The Oils and Treasures of Lucca Package Tour

The Oils and Treasures of Lucca event centres around the collection and consumption of olives, olive oil and meals containing olives.  Olive production is an activity that has been the focus of hundreds of Tuscan years and it has been partially responsible for shaping the typical Italian life.  This is your opportunity to experience the passage of the olive from the tree to the table in all its forms (oil, eadible olives and dishes including olives or prepared with olive oil).  This package is designed to be a relaxing, informative experience for food and wine lovers who wish to develop their culinary skills and be indulged along the way. 

Our itinerary is as follows:

Wednesday 18th November 2009 Arrive at Lucca after 2.00pm.  Settle into your luxury apartment and relax.  After an afternoon at leisure exploring the city there is a welcome dinner at one of Lucca's premier restaurants: Bucca di San Antonio.  One of the local's favourite restaurants.  Here, typically Lucchese style food is prepared with a slight eastern influence.
Thursday 19th November 2009 The day commences with a late breakfast at Pasquinelli.  This is one of Lucca's oldest and most loved pasticceria.  Feast on freshly baked pastries of both the sweet and savoury type.  Enjoy a renowned Bei e Nannini espresso.  It is truely an Italian start to the day. Breakfast is followed by a morning walking tour of Lucca's walls and the historic centre of Lucca.  This tour ends at Bar Colombano for lunch. Bar Colombano is Lucca's newest and trendiest restaurant.  It is located on the walls of Lucca in a renovated barracks from the times when the walls of Lucca were a strategic defence as opposed to a major tourist focus. Following lunch, we return to the apartment where the first of our cooking schools commences.  This is a four hour demonstration with active participation preparing five courses that you, personally have selected.  The best part of the cooking school is eating the incredible Tuscan specialties you have prepared.  A typical menu is as follows: Apetiser:  Crostini Salsiccia, stracchino e semi di finocchio (crostini with fresh sausage, soft cheese and fennel seeds). First course:    Pappardelle alla lepre (freshly made large, flat noodles with a wild rabbit sauce) Main course:   Uccelletti con le olive (small fowl cooked with olives) Side dishe:   Zucchine, pomodori, foglie di cavolo ripieni (zucchini and tomato-stuffed cabbage leaves) Desert:   Panna cotta con frutti di bosco o cioccolato (cooked cream with wild berries or chocolate) Wines are selected and provided to accompany each course.
Friday 20th November 2009 This morning is breakfast in the apartment with a selection of pastries and fresh hot coffee.  We make an early start and head up into the hills surrounding Lucca to actually see how the olive picking is done.  For those energetic enough, you can climb into the trees and shake the olives into the nets waiting below.  Alternatively, watch those hard at work and soak up the incredible views over the Lucchese plains. After a short stint in the groves, we transfer to a local Fattoria (producing farm) where we spend the rest of the morning learning about olive oil complete with comprehensive olive oil and wine tasting program.  Lunch is in the dining hall of the fattoria, or weather permitting on the terrace enjoying yet another view over the Lucchese valley. Back to the apartment for some leisure time (just enough time for a few hours shopping along Lucca's famous via Fillungo).  In the early evening we make our way to the church of San Giovanni for a Puccini highlight concert. Lucca is Puccini's birthplace and t he acoustics in this centuries old church are incredible.  It is the perfect setting for an hour of Puccini's most popular arias and duets. A pizza meal at Lucca's best pizza restaurant, Rusticanella follows.  Famous for delicios pizza, the menu for other options changes daily dependant on what has been bought at the market that morning.
Saturday 21st November 2009 Another early start today.  We are off to Florence for a day of culture.  A champagne picnic hamper on the train starts our day and we arrive into Florence for a two hour guided city walking tour.  After taking in the city sights, we have pre-reserved entry tickets for the Uffizi gallery (no three hour queues).  The Uffizi houses 75% of the world's rennaisance art in one location.  Truely one of Florence's most popular exhibitions. The rest of the afternoon is at leisure for sight seeing.  Why not return to the Ponte Vecchio for some shopping, visit the Boboli gardens, or take it easy and sit in a cafe with a gelato watching the Florentines pass by.  Florence's leather markets are always a big attraction.  Stay in Florence for dinner and a late traing back to Lucca, or catch an afternoon train home to Lucca; the choice is yours.
