Cooking & Spa Lovers' Adventure at a Villa in Tuscany's Brunello & Vino Nobile Wine Country

Cooking Tour Itinerary & Special Olive Harvest Tour Oct 24 Italian Cooking Lessons Olive Oil Visit Accommodation

Cooking Tour Dates & Prices Spa Treatments You Can Choose From To Reserve Terms & Conditions

Tour at a Glance: Imagine Escaping to Tuscany, Pampering Yourself...

You wake up in your room in a 16th century Tuscan villa in the country surrounded by gardens and olive trees, and open your windows. You gaze at a magnificent valley of gentle patchwork hills of olive trees, vineyards, golden grain and green forests. So peaceful and beautiful, soothing and reviving your soul!

After breakfast in the garden, you head to the spa for a morning of pampering: facial, massage, mud bath and more. The choice is up to you! You'll float out, feel like a new person!

In the afternoons after a dip in the swimming pool, a private visit to a winery, country walk or just relaxing, you discover chefs' secrets in cooking lessons in their restaurant and farm home kitchens. You dine on all your creations with some of Italy's best wines.

You enjoy genuine, local, fresh food, slow down and enjoy life's simple pleasures, meet a lots of local characters you'd never meet otherwise and impress all your friends back home! You feel Italian for a week!

Special Olive Harvest tour Oct 26-Nov 1: pick olives, see olive oil mill in operation, taste new olive oil!

Indulge in Spa Pampering At the modern, professional Terme di Montepulciano nearby, (www.termemontepulciano.it) you'll unwind in three mornings of total pampering. Choose your spa experiences from a long menu: mud masks, smoothing rejuvenating treatment, hydromassage, massages shiatsu, rebalancing, ayurveda or manual styles, mud bath, reflexology and more. You'll float out! You'll emerge feeling like a new person! AAHHHH! Cooking Tour Itinerary

Discover Beautiful Medival Hill Towns & Countryside

In the medieval hilltown of Montalcino, Italy, famous for Brunello wine, you can stroll the narrow streets, stop at Italian wine, honey and gastronomy stores, or outdoor cafes, or sip some Brunello at the medieval fortress, now an enoteca. Fabulous 360 degree views! Pictures of Montalcino.

Pienza, Italy sits on a hill with sweeping views over the vast Val d'Orcia with undulating fields dotted with olive groves and farmhouses leading up to Monte Amiata. A sunny walkway with marvellous panoramas takes you along one side of town past the Street of Fortune, Street of Kisses. Pienza is famous for its pecorino cheese. Pictures of Pienza.

The larger hilltown of Montepulciano, Italy is renowned for its Vino Nobile di Montepulciano wine. Its narrow streets and beautiful piazzas are lined with distinguished Italian Renaissance palazzos, wine cellars with 13th century grottoes, gastronomy shops, cafes and wine stores. From several lookout points, you can admire fantastic panoramas all around. Pictures of Montepulciano

Cooking lessons with restaurant chefs and great home cooks: lots of
cooking secrets and a variety of cooking styles and kitchens

Your 4 Italian cooking lessons, take place in restaurants and homes close to your villa so you spend less time on the road and more time relaxing. You'll learn chefs' secrets cooking right beside them in their restaurant and home kitchens. Dishes like: grilled eggplant, local pici pasta with a savory garlic & tomato sauce, chestnut linguine with ricotta cheese, roast lamb with rosemary and garlic, Florentine arista (pork with rosemary, fennel, sage, rosemary). Your friendly, hospitable cooking teachers are restaurant owner Patrizia in a peaceful hill town, a mother on a farm where they make cheese, a great home cook at your villa, and an artisan olive oil producer and ex restaurant owner at his country, organic B & B. A great variety of Italian people to meet and cook with! You dine later on your creations accompanied by fine Tuscan wines.

Making the local pici pasta

Olive Oil Visit: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Olives and Oil

After your cooking lesson with olive oil producer, Alberto, you dine on your creations in the room where he makes his olive oil. He explains how he makes the oil using the traditional granite wheel and answers all your questions about olive oil and olives so you know how to pick a good oil. Taste Some of Italy's Top Red Wines In the Brunello wine country near Montalcino, you'll drink Brunello, one of Italy's top red wines, and Rosso di Montalcino. In the Vino Nobile country near Montepulciano, you'll sample a great red wine, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Rosso di Montepulciano and Vin Santo.

Wine tasting with winery owner, Vittorio Innocenti in his cellars in Montefollonico

Stay in a Lovely Historic Villa

A lovely four star villa with 10 rooms, dating back to the Middle Ages owned by noble families awaits you. This beautifully restored home is decorated with some antique furniture, some frescoes, and many refined touches in all the rooms. It sits about two km outside Montepulciano with spectacular views across the valley--hills of vineyards, olive trees, golden grain fields and forests. The house is set among pretty gardens and olive trees which extend out around the swimming pool, jacuzzi and patios which have great panoramas. You can also enjoy a little chapel, a quiet reading room, the wine cellar and restaurant. Accommodation pictures

Four star villa hotel in the country near Montepulciano

Cooking Tour Itinerary

2008 Cooking Tour Dates:

Special Olive Oil Harvest Tour: October 24-30, 2008
Any time on request for two people or more--ask us for dates you like.

2008 Cooking Tour Prices:

Prices are in Euros and are subject to currency exchange fluctuation.

For group of 2-7 people:

2165 Euros per person (approx $3185 US; $3205 CAD), double occupancy, land only. Single supplement: 325 Euros

Includes:

• 6 night at the villa, with private bath and breakfast
• 4 cooking lessons with full menu meals
• welcome dinner
• farm family lunch
• excursions in the itinerary
• private transport with a guide
• pick up and drop off at Chiusi train station.

Not included:

• spa treatments
• 2 dinners
• 3 lunches
• wine with meals

Spa Treatments: Choose Your Pampering Treatment

Cooking Tour Itinerary
Cooking Tour Members' Comments
Sample Tour Recipe
Why Travel in Italy With Us

To Reserve: Contact Margaret Cowan at margaret@italycookingschools.com or call 1-800-557-0370 or 604-681-4074 or fax 604-681-4909 (Pacific time).

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.