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Imagine spending ten days living Tuscan style in a small village tucked away in the Garfagnana region north of Lucca learning new food techniques and recipes with renowned chef and author Georgina Adamson, eating and drinking the very best that the region has to offer over animated discussions of life with your villa owner and author, Buzz McCarthy and your fellow travellers.

Buzz’s passion for Italy and Tuscany in particular began when, as a 22 year old on her first visit, she declared that one day she would purchase a villa there, a dream she fulfilled 20 years later with her husband. Since 1988 she has called the upper reaches of Tuscany, the Garfagnana, home for at least a part of every year, and for the entire year of 2001. For eighteen years she has combed the hills, exploring villages and hamlets, bars and restaurants, markets and shops selling the exquisite produce of the area; Chestnut and acacia honey, wild boar salami, local olives, foccacia and ciabatta that melt in your mouth, rich green freshly-harvested extra virgin olive oils, wines from local grapes, sweet and salty prosciutto, rich runny gorgonzola, sheep and goat cheeses made in a tiny ‘factory’ in the next village, and so on. All these delights and more will be brought to you during the Fabulous Food Tour. You will savour the most wonderful taste sensations both at the villa in meals cooked by Georgina, and out at the restaurants and bars we have selected as the very best the region has to offer.

Last year guests enjoyed the first Fabulous Food Experience leaving with comments like “It was everything I wanted it to be. You took us to places we would never have known about, and gave us experiences I never thought I would have. The lengths you went to still astound me. I wake up each morning realising just how lucky I was to be part of it. It was a gift you gave me, I could never repay you.

Georgina Adamson says “Each time I visit ‘I Cinghiali’ I feel like I am returning home. I take a walk, greeting the neighbours of this tiny village in my less than adequate Italian and notice what is happening in their gardens. Not much else changes. When I stand on the terrace and look down the valley my senses are heightened by the physical beauty, air, the light, the sounds.

But the best for me is the food. I am impatient to get to the markets – Tuesday & Thursday in Piazza al Serchio and Castlenuovo, our market towns in the valley below, and join the locals shopping. Stalls abundant with fresh vegetables, herbs, cheese , fish and flowers, kitchen equipment, the best roast chicken you have ever tasted. Cooking and eating seems so simple here, the produce so good, it needs little embellishment. The people of this region are fiercely proud of their food. Small wonder it is the home of the ‘Slow Food’ movement that is becoming so popular throughout the world. You understand why when you visit the Garfagnana where the traditions of an ancient cuisine are being preserved and promoted. To visit Castlenuovo and shop at l’Aia di Piero; to be greeted by the exuberant Andrea at his bar, walls lined with wine, cheeses and meats, I am in a food-lovers heaven!

I am passionate about cooking and eating food at its point of origin. I have lived and cooked in a rural area far from city markets for 25 years, scouring the countryside for produce; where often things bought from road-side stalls is the very best. Now there is a diverse range of wonderful produce – seafood, olives, fruit & vegetables, farmed rabbits and poultry, flowers, wine & cheese….As with the Garfagnana, the far South West coastal corner of NSW is becoming a destination for serious food lovers.

Georgie has established two café restaurants in the small fishing village of Bermagui and has spent 13 years cooking privately; involving a great many distinguished overseas guests, special functions and events. She now runs her own cucina and private dining room overlooking Wapengo Lake where she conducts cooking classes as well as feeding happy guests the finest produce
that the far south coast offers. She is an ardent member of “Slow Food”.

Buzz McCarthy’s two passions are the area of Tuscany she is fortunate to call home and empowering people to make creative changes in their lives.
She is a Life Coach with a private practice in Australia but also greatly honoured to be among a small number of Trainers for the world’s leading peak-performance coach, Anthony Robbins, assisting participants at seminars around the world. Buzz is the author of “Interlude with Wild Boars, a book about her journeys in northern Tuscany and is married to Robin Cavalier, a Melbourne management consultant. They have a 15 year old son Hugo, a student at Melbourne Grammar School.

Nothing delights her more than to be preparing food in her Italian cucina from the tastiest produce available, from time to time changing her focus to the incredible and ever changing view from the window, listening to the church bells as they chime down ‘her valley’ and feeling totally blessed and privileged to own this piece of paradise. The next best is sharing it with others and watching them fall in love with the Garfagnana and life at The Wild Boars.