Sunday 22nd November 2009 After a few early mornings and some full days, the whole morning is at leisure today.  Breakfast is provided in the apartment.  Lucca's antique market is on this weekend and it is an incredible experience to stroll through the stalls of furniture, artworks and bric-a-brac, some of which is hundreds of years old.  Vendors from as far away as Rome travel for this monthly fair and exhibit their wares in the crooked, cobbled streets of Lucca. For those wanting a bit of exercise before the demands of another four hour cooking school, an optional bike tour has been arranged for the shortly after lunch (weather permitting).  This takes us about 15km, firstly around the walls of Lucca (easily the most popular way to see Lucca) and then out along the banks of the nearby Serchio river.  It is a beautiful ride on properly constructed bike paths with all the colours of autumn surrounding you. This evening's cooking school is held in a rather unusual location.  It is in the Lucchese hills, in the original kitchens of the Convento dell' Angelo (Convent of the Angel), constructed by the Passionisti Fathers, (no longer a convent, currently, it is the location of an important local musical Academy).  Like our first cooking school, this is an active participation demonstration.  You are encouraged to join in and advance your culinary skills.  The menu, once again selected by you could be somthing like the following: Apetiser:  Zuppa di cozze (mussel soup). First course:    Polenta con il cinghiale (polenta with a wild boar meat sauce) Main course:   Pollo alla cacciatora (chicken cacciatore) Side dishe:   Insalata di fagiole e gamberi (shrimp and bean salad) Desert:   Cantucci col Vin Santo (almond biscotti served with a local dessert wine for dipping) Wines are selected and provided with each course.
Monday 23rd November 2009 Today we commence with breakfast in the apartment and another early start.  At 8.00am, we will be collected from the apartment and taken to Bagni di Lucca to the "Terme Jean Varraud". This is a local wellness and health spa.  As taken from the actual literature on the Bagni di Lucca spa: "The hyperthermal sulphate-bicarbonate-calcium waters of Bagni di Lucca spring from the well at 54 deg. C.  They provide a muscle relaxant and anti-inflammatory effect on the osteo-articular and muscle-ligament systems.  Moreover, the natural vapours of the waters that suffuse the caves have a beneficial anti-stress effect and smoothen the skin making it velvety and luminous." Our day's wellness treatment at the spa includes the following: 1.  toxin clearing thermal steam bath in natural cave with reactive total relaxion session with hot sheet 2.  full body relaxing / antistress  massage with aromatic oils including biological olive oils harmonised with essence of myrtle, citrus and cinimon, spices, lavendar and a compress of chocolate and mint followed by cleansings herbs. The day is fully supervised by trained professionals and there is full use of the gymnasium available as well. Following the treatment at the spa, we lunch in Bagni di Lucca and spend some time exploring this amazing hill town on foot. Returning fresh and revitalised from the day spa, in the early evening we spend an hour in the cavernous cellars of Vini Vanni (Vanni's wine cellars).  Here we will taste three distinctly different varieties of wine and learn about the reasons for the flavours and the regions in which they are grown. A short walk across the piazza takes us to our dinner at Trattoria da Leo.  Another one of Lucca's favourite restaurants.
Tuesday 24th November 2009 Breakfast in Lucca's amphitheartre sets the tone for another day. Fresh pasteries and more strong, Italian coffee.  A walk back to the apartment for a morning cooking school this time.  Commencing at 9.00am, the menu will be selected by you, but a suggestion may be: Apetiser:  Crostini di polenta (fried polenta topped with mushrooms). First course:    Ravioli di ricotta e spinaci cin burro e salvia (ricotta cheese and spincih stuffed pasta with a butter and sage sauce) Main course:   Calamari alla Toscana (squid cooked Tuscan style) Side dishe:   Sformati di vedura (a soft vegetable dish similar to quiche) Desert:   Tiramisu Wines are selected and provided to accompany each course. Following an afternoon siesta, the rest of the afternoon is at leisure in Lucca.  A bit more time to hit the shops, visit some of the 97 churches or other signifigant historic sights, or simply stroll through the elegant piazzas and narrow crooked streets. Our last night together is spent enjoying a farewell meal at Lucca's Restaurant Gli Orti.  For this evening, the menu will feature options devoted to the Olive.
Wednesday 25th November 2009 Sadly, it is now time to leave Lucca and either move on to the rest of your journey or head home.  You will be presented with a recipe book with everything that you have cooked during the week with additional pages to allow you to expand and grow your collection of recipies. A realxing breakfast is served in the apartment with a late check out at 11.00am.

The Oils and Treasures of Lucca Package includes:

Seven nights luxury accommodation in an apartment in Lucca's historic centre

Six evening meals (four restaurant meals plus two from the cooking demonstrations)

Four lunches (three restaurant lunches plus one from the cooking demonstrations)

Seven breakfasts

Three cooking demonstrations

Two hour walking tour of Lucca

One day trip to Florence including train transfer

Two hour walking tour of Florence

Entry to Uffizi gallery in Florence

Olive oil and wine tasting

Olive picking demonstration

Pucini highlight concert

Two hour cycling tour

Day's Wellness treatment at Bagni di Lucca natural spa (including steam baths and massage)

Wine tasting at Vini Vanni

All lunches and evening meals include wine, mineral water and coffee

Transfers to and from events as listed in the itinerary

Price per person based on twin share accommodation:  1,950.00 Euro plus local payment of 100 Euro

Private groups of two, four, six and eight can be accommodated for this package.  Minimum number of participants required is two.

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