A one-week Tuscany extension to soak up an incomparable introduction to Tuscan Cuisine.   Each morning you will enjoy a 3-hour "hands-on" cooking lesson in the charming rustic kitchen at Villa Torre Santa Flora, followed by a delicous lunch to sample your handiwork.

In the afternoons you will have time to tour the sites of nearby towns or take a tour of  important local food purveyors, vineyards, or boutiques specialized in table settings (linens, crystalware, etc.).

Nearby "must-see" locales include Arezzo, Florence, Perugia, the castle of Poppi and the Casentinesi Forests.

Background: Simplicity, moderation, and authenticity are the main characteristics of Tuscan cooking, a cuisine whose tenets are a sense of measure and an absolute respect for ingredients and their natural flavors. It is a rustic yet refined cuisine , sensitive to the great cultural traditions of the area.

The cuisine of Tuscany is immense and widely varied. Sometimes just crossing a hill or a river is enough to find a different cooking tradition.. It is precisely this variety that transforms the richness of the land into an inexhaustible source of gastronomic titillations.

Each lesson introduces a different dimension of Tuscan Cooking - from "Rustic Cooking" to "Renaissance Feasts" and from "Crostini" to "Dishes of the Ancient Etruscan Civilization".

Location: Villa Torre Santa Flora - a 17th Century "residenza" in the Tuscan countryside of the Casentino Valley, along the Arno River

Cost: $ 2, 250

Includes:

     - Room & Board for 7 days in a double room with use of pool at        Villa Torre Santa Flora

      - "Tuscan Cooking" - Daily 3-hour "hands-on" cooking lesson (5         days)

     - 2 half-day tours Siena and Valdarno to traditional food                     purveyors and vineyards producing DOC Chianti.

     - Rented private van for guided visits

Costs do not include: Museum entrances & tickets for public transportation

Participants can also take advantage of recreational activities such as:

 *(not included in price and only upon request)

     Swimming, tennis, horseback riding, golf

     Concerts, Dinners and Sagre (local fairs) - depends on the calendar of events in the area

     Antique market of Arezzo

     Upon request: Medieval & Renaissance Dinners (upon request)