2010 Program Schedule
Walking Tuscany with Brett Poirier. Experienced hiking guide and naturalist, Brett Poirier, leads your small group (maximum 12) across mountain meadows, along forested trails and into cobblestone city passages. You'll walk the Garfagnana, home to Michelangelo's marble mountains; visit the Orrido di Botri Natural Reserve with its dramatic limestone gorge; explore the 1000-year-old Tenuta di Forci estate, your home for the week; and wander the streets and pathways of Lucca where you can rent a bike to ride its fortified walls.
Dates: May 9 - 16, 2010
Painting in Tuscany with Mary Lehner. Expansive landscapes of olive groves and vineyards, stately villa gardens, pastel houses stacked along a Mediterranean cliff, red tile roofed farmhouses . . . these are the venues and more you'll explore with Mary as she helps you step out of the box with your drawing to experiment with the magic of light, color and contrast. You'll have excursions to Villa Reale with its formal gardens and playful water features, the colorful towns of The Cinque Terre plus the walled city of Lucca with its Roman amphitheater, ancient nooks and crannies and colorful piazzas.
Dates: June 19 - 26, 2010
Wining & Dining with the Italian Underground brings back our good friend Ashton Durrett, owner and chef of the Italian Underground Restaurant in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, for the fourth consecutive year. This year Ashton focuses on the overlooked DOC's around Lucca including Colline Lucchese and Montecarlo. Both produce exquisite but not well known wines. You'll also tour the Chianti region for three days where Ashton will introduce you to his favorite wines and winemakers from that area. And there's time reserved for serendipitous discoveries as we wend our way through the vineyards and visit both traditional and innovative restaurants.
Dates: September 14 - 21, 2010
Opening Doors in Tuscany, A Photography Workshop with Pat and Emi Kanan. Internationally acclaimed photographers Pat and Emi Kanan share their passion for Tuscany with enthusiastic photographers. Regardless of equipment, they assist photographers with creative experimentation. Their workshop concentrates on composition, simplicity and the ability to recognize and capture those rare moments in time. Excursions include the magnificent Cinque Terre, the charms of small corners of Lucca, a fortress town in the mountains, Baroque villas and gardens, beautifully landscaped vineyards and olive groves, and more.
Dates: September 23 - 30, 2010
Travel, Wine and Cuisine in Tuscany. Join Christopher and Darcy Davies, founders of Wine Country International ® Magazine for an enchanted week as culinary and wine tourists in Tuscany. During the week you'll enjoy regional foods and wines like a local as you visit a small town wine festival, outstanding restaurants off the beaten track plus vineyard and enoteca wine tastings. Plus you'll be joined by Michael Long, celebrated chef of Opus Restaurant in Littleton, CO. Michael will conduct hands-on cooking demonstrations using local seasonal ingredients. This week-long program will not only satisfy your culinary desires, but Christopher Davies as a professional travel photographer will also teach you how to document your experiences with practical photography techniques.
Dates: October 2 - 9, 2010
Home to Tuscany with Chef Mario Petit. Share some time with Mario in his restaurant Mamma Mia Trattoria, Westminster, CO, where he is chef and owner, and you'll begin to understand and appreciate his passion for Tuscan cuisine. It's the food of his youth where he grew up and where he was trained in Florence. Now you have an opportunity to "go home" with Mario and use the same local, fresh ingredients that make Tuscan cuisine and his specialities so outstanding. He'll share his cooking secrets and introduce you to some of his favorite regional dishes and local restaurants. Buon appetito!
Dates: October 9 - 16, 2010
2011 Program Schedule
The Inspiration of Art, A Painting Workshop with Vivian George, MFA. Colorado artist Vivian George looks to nature for inspiration. During your ten days with Vivian, you'll learn to see the rhythm, color and harmony of the Tuscan landscape and how to translate that natural energy into your own art. You'll explore The Cinque Terre where sheer cliffs plunge into the sea, and terraced vineyards cling to the steep hillsides. A charming traditional garden at a country villa awaits your interpretation; and the narrow, winding streets of Lucca reveal shaded piazzas as well as architectural delights. Vivian received her MFA from Yale University School of Art and her BFA from California College of the Arts, Oakland. She has also studied at The Art Institute of Chicago. Vivian currently teaches at the College of Arts and Media, University of Colorado, Denver.
Dates: May 21 - 11, 2031
A Gastronomic Tour with Angelo Prosperi-Porta, award-winning chef and co-owner of the luxurious Cooper’s Cove Guesthouse on the Sooke waterfront on Vancouver Island, BC. Angelo offers 5-star dining, an impressive wine list and cooking classes. His cookbook, Flavours of Cooper's Cove Guesthouse written with Ina Haegemann, was a 2006 Independent Publisher Book Award winner and was named Best First Book in English from the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Angelo terms his teaching style "interactive" and will lead participants through a week-long cooking course that also includes cultural and wine excursions in the area.
Dates: June 4 - 11, 2011
Tuscany En Plein Air: Watercolor Sketching with Brenda Swenson. Join Brenda Swenson as she leads you through Tuscany in search of her favorite subjects – the "backroads and byways," where you will be inspired by centuries of artwork, architecture and landscape and where you will meet the people who make Italy so special. Brenda is an artist and author, and is in high demand to demonstrate and teach her watercolor techniques. Whether you want to improve your drawing and painting skills, create travel journals or enrich your painting style, you will come away excited and inspired. An introduction to Brenda and her work can be found on her website, www.swensonsart.net.
Dates: September 3 - 13, 2011
Tuscany Inspiration: A Painting Workshop with Sandra Kaplan. Sandra Kaplan is a popular teacher at the Art Students League of Denver and works with students at all levels in watercolor, acrylics and oil. Her style, described by one critic as "conceptual realism," brings a unique interpretation to the familiar scenes of Tuscany - rolling hillsides covered in vineyards, lush flowers tumbling over a pergola, the humble vegetable garden with its textures and colors, statuary in a formal garden. Sandra's workshops focus on helping students recognize and build confidence in their own styles of expression. Through exercises, demonstrations and one-on-one guidance, she also helps each participant identify and emphasize strengths. To learn more about Sandra and to see some of her work including her most recent interest in mixed media collage, visit Sandra's website, www.sandrakaplan.com.
Dates: September 17 - 27, 2011
