ANYONE WHO HAS spent an extended amount of time in Tuscany will testify to its culinary delights. There is no need to explain anything else about that part of Italy that hasn’t already been said. I say this because Vicky Gray-Clark, a local self-proclaimed “Italophile,” is assiduously organizing an olive oil–based food and travel tour, Harvest Italia 2010, as part of her new spinoff venture, Spirit of Italy Tours. Gray-Clark normally runs Ambient Public Relations in San Jose, but after several trips to Tuscany, she became attached to the place, as anyone would.
“When I traveled to Italy for the first time as a college student and stepped onto Italian soil, I had a strange physical sensation, as though I had been there before,” she writes on her website. “This déjà vu experience was profound and seeded an intense love affair with the country. Italy continues to have a spiritual pull on my soul, which remains to this day.”
The weeklong tour, which takes place in November, will allow visitors to take part in an olive harvest in Tuscany, on a private estate. Attendees will be able to pick olives by hand and experience how the entire process unfolds, straight from the farm to the bottle. There will be day excursions to Florence, Arezzo and the medieval town of Montevarchi, but the tour is focused on all things olive oil. The tour includes seven nights’ accommodation at Valleverde Agriturismo in San Giovanni Valdarno, about 40 minutes away from the Florence airport.
If you’re hip to the scene, agritourism is the rage these days, with more and more folks wanting to learn about local gastronomy, stewardship of the land, or in this case, the olive oil–making process. Details of the tour, including the tentative itinerary, are on the website: www.spiritofitalytours.com.
Although Florence will be included on the agenda, the trip is not about standing in line for hours to get into the Uffizi, taking your family shot at the Ponte Vecchio or blazing through Rome, Milan and Venice in one week. On this tour, people will sink deeply into the surroundings.
“So much of today’s travel is filled with hustle and bustle, leaving travelers exhausted,” Gray-Clark tells me. “My tour is designed for a small group of travelers so that we can travel more intimately to hand-picked destinations known only to locals and not easily accessible to large groups—at a slower, more thoughtful pace, yet still giving people a glimpse into various aspects of Italian life.” Bellissimo! I say.
The 10-acre Casa Falcioni olive farm in Cavriglia is just minutes away from the accommodation, and November is a spectacular time to be in Tuscany, as the cities aren’t abysmally overrun with camera-toting tourists. What’s more, olive oil is one of the healthiest fluids one can put into or onto one’s body and also one of the most versatile concoctions in the history of humanity. Aside from culinary scenarios, olive oil can be used to control hair frizz, moisturize hangnails, free a stuck zipper, clean garden tools or cure diaper rash. So why not go to straight to the source?
“I would hope that my tour guests garner a deeper appreciation of the olive oil–making process and its earthy connection that is at the heart of Italian cuisine and fast becoming a staple in the American diet,” Gray-Clark says. “The actual picking of the olives is a wonderfully social and healthy activity that is a fun and unique way to enjoy friends and family. Seeing the olives that you’ve collected, taking them to the olive pressing facility and taking a home a bottle of olive oil is a rewarding experience that people will reflect on for a lifetime.”
Anyone who wants more information is welcome to RSVP for a kickoff party on March 21, 12:30–4pm, at Ristorante da Mario in Saratoga. Wine will flow, and Italian ceramics will be on display. Particulars are on the website.
