Upcoming Tour

 

5-Day Italian Food & Wine Tour + 1 Free Night in Rome

AUTHTENTIC ITLAY

Dates:  19-24 August, 29 August – 3 September  (5 Days, 4 Nights in Abruzzo + 1 Night in Rome)

Cost: €1,700/US $1,999/AUD $2,797 (Land only package)

*Plus applicable taxes

2 Hours From Rome

Each day you can revel in the beauty of Italy’s best-kept secret, Abruzzo, whose lush Apennine Mountains and national parks are home to bears, wolves and lynx.  Its rolling hills boast some of Italy’s most beautiful hill towns as well as award-winning vineyards, its Adriatic coastline plenty of Blue Flag beaches and a marine park.

 

Day 2

MORNING

Pack your beach gear as after lunch we will depart for the Adriatic and the Trabocchi Coast.  We’ll depart Sulmona to spend time in Pescara, Abruzzo’s Adriatic hub.  For those that would like to know a little more about Abruzzo culture, there is the opportunity to visit the small but fascinating Museo delle Genti d’Abruzzo and explore the local customs, folklore, dress and food, or for those that prefer to shop, you have the rest of the morning to explore Pescara’s extensive shops.

AFTERNOON

You will be quirkily wined and dined aboard a trabocco for 3.5 hours, delighting in a 10-course fish feast in what we guarantee will become your most memorable beach dining experience!   Expect a succession of fish and shellfish served sushi-style, drizzled with local olive oil, mixed into salads, served with fresh pastas, grilled, baked whole fish and crunchy breaded fillets.

Since 1887, these sustainable fishing machines positioned on stilts above a sparkling sea have been used by the local population to catch fish, and some now enjoy a double role as Abruzzo’s most novel restaurants.

EVENING

After our traditional passegiato (mid-afternoon walk) on the beach, we’ll make our way to one of Abruzzo’s award-winning boutique vineyards Tenuta i Fauri whose wines are glorious enough for US wine dealers stock. Valentina will host a wine-tasting session for us to taste incredible wines made from Abruzzo’s most famous grapes and some of its ancient less known ones.

Day 1

From pick up at Rome’s Leonardo airport, you’ll be swept away from the crowds to the family-run hotel spa, Hotel Ovidius in the stunning medieval town of Sulmona, the birthplace of Ovid and the world’s favourite sugared almonds known as confetti.  This lively mountain town sits in the heart of the Peligna Valley where 3000 years ago the name Italia was first given to the Italian peninsula in 90 BC

 WELCOME RECEPTION

Sample the local butcher’s delicious home-made lean salami, prosciutto alongside assorted aged local pecorino and soft cacciota cheeses from our artisan cheesemakers. Each will be paired with local wines from family-run wineries. You’ll have time to settle and relax in your light and airy room, where you can enjoy complete mindfulness or go down to the spa for a swim or massage.

We will meet up late afternoon for a short guided tour of the Sulmona that explores its sacred sites, cultural quarters and tangle of interesting cobbled alleys and provides an opportunity to go shopping.

Sit back and enjoy a tempting  4-course welcome dinner sampling local specialities that highlight the simplicity but richness of Abruzzese cuisine.  You’ll discover that there is a lot more to antipasti in Abruzzo than a plate of ham and cheese.

 
 

Day 3

MORNING

After breakfast, we will go to the market to buy our ingredients for our morning’s cooking lesson where you will learn how to make great pasta by hand dressed with sauces that touch on the local province of L’Aquila. Dishes created will be paired with local red and white wines.

AFTERNOON

We’ll spend an afternoon olive oil tasting with accompanying snacks and then its on for our truffle hunt. Abruzzo is famous for its plentiful musky truffles and supplies almost 80% of Italy’s truffles that are consumed across the world. We’ll join Franco and Lara the dog in the olive grove, who will be waiting to take us on our guided summer black truffle hunt in the local woods.   You’ll be able to find out how dogs have replaced pigs in Italy to find truffles, the areas for white truffles in Abruzzo and discover the treats which are given to dogs in reward for finding truffles.  Those that we find will be used for our dinner!

We’ll be hosted by local agriturismo for a deliciously robust and traditional dinner.  Before we experience the varied and enticing array of dishes that shows how healthy and varied the food of the countryside of Abruzzo is, Chef Cosimo and his wife will demonstrate the preparation of several ancient Abruzzese recipes and how to work with the  black summer truffles we found earlier.  In between courses we’ll have the chance to listen to local folk music played and if you are feeling brave you can try and dance the Salterella! 

 

Day 4

MORNING

We will follow breakfast with a gentle canoe excursion down the turquoise Il Tirino river from Bussi that sits within the Gran Sasso National Park.  This is an incredible, colourful trip to relax both your mind and body whilst discovering the heritage of the mountains and sampling water celery.

AFTERNOON

We will make our way up to the spectacular high basin shaped plateau Campo Imperatore (Little Tibet), for a traditional Abruzzese picnic at the mountain refuge, Ristoro Mucciante . Picnics in Abruzzo always include arrosticini, the delectable grilled skewers of meat that the shepherds used to eat and which now becoming one of Europe’s most popular street foods.

After lunch we will visit the Romanesque church of Bominaco whose oratorio’s stunning cycle of frescos is regarded as Abruzzo’s Sistine Chapel and make our way onto our aperitivo cooking lesson at Vigna di More by Valentina.  Her bio-dynamic vineyard & saffron farm is highly acclaimed especially her sparkling wines.  Her high altitude location altitude ensures  superb sparkling wines that we will try!

Day 5

After an early breakfast and packing our bags, we will travel up to the nearby small town of Prezza that is described as the balcony of Abruzzo.  We will be given a demonstration by our butcher on how to make local, extremely moreish sausages which are typically roasted that we’ll have as part of our lunch in the piazza.

DEPARTURE FOR ROME

You will be driven to the hotel in Rome, where you will spend your final night and evening. We can arrange sightseeing for both day and night tours to explore the Eternal City as well as provide tips to our favourite Roman dining spots.

 

 *EXCLUDING AIR FARES: This includes all meal, hotel, transfers and tours as mentioned above.

 

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