Weeks will include a wine-tasting course, visits to DOC and DOCG wine regions, plus a Brunello tasting; a visit to an olive oil mill; explorations of specialty cheese, meat and kitchen shops; lunches and dinners in selected restaurants and osterias; pizza night at Selva; and two days of cooking courses. We'll also take advantage of festivals and other seasonal events, such as the wine harvest and olive gathering. A wine course gets you ready for the week, and tastings at Selva include balsamico, olive oil, and vin santo.

Day 1: Arrival

• You are welcomed to the farmhouse Selva with prosecco sparkling wine and antipasti in the tettoia overlooking the Lucca Valley.
• Afterwards, there is time to unpack, settle in, and perhaps stroll around the property and gardens.
• Dinner is served to you under the leafy pergola.

• The week starts slowly with a morning walk through the olive groves and vineyards to the shepherd's house for fresh ricotta, and gathering wild greens and herbs to add to our day's dishes. Lunch is prepared for you and served under the pergola.
• An afternoon break allows for jetlag recovery: snooze in the sun, walk, read, visit, contemplate the cypresses, sip a little vino.
• A late afternoon wine course and tasting will be followed by instruction and dinner preparation.
• The day closes with candlelight dinner under the pergola.

• This morning you venture into Lucca for an introduction to its cultural sites, a walk on its fabled walls, and an exploration of the many specialty food and kitchen shops. You can sip a cappuccino at the oldest bar in Lucca, where Puccini and other literary and musical notables hung out.
• Lunch is at a tiny osteria which artfully blends the 'cucina povera' with new ideas.
• After lunch, you visit the DOCG wine district Montecarlo, home of wines that have been appreciated by Italians for hundreds of years.

• Today you venture into Chianti, for a day filled with stops at award-winning wineries, small towns with unique shops, lunch at a beautiful restaurant with marvelous regional dishes and a stunning view, and opportunities to taste as well as to buy wines, cheeses, salamis, ceramics, and more.
• You return to Selva in the late afternoon, where the pizzamaker has the wood-burning oven ready to start your true Italian pizza.

• You settle into the kitchen for a second day of preparing some of the dishes you've come to enjoy in Tuscany: pappa pomodoro, panzanella, winemaker's cake, homemade pasta with cinghiale sauce (wild boar), and more. Dinner is followed by a vin santo tasting.

• This morning you travel north of Lucca, stopping at the 11th century Devil's Bridge, and continuing to Castelnuovo, an ancient fortress town, for its weekly market. Lunch with our host Andre at his osteria where you will taste wines so regional they could be termed ‘neighborhood' wines, as well as local cheeses, salamis and tortes.
• After lunch, you are invited to the Forci estate to visit its wine making facilities and olive oil press, as well as for wine tasting, and opportunities to purchase their excellent products: wine, olive oil, cheese, honeys, vinegars, grappa, and more.
• After a bit of a rest at Selva, you go into Lucca for dinner and more gastronomic treats.

• You return to Lucca for more chances to buy that Italian kitchen item you always wanted, or regional food specialties; duck into the little church you missed last time; taste-test a few gelati; or simply sit and sip a cappuccino and watch Italians go by.
• After lunch at yet another great osteria, we have a private tasting of the 1997 Brunello wines. The entire vintage has received record-breaking accolades and all the wines are described in superlatives.
• The last night gala dinner is ‘at home’, a dinner to remember us by.

• Arrivederci, and we hope that you return soon!