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Day 1: Olive Oil Tasting, Reception, and Dinner
Jump right into Tuscan culture: learn the process of olive oil production from Nancy Harmon Jenkins, taste the results with agronomist Gemma Pasquali, and, with an aperitivo in hand, mosey on to dinner at the Villa's award-winning restaurant, l’Olivaia.

Day 2: Market, Trattoria Lunch, Cooking Class, and Wine Tasting
Today, you're Tuscan. Start the day off right with a trip to the farmers' market, a traditional lunch, and then, the cooking begins. Prepare classic Tuscan dishes, like risotto or torta di ricotta, and before dinner, join renowned wine authority Burton Anderson for a structured wine tasting of Tuscany's finest.

Day 3: Grove Tour, Tasting, and Two Cooking Classes
Stroll the oliveto (olive groves) with Gemma, peek inside the olive mill, and head to the Oleoteca for another tasting, this time focusing on the typical defects of mass-produced oil. Spend the rest of the day cooking -- first with the olive oil you've just learned about, and then with Italian breads and pizza from the wood-fired oven.

Day 4: Selvapiana Winery, Mongili Family Cheese Farm
Visit the hillside vineyards and estate cellars that produce Italy's famed Chianti Rufina. After you taste straight from the barrel, eat a homemade lunch, and make a stop to see how sheep's milk cheese is made. (Don't worry, you'll get to taste-test this too.)

Day 5: Pasta Demo and Class, Mountain-Top Lunch, Final Olive Oil Tasting, Dinner
Rise and shine -- pasta-making class starts the day, and then you're mountain-bound. Lunch is beef cooked over an open fire, eaten high in the mountains between Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. And then off to Saladini, home of Italy's greatest artisan knife-makers for a knife-making demonstration. After you take it all in, attend another olive oil tasting, and close the night with a Lenten fasting feast.

Day 6: Cooking Class with Guest Chef, Free Afternoon, Gala Dinner, and Scoppia del Carro Festivities
What better way to recap everything you've learned than through a cooking class with guest chef Michele Forgione? Eat lunch, and then it's up to you: stroll the olive groves one last time, take a possible afternoon trip to Italy's knife capital, Scarperia, or rest up for the final gala dinner at Campestri. If you're a night owl, travel to Rufina for Scoppio del Carro, an Easter eve celebration.

Day 7: Departure Day, or Stay for Easter Sunday Celebration
Can't leave quite yet? Stay an optional extra day and celebrate Easter the way Italians do. Visit a XI century church for the blessing of Easter Eggs, savor a traditional Easter lunch at Campestri, enjoy a final dinner and soak in the Tuscan scenery for one extra day. Price of extension is EUR190 for single bookings and EUR145 for double and apartment bookings. Please see redemption instructions for payment details.

About Villa Campestri

During the Renaissance, Villa Campestri morphed from a 13th century fortress into its current incarnation, a gorgeous manor house whose architecture and grounds have been thoughtfully restored by the Pasquali Family. Surrounded by Moraiolo, Leccino, Frantoio, Pendolino and Correggiolo varieties of olive trees, Villa Campestri has become a center for olive oil education, and the world’s first olive oil resort.


About Nancy Harmon Jenkins

A sort of culinary Margaret Mead, Nancy seeks to understand culture from the vantage point of food and cooking. By visiting the world’s markets, restaurants and kitchens, she’s spun her natural curiosity into a career writing and reporting the ways in which we connect over meals. As she likes to say, “…it’s anthropology with the very important difference that you can taste the culture on your tongue and feel it between your hands…”