

Cooking Tour Itinerary

Some Enchanting Italian Experiences You'll Always Remember

Barolo & Barbaresco Wine Country

* Walk through vineyards to a wine producer family's medieval wine museum. From La Morra, Italy, 500 metres up, you admire outstanding panoramas of series of gentle hills, covered in vineyards, forests and fields, some topped with little towns and medieval castles. You feel the peace and beauty seeping into you, and feel you're far away from your busy world.

On arriving at the Ratti family's private Italian wine museum in an abbey where monks began wine making in 1162, winery owners Pietro or Massimo take you on a fascinating and fun private tour from old barrels made from chestnut tree trunks, to explaining the different soils and grapes in the region, to the monk's kitchen. They share a glasses of their best Barolo and more with you. Down to earth, humorous Massimo is a celebrity in the Barolo wine region, as an author and producer.

Tasting wine with Massimo, one owner of
Ratti winery near La Morra in Piedmont

* dessert cooking lesson at Hotel Real Castello, summer home of King Carlo Alberto in the 1850's. You'll create delicate hazelnut cake topped with Moscato zabaglione, classic bunet, a traditional Piedmontese cocoa pudding and have fun making any shapes you can dream up for your lemon and corn meal biscuits.

At dinner you'll enjoy Castello di Verduno wines like the spicy Pelaverga, with plates like risotto with Barolo, guinea hen with rosemary, and all your desserts. Yummy!

* Visit the historic Marchesi di Barolo winery in the former guest house of the Marchesa di Barolo, the "Mother of Barolo" about 100 years ago, where modern day Barolo began. Some barrels are 200 years old.

* Visit Giovanni and Francesca and their six children at their farm for a country lunch. They make their own cheeses and salami, grow fruit and vegetables, and raise cows, goats, wild boar, pigs and more. A unique "slice of life" with a wonderfully friendly and hospitable family.

Portovenere & Cinque Terre

* Stay in Portovenere, Italy, a lively fishing village on the western side of the Gulf of La Spezia (known as the Gulf of Poets) just south of Cinque Terre. Writers and poets including Petrarch, George Sand and Byron were so inspired by the beauty they stayed. So romantic!

On entering the harbour, you'll gasp in awe at the clear blue water, and the wall of five storey, narrow Genoese houses all attached, creating vertical stripes of red, orange, gold, yellow and gray along the waterfront. Your eyes wander to the medieval tower on the right, up the hill to the white, 11th century church tower, and on to the hilltop to the massive, ancient city walls and castle.

* Explore Cinque Terre, a dramatically beautiful, rugged coast of five colourful Italian villages clinging to the foot of mountains falling steeply to the dark blue and turquoise sea. Along walking paths overlooking the sea, you pass up and down through olive groves, terraces of vineyards, scrub bushes, cactuses, and pines. Vast panoramas along the coast and out to sea fill you with awe and peace.You explore this coast on foot and by boat.

Brunello & Vino Nobile Wine Country in Southern Tuscany: Medieval Jewel Hilltowns of Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano

* cook in an untouristed mountain hamlet with Chef Roberto, at his fine restaurant specializing in mushroom dishes. The very knowledgeable, creative, charming Roberto is passionate about bringing back traditional Tuscan dishes with little modern touches--porcini mushroom soup, local pici pasta with ragu, ribollita, slices of grilled beef with arugola, pears stuffed with lemon custard with chocolate sauce on top. Mmmm...!

* drink great Vino Nobile and more with the philosopher producer in his 14th century palazzo wine cellars. On a warm day, you taste wines out on his garden terrace with spectacular views across the valley to Montepulciano.

* visit Alberto, an artisan olive oil producer who uses the traditional granite wheel, on his organic farm. Exuberant Alberto tells you how he makes his olive oil and all you ever wanted to know about olives and olive oils.

* stand in awe in an idyllic Tuscan valley at a 1000 year old church and monastery, Sant'Antimo, one of Italy's most beautiful Romanesque buildings, that turns gold inside and out when the sun hits. It stands on flat land where two hillsides meet in a patchwork quilt of olive groves, combed fields in rich brown or gold, vineyards and dark green forests, with cypresses zigzagging up country roads.

Cooking, Wine & Walking Extravanganza Tour in 3 Italian Regions

• Cooking Tour at a Glance: Brief Description, Dates, Prices
• Cooking Tour Itinerary
• Sample Italian Recipe
• Cooking Tour Members' Comments
• Why Travel in Italy With Us?

For more information or to reserve, call Margaret Cowan at 1-800-557-0370 or 604-681-4074 or e-mail margaret@italycookingschools.com

One stop shopping for your whole Italy vacation

Our travel agent colleagues at Aquarius Travel Inc. are experts on Italy, and can assist you with any arrangements you require to make your Italy vacation a memorable experience.

Ask her about villa, apartment or B & B accommodation throughout Italy--3000 in Tuscany alone! She can also arrange your car rentals, sightseeing tours, Italian language classes, and airfare. It's one stop shopping with an Italy expert, so it's easy for you!

VISA and Mastercard accepted.