Join us for a great tour to the rural Tuscany with 3 main themes: extra virgin olive oil, organic pecorino cheese and white & red wines! This is the ideal tour for gourmets who want to discover the best specialties of Tuscany just in one day.
A miniseminar with the olive oil expert
Our full day program starts in the morning at a local oil mill, one of the places for the production of extra virgin olive oil. Your private guide will introduce to you Annamaria, a local producer, expert and promoter of top quality extra virgin olive oil. You will visit the premises and learn in detail about the extraction methods to achieve the best EVOO. You will then reach a comfortable tasting room where you will enjoy a miniseminar on olive oils with comparison tests for you to learn how to distinguish good olive oils from faked ones. The experience continues with a little buffet of olive oil based snacks.
A visit to the most panoramic cheese farm of Tuscany
In just 25 minutes driving through stunning landscapes you will then reach a very panoramic organic cheese farm, place of production of delicious pecorino, ricotta, baccellone and stracchino. Here your guide will show you all the working rooms: the dairy with plenty of cheese wheels in production or ageing as well as the sheep shed with a very efficient milking facility. You will encounter plenty of animals who live on the farm together with the sheep, like pigs, chickens, cats and the donkey Orazio! After visiting you will enjoy a delicious buffet lunch with all cheeses produced on the farm, salads, cold meats and other delicacies, including dessert and coffee.
A family-run winery in heaven
In the afternoon you will follow the guide to a last wonderful property in the area: a family-run agriturismo & winery with an excellent production of unique wines. The location is particularly breathtaking and the family is really friendly and welcoming. You will visit their vineyards and learn about their spectacular project of producing wines in a challenging context. You will learn about their winemaking techniques while visiting their underground cellar. In the end you will sit in a beautiful panoramic tasting room where the winemaker in person will serve their 4 different wines and their grappa, accompanied by some little snacks.
It will be your memorable day in the rural Tuscany!
This is a list of specialties that you are likely to sample as part of the program of this tour. Please, note that the specialties of the tasting session and/or lunch may vary according to the season and the availability of the products in the day of the tour.
The visit to the oil mill of Vicopisano ends at a table where lunch starts with a guided sampling of many kinds of olive oils scented with herbs, fruits and vegetables paired with plain rice for a perfect perception of the different tastes.
A plate of mixed bruschettas, topped with fresh tomatoes, cheese and sausage or simply extra virgin olive oil. Bruschettas are very common appetizers in all Italy and in Tuscany they are commonly called crostini.
The cheese fondue is made of special soft cheese, which is very good at melting. Slices of such cheese lying on some leaves of radicchio in a pot which is baked in the oven for about 20 minutes. It is to die for!
Pecorino cheese is the most famous cheese from Tuscany. It derives from sheep milk, from which the name comes: in Italian sheep is “pecora”. It can be fresh or long-aged and its taste can vary from mild to very sharp.
Stracchino cheese is a fresh, soft and intensely flavored cheese that can be also spread on bread. It is usually made with cow milk and it is a specialty from Tuscany and from the north of Italy.
The best extra virgin olive oil is made with fresh Tuscan olives immediately squeezed after the harvest at an oil mill. The most common olives for Tuscan olive oil are frantoio, leccino, frantoio and madremignola.
The Tuscan soil provides a wide variety of red wines, from easy-to-drink young table wines to full-body and robust riservas. Tuscan red wines are often based on Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo or Colorino grapes and sometimes on international grapes like Merlot, Cabernet or Syrah.
Tuscan white wines are often based on a typical grape called Vermentino, which provides strong minerality and freshness to the wines made with it. Other very common grapes for white wines in Tuscany are Trebbiano and Malvasia.
A plate of mixed Tuscan cold meats: rigatino (a kind of bacon), Tuscan salami (a regular salami with large fat bits), finocchiona (a salami with fennel seeds) and arista (a pork loin long baked and seasoned with rosemary and other herbs).
In our tour we like showing you places off the beaten track and introducing you to Tuscan people with their personal stories, careers and characters.
You will have one of our guides with your party during the whole tour. Please, see below all the guides who can be with you.
During this experience you can also meet some of the Tuscan friends involved in the events. Please, see below which friends you are likely to encounter.
Massimo
guide
Massimo
Co-founder and owner at Arianna & Friends
Massimo, born in 1976, is one of the co-founders of the company Arianna & Friends. He started working at the project back in 2006.
He is an experienced Italian teacher and tour guide and he specializes in wine & food tours, vespa tours, cookery classes and Italian lessons.