Gaail Tait fell in love with the very best of Italy during a walking tour in the Tuscan hills and poppy fields in 1995 culminating at “I Cinghiali” where she and Buzz forged a lifetime friendship. Returning to Italy in 2006 will be her third visit and she looks on it as food for the soul, reliving the wonderful experiences of the rolling hills, olive groves, vineyards, forests, village markets, the local produce (especially the strawberries), the olive oils, the prosciutto, the cheeses and the freshly baked bread. "I love to walk it, smell it and sense it. When I'm in Italy, I'm in heaven and I'm in love with life".

Her first trip was transformational - she lost heaps of weight, changed her identity and created a new vision for her life. Gaail a former teacher now has a background in hospitality. For the past decade she has supervised and managed corporate functions at the Victorian Arts Centre including the MSO, Australian Ballet and Opera as well as major Melbourne events such as the Grand Prix, the Australian Open Tennis, the Avalon Air Show and more.

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YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO BE PART OF THIS SMALL GROUP

Georgina and Buzz invite up to ten people to join them for this great experience. The trip will run with a minimum of six guests.

Cost for the 11 days includes:

• Pick up from and return to Pisa - 11am day 1/by 11am day 11
• 10 nights accommodation at “I Cinghiali” on a twin-share/double basis (single supplement applies)
• Participation in three Cooking Classes with Georgina
• Transportation in our vehicles around the valley to points of interest, markets, restaurants, walks and so on
• All meals and wine as designated
• A day trip to the beautiful walled city of Lucca by train
• A copy of Buzz’s 300 page book “Interlude with Wild Boars”
• A copy of the 72 page "I Cinghiali" Information for Guests booklet
• A copy of Georgina's cookbook 'Marmalade..and other stories from la cucina Isola'
• Detailed notes on the area and its villages, tourist maps etc
• A folder containing menus and recipes for all meals cooked at the villa
  including those for the Cooking Classes

It does not include:

• Airfares or other travel costs to and from Pisa
• Travel insurance. We suggested you take out well prior to your travel dates
• All expenses of a personal nature
• Any meals or refreshments not designated

Our 2007 Fabulous Food Tour commences Tuesday 12th June and concludes on Friday 22nd of June.

TUESDAY 12 JUNE 2007
You will fly or take a train into Pisa and be collected at the airport before noon. We will drive home (90 kms) to “I Cinghiali” for a late lunch and spend the afternoon settling in and perhaps taking a walk to the nearby medieval village of Orzaglia, with streets so narrow no car can pass. If you have just flown in from Australia we will offer an amazing process to alleviate jet lag and revitalise you after your travels. Dinner will be served at the villa.

WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2007
This is the day when the entire valley closes in the afternoon so whatever we do will be in the morning. There are a number of little villages we can visit and walk around to get the feel of this wonderful valley. We can pop into our local town Piazza al Serchio for a coffee and to shop with local housewives for their daily fare or we can have a long and relaxed breakfast on the terrace and get to know each other. In the afternoon Georgina will conduct her first Cooking Class, which will become our evening meal.

THURSDAY 14 JUNE 2007
An early start will see us 15 kilometres down the valley for the bustling market at Castlenuovo di Garfagnana. Men gather together to talk of politics and the weather whilst their women hunt for treasures on the market stalls, which line the streets, both inside the town walls and outside. Most of us will pick up some real treasures; especially from the obliging folk in what Buzz calls “shoe street”. For a light lunch we shall meet at Il Vecchio Molino owned by the rotund Andrea, a well-known proponent of the Slow Food Movement. Dinner will be served at the villa.

FRIDAY 15 JUNE 2007
This will be a day of local activities, getting to know our valley even better. We can visit the nearby village of Vibbiana to see our local cheese factory in operation and to buy some of their special seasoned pecorino, then on to tiny villages of San Romano and Sillicagnana with perhaps a walk through the village after lunch and on past the original village of Caprignana into the chestnut woods. When we return to the villa you might like to assist in the preparation of the evening’s meal to be cooked in our traditional stone oven, believed to be the largest of its kind in the valley!

