You can find all over Italy a high culture about food; every Italian region has its own typical food treasures. The ingredients are simple, savory and healthy. In this program you will focus on the typical food of Tuscia. Your instructor is a local woman, well versed in the traditions of this local cuisine. You’ll learn how to make homemade pasta, such as fettuccine, tagliatelle or gnocchi, and how to properly cook it. You’ll also learn how to prepare lake fish and meat, vegetables seasoned with olive oil and of desserts such as tiramisu. At the end of your lessons you’ll sit down and partake of the delicious concoction you have created with your own hands!
Your Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrival. After lunch, there is an opportunity for a short independent walk in the Estate I Due Laghi, located between the volcanic lakes of Bracciano and Martignano. You’ll enjoy the view of both lakes, green pastures and cattle grazing, as well as the Rome skyline in the far. This will be your very first touch with the Roman countryside (4 miles, 200 feet ascent). Before dinner, you’ll have a meeting and a welcome drink with Stefano, your professional guide.
Day 2: Barbarano. The first urban culture in the western Mediterranean can be traced to the Etruscans, who shaped civilization in central Italy from about eighth to the second century B.C. Today you will visit the city of Barbarano Romano and the nearby Etruscan burial tombs. The Etruscans built their tombs from the soft volcanic rock known as tufa in a lush forest carpeted with cyclamen. On the walk you’ll see many such tombs, all dating from the eight/fifth century B.C. (7 miles, 400 feet ascent).
Day 3: Monterano, the Abandoned City. Today’s walk will take you down an old Etruscan road, past sections of a Roman aqueduct, and up a small hill to the Abandoned City. The city of Monterano was founded in 1677, by the Pope Clemente X, belonging to Altieri family. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the great baroque architect was asked to build the new town. But because of marshes and the sack of the Napoleon’s French soldiers in 1798 the new town was abandoned and from that time it still stands like a ghost. You will walk along ancient roads deeply excavated in the tufa rock beside waterfalls, caves, and woods. On the way home you will visit Altieri Palace of Oriolo Romano, which hosts the unique Popes’ Gallery, with all the Popes’ portraits since St. Peter (6 miles, 500 feet ascent).
Day 4: Cooking Day. Transfer a short distance for your cooking class. Enjoy a 5 hour lesson in making and cooking pasta, fish, meat, vegetables and dessert. After sit down and enjoy your creations for lunch.
Day 5: Norchia. Today you will walk all the way along one of the most magnificent Etruscan necropolis, all excavated on the entire slop of a hill. The great English Etruscologist George Dennis and his companion Ainsley both sketched and painted extensively in Etruria during their travels in the 1840’s. Dennis wrote in his book "Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria", London 1848, with a great Romantic feeling, using the sweetest words about the carved cliff tombs as ‘dadi’ or dice shaped. The walk will also include a ruined medieval castle, a church and a roman road (5 miles, 600 feet ascent).
Day 6: Civitella Cesi–San Giovenale. Today you will enjoy a beautiful hike along some of the most impressive countryside of the area. The first part will take you from the medieval dwelling of Civitella Cesi on unpaved roads to the river Vesca, where on the other side stands the prehistoric village of San Giovenale. This Etruscan village was excavated by the King of Sweden Gustav Adolf VI in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s; he was a keen archaeologist. In the same area you can also visit interesting Etruscan necropolis and a medieval ruined castle (7 miles, 300 feet ascent).
Day 7: Departure after breakfast.
2008 Dates: March 9-15, November 9-15.
Meeting Point: Rome Airport. Transfers not included.
Difficulty of Walk: Flat terrain and footpaths, soft hills, maximum 300 to 600 feet descent. 4-7 miles per day.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
$2,600 per person, shared; $260 single supplement.
Price Includes:
- 6 nights hotel accommodation
- 4 guided walking days
- 1 day cooking lesson
- All meals
- Museum entrance fees
- Transfers to/from cooking lesson
- Tax.
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