He is able to tour in English, German, Russian and Spanish as his bend for modern languages and learning about cultures of all the world is very strong. As a gift for his 40th birthday he received a fantastic Vespa PX of 1983 from all his friends so now he travels across his beloved Tuscany on his vespa as soon as he's got some free time.
Luca
guide
Luca
Tour leader and sales manager at Arianna & Friends
Luca, born in 1984, is the youngest member (for now) at Arianna & Friends'. He graduated in Modern Languages with focus on French and English and after some years as a multi task personality in the entertainment team of a famous cruiseline, he decided to settle back in Tuscany, where he originates from. He joined our company in August 2011 and since then he focused on wine & food tours, vespa tours and cookery lessons. He is able to guide in fluent English and French. He is a passionate soccer player and fond of good foods of all sorts.
Moira
guide
Moira
Pisa city tour guide & and tour leader at Arianna & Friends.
Moira, born in 1976, joined Arianna & Friends in February 2014 working as a receptionist for the Tourist Information Office of Peccioli, the town where the premises of our Tour Operator are. Since September 2014 she became a licensed official Pisa city tour guide in English and French. She is a great photographer and she is endlessly knowledgeabe on local art and history. In the summer months Moira meets groups of local visitors for weekly two-hour free guided walking tours of the most spectacular towns of our area, like Chianni, Peccioli and Lajatico. She is also the best guide for our private cultural guided tours to Pisa, San Miniato and Volterra.
Arianna
guide
Arianna
Founder and owner at Arianna & Friends
Arianna, born in 1975, lives in Santa Maria a Monte with her family and her funny dog Dante. She graduated in modern languages in Pisa, after spending some years in Freiburg, Germany. She has been working as a tour leader, translator and interpreter for years before founding Arianna & Friends in 2007. She specializes in cooking classes and visits to wine and olive oil farms as well as cheese and pasta factories. She likes listening to music, organizing events and arts. Her favourite dish is the wild boar with olives, a recipe she inherited from her granny.
Claudia and Genuino
friend
Claudia and Genuino
Claudia and her father Genuino are the winemakers of a stunning family run winery in the hills surrounding Volterra with an outstanding production of typically Tuscan reds
Orazio the Donkey
friend
Orazio the Donkey
Orazio is a friendly and cute donkey in one of our farms in Tuscany. Very often an animal farm in Tuscany is also a holiday farm. If you happen to meet Orazio during your holiday you may want to not leave any more...
Cheese makers
friend
Cheese makers
On the organic cheese farm of our tour some professional cheese makers are often in the process of making cheese. They are usually very busy with curdling the milk or creating the cheese wheels but they are very friendly and always available for questions and details during our visits.
Anna Maria
friend
Anna Maria
Anna Maria is one of the members of the official panel of olive oil testers of Tuscany for the district of Pisa. She runs one of the most renowned oil mills in the area of Volterra and she has a great personality. Her mission is to make products available in most supermarkets.
LOCATION OF ATTRACTIONS:
This tour takes place in the area of Volterra, in central Tuscany, and in the hills around Terricciola, a rural region among Pisa, Volterra and San Gimignano.
MEET-UP LOCATION:
Unless differently specified, the tour guide meets you at a meeting point in or near Volterra.
DURATION:
This program takes 8 hours (transportation not included).
AVAILABILITY:
Available all the year through, from Mondays through Saturdays.
LANGUAGE:
This tour is available in English language. German, French, Spanish, Russian or Italian are also available with no surcharge.
DIFFICULTY LEVEL:
Easy
CHILD FRIENDLY:
Ideal for children
CLOTHING:
Comfortable shoes recommended.
FOOD RESTRICTIONS:
The foods served during this tour might contain gluten, lactose, nuts and alcohol. If you have any food restriction, please inform our personnel during the enquiry process.
TRANSPORTATION:
This program and its rates do not include transportation and are set on a self-driving base. For further information see the box "transportation options".
The destinations reached during this activity are in the Tuscan countryside, in areas off the beaten track that cannot be reached by public transport. We highly recommend renting a car or a scooter in order to reach them. As an alternative, we can offer a valued service by chauffeured car, van or minibus. Any cost of transportation is to be added to the rates displayed on the rate table of this page.
The best gourmet tour of the rural Tuscany if you only have one day available. An 8-hour program with visits to an oil mill, a family run winery and an organic cheese farm. Plenty of foods and a lot of fun!
The best gourmet tour of the rural Tuscany if you only have one day available. An 8-hour program with visits to an oil mill, a family run winery and an organic cheese farm. Plenty of foods and a lot of fun!
The best gourmet tour of the rural Tuscany if you only have one day available. An 8-hour program with visits to an oil mill, a family run winery and an organic cheese farm. Plenty of foods and a lot of fun!
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