FOLLOW THE CHEF!
Dream Trip to Italy 2011
Only three couples will have the opportunity to travel to Italy with Chef Jeff Iovino and experience first-hand the culture and food of Umbria.
In preparation for your trip to Italy, all participants will receive a copy of Joan Arndt’s memoir of Le Vigne, Italian Lessons, which will provide a history of the villa, the extensive restoration, the surrounding area, and region of Umbria.
Getting to Italy: Chef Iovino will depart PIT for Rome’s Leonardo di Vinci Int’l airport. Everyone else in the group is invited to travel with Chef Iovino or make their own arrangements for earlier flights, perhaps wanting to spend a few days in Rome prior to our adventure.
Saturday – Le Vigne
Our personal driver will meet us outside customs at the Rome airport. If necessary we will then pick up others at a location in Rome should some decide to arrive earlier. Once loaded, our driver will treat us to a driving tour of Ancient Rome and St Peter’s square with a private guide before heading north to
Le Vigne, a villa set on top of one of the hills surrounding Perugia. Le Vigne, our home for the week, is owned by Joan and Roger Arndt, friends of Chef Iovino. The Arndts are formerly from Atlanta where Joan was in International Marketing with Coca-Cola and Roger was an International Captain with Delta. They moved to Italy in 2002 and have established one of the finest self-catering villas in the area. www.levigne.net
Our arrival at Le Vigne will involve selecting bedrooms, a light lunch, orientation and perhaps a short nap before Joan and Roger provide us with an arrival dinner: four courses and wines.
Sunday –Montefalco / Spello
We’ll leave Le Vigne around 9:30, bound for Montefalco, the heart of Italian linens: tablecloths, bedspreads, dishtowels, and more. Joan will translate and Paula, the shop manager, will convert all inches to centimeters and point everyone in the right direction with capable assistance.
For lunch we’ll enjoy a wine-tasting luncheon in an enoteca in Spello, our third medieval hilltop town. Our host, Maurizio, will let us generously sample five or six Umbrian wines while serving a full Umbrian lunch. This is a full-out, no-rush,
three-hour lunch after which we will
engage in a bocce tournament (or nap) at Le Vigne and talk about how
we’re too full for dinner. Wine, cheese and meats will be sufficient,
sitting around the pool.
Monday – Perugia / cooking class
After a breakfast prepared by Chef Iovino we’ll leave Le Vigne for a visit to Faffa, the oldest functioning bakery in Umbria. Luigi, Faffa owner and our host, will give us a private tour of the wood-fired oven which is still used and relate a moving story about the occupation of the town and the bakery by the Germans during WW II.
Marco, our personal Umbrian guide, will then lead us to Perugia, the capital and largest city in Umbria and our fourth medieval hilltop town. Marco will explain the wonders of this Etruscan city, the longest continuously inhabited city in Italy and then lead us to lunch at the Caffé di Perugia.
Following lunch Joan and Roger will lead us to shopping opportunities with Valentina, a local and talented ceramic artisan as well as a cashmere and knitwear manufacturing outlet before taking us back to Le Vigne for a cooking class with Clara: five courses with wines.
Tuesday – Santa Maria / Assisi
Marco will lead us to Santa Maria degli Angeli and Assisi for private tours of the city of Saint Francis and Santa Chiara as well as lunch on the terrace of the Hotel Subasio.
After lunch we’ll have the opportunity to watch the preparation of the Umbrian speciality, porchetta.
Our second cooking
class/demonstration
will be at a neighboring villa. Giuliana will be our cook of the
day. Joan has labeled her “Martha Stewart without a rap sheet”
and her cooking will be entirely different from Clara.
Wednesday – Florence
An early departure takes us to the local train station where we board a 6:27 am train to Florence. We’ll be met by our personal guide, Alessandra, and visit David at the Academy, the Ufizzi, the Duomo, the Baptistry doors, the Medici chapel and more: the art and splendor of the Renaissance.
We’ll lunch at Cantina Antinori, one of three in the world owned by the famous wine producing family and spend the afternoon shopping for gold and leather.
Our return train will get us to Le Vigne in time for a shower and change before we venture out to Trilogy, probably the best pizza in central Italy.
Thursday – market / Cortona
We’ll experience an Italian open-air market in the morning and then leave the market for a short drive to Cortona, the setting of “Under the Tuscan Sun” where Joan and Roger will introduce us to the owners of a fine art gallery, several antique shops and another wonderful enoteca where we will have a presentation and tasting of Tuscan wines. We will then drive by the now famous house “Bramasole”, still owned but not inhabited by Frances Mayes and then to lunch at Corys, a four-star restaurant overlooking the valley and a corner of Lago Trasimeno. Our host at Corys, owner and head-waiter Giuseppe will pamper us with three hours of incredible tastes.
Most will sleep on the way back to Le Vigne and left-overs from Clara’s class will be the snack of the evening. Few will want anything.
.
Friday – 30 May – Orvieto and farewell dinner
Marco will lead us to the Etruscan city of Orvieto and the wonders of the Duomo and the underground city built of tufo.
We’ll be the only tourists in La Palomba for lunch and return to Le Vigne to organize and pack before our farewell dinner at Lo Spedalicchio, a 13th century building and fabulous restaurant.
Saturday –Arrivederci
Early good-byes to Joan, Roger and
Le Vigne will ensure that we arrive at the Rome airport in time to clear
security and board our flight. Roger will assist those electing
to remain in Italy with transportation arrangements.
This luxury trip includes all meals, wines, tips, ground transportation, guides, entrance fees, cooking classes and translations. For more information about Le Vigne and photos of this beautiful property, go to www.levigne.net.
Ground package per person based on double occupancy: $3,600
This is a very close approximation to our trip to Italy. Itinerary may change to enhance the experience.