SATURDAY 16 JUNE 2007
We will rise early for a quick breakfast before a trip down the valley to visit the magnificent medieval town of Barga where a Saturday morning market is in progress. You will want to explore this hill town, winding around its narrow streets to the marble cathedral of St Christopher in the most prominent position at the top of the town. We will have an informal lunch at Barga to give us extra time to explore this special town. Returning to “I Cinghiali” Georgina will conduct her second Cooking Class, featuring desserts. Dinner will be al fresco at the local pizzeria below the fortress opposite the villa and at home afterwards we will listen to fine music whilst eating the produce from the class and sampling some of the local liqueurs.

SUNDAY 17 JUNE 2007
An early departure will see us across the Alpi Apuane and onto the Versillian Coast section of the Italian Riviera. Stopping at the Resort town of Forte dei Marmi for their sensational summer Sunday markets, we can sample the mouth-watering gelati or venture into the high fashion shops lining the pedestrian-only street, until around noon when we will continue on up the coast, passing by the spectacular marble mountains of Massa and Carrara, and onto the tiny peninsula of Bocca di Magra for a sumptuous fish luncheon at the renowned restaurant Ciccio, for more than 50 years owned by Mario, and his family, (the husband of a Sydney woman). As a renowned meeting place it will be full of life and Italians celebrating their only day free from work. A light supper will be served at the villa.

MONDAY 18 JUNE 2007
The villa is on the edge of a 50 square kilometre national park with huge granite outcrops, tiny villages and wonderful walks. This morning we can either have a slow morning prior to lunch or a relatively challenging walk in the hills. Lunch will be at the restaurant voted the favourite with our 2005 group, La Baita, which serves mouth-watering dishes created by the owner’s wife and, if we are lucky, a selection of superb liqueurs made by the owner. The afternoon is for relaxation, reading, conversation or whatever before dinner served at the villa.

TUESDAY 19 JUNE 2007
Tuesday is the day of the small village market at Piazza al Serchio, which we shall pop in on, including a visit to Stefano our baker to see his wood-fired ovens and to choose some vino from our local bottega which we shall bottle later in the week. At lunchtime we will dine at Ai Canipai a restaurant in our commune where only the finest of local produce is used and later, cook will teach us how to make pasta, polenta and farro soup, a speciality of the region.

Returning to “I Cinghiali” Georgina will offer our third Cooking Class featuring Antipasti, which we will later enjoy.

WEDNESDAY 20 JUNE 2007
Today you can either stay home for a day in the villa resting and taking in the beautiful fresh air or you can take a train down the valley to the elegant walled city of Lucca. Ignored by many guidebooks, Lucca has had the good fortune to be missed by the annual hordes of tourists descending on Italy. We consider the city one of the country’s least disturbed treasures, where the townsfolk go about their business, always well dressed, riding their bicycles through the cobbled streets where cars dare to venture. You can take coffee in the elegant Bar di Simo, earlier frequented by Puccini, visit any of the city’s 72 churches, explore the old Roman amphitheatre, spend your Euros in our favourite shops along the Via Fillungo or hire a cycle and ride around the narrow cobbled streets exploring this wonderful city. At lunchtime you can choose to dine at the 18th century Buca di San Antonio (at your own cost) or select a foccacia from a bar and spend a couple of hours enjoying a walk around the entire perimeter of the city on its magnificent wide brick walls. At home we will enjoy a relaxed dinner.

THURSDAY 21 JUNE 2007
Another opportunity to visit the leading town in the valley, Castlenuovo, for its exciting Thursday morning market and then home for a light lunch on the terrace. During the afternoon we will be bottling and labelling some local wine for our cellar, sampling as we go. Feel free to sit on the terrace and read, help us with the wine, go for a walk around the hills or organise yourself for your ongoing travels. As the light fades we will make our way to the 10th century ruined fortress that sits on the hill opposite “I Cinghiali” for a magnificent view across the valley where we shall do what tradition calls for on the last night: drink champagne and celebrate our time here in the magic of the Garfagnana. At home we shall enjoy our final dinner at the villa.

FRIDAY 22 JUNE 2007
After breakfast you will be transported to Pisa for your ongoing flights or travel.

This itinerary is flexible enough to take account of your personal wishes. Additional flexibility can be made; if you want more time to enjoy the peace at “I Cinghiali” you are quite at liberty to spend a day on the terrace looking at the view or at the desk in the office writing postcards or your journal.

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