Tuscany things to do

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Tuscany – Wine and Oil Tour

A wine tour is a discovering experience that starts from the vineyard and ends into a glass.

Tuscany is rich in high quality wine areas, each one with its own story, more or less famous, but always enchanting.  You do not have but to slow down and begin your journey along Wine and Beauty.

The wineries we propose for our wine tours have been chosen according to the quality of their wines and to the friendly and welcoming nature of their owners and managers, mirroring the absolute passion for their work.

This selection is still in progress because our work is to research always the best! This is what we love more, discovering and falling in love with our land again everyday, hoping to transmit this passion to you.

Our wine tours usually start in the morning from the place you require, according to the distance from the wine area you want to visit. You must know that most wineries are on hilltop and country roads to reach them are not always so smooth, so it takes some time to go from a geographic area to another one and we need to plan carefully a tour as to let you enjoy it.

Visits to wineries usually start with a panoramic view of the vineyards, passing by the vat room, where the process of de-stemming the grapes and vinification is passionately explained by an expert wine guide.

Then, you visit the cellars, where wine ages in the oak barrels, and, some times, the bottling rooms, where the bottled wine reaches full refinement.Each visit ends with a wine tasting, often coupled with oil tasting (because many farms produces both wine and oil) and then, if you want, you can buy some bottle of wine and oil.

According to the schedule of a tour, you can have also lunch in a winery, a good chance to understand how coupling wine and food! Anyway, each tour is carefully planned for you and according to your requests and needs and we will always be happy to realize your ideas!

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Tuscany, Forte dei Marmi’s Famous Weekly Market

Forte dei Marmi offers its rich villa dwellers a Wednesday market that deals in designer clothing, among other things. It is known to offer bargains, it’s the place to go to get cut-price reproductions of expensive designer clothes. The town of Forte dei Marmi is centred around the market and the marble fortress built in 1788.

Lucca Jazz Donna 2009, 21-28 February

Coincidentally enough at the press conference for this the 5th edition of Lucca Donna Jazz, held in the Headquarters of the patrons Fondazione Banca del Monte, the conversation spontaneously turned to this era of Lucca Jazz.
The board members reminisced their teenage pilgrimages to San Giorgio in the hope of a few notes from Chet’s last partner Ruth Young sang at the 2006 edition of the festival.

So don’t miss this week of top class concerts taking place in the San Girolamo Theatre starting February 21st and presented by famous TV music personalità and DJ Claudio Sottili. Thi is the 2009 Lucca Jazz Donna Festival organized by the Circolo Lucca Jazz, dedicated this year to Billie Holiday on the 50th anniversary of her death.

As a side event the 1984 Emmy and Bafta award winning film Billie Holiday – The Long Night of Lady Day by Jhon Jeremy will be shown at the Cinema Centrale on Thursday 19th February.

The festival aims to bring female jazz musicians to the forefront, whether they sing, play, compose or arrange jazz music. Two mid-week evenings are dedicated to the 2009 Award for young talent and feature, six female groups from Rome, Palermo, Puglia, Milan and Lucca.

The weekend events in Lucca feature Michele Hendricks, daughter of Jon of legendary trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Eileina Dennis from the US with her gospel background and hit recording with Randy Crawford and Zucchero, Tiziana Ghiglioni known as La Signora del Jazz Italiano and the captivating voice of Ada Montellanico with her guest Max Ionata.

A special tribute to Billie Holiday entitled Our Way to Lady Day will take place at Teatro Alfieri in Castelnuovo Garfagnana on March 27th with the Ricciardi/Premazzi Quartet.
previous edition have hosted dramme Kim Thompson, just on the cusp of fame, saxophonist Lisa Pollard and violinist Regina Carter, to name a few.

The festival is a showcase for Lucca to be proud of, adding sparkle and International glamour to the town during the drab low season of february. Spread the word!

Last year these shows were a sell-out so we recommend you buy tickets in advance from Telerecord, Via Santa Croce 11/13. On sale from 10th february. More info regarding the programme and tickets at www.luccajazzdonna.it; segreteria-eventi@comunelucca.it
Tel. +39 0583.442444, or centro.po@provincialucca.it Tel. +39 0583 433435
Listening also in What’s On Central pages.

Casale Sodini Perks, Meeting with the Artists in Pierasanta

Casale Sodini is proud to offer you the chance to savour – “Meeting with the Artists in Pietrasanta”.

Book the Villa during January 2009 for a stay at any time in 2009 and we’ll include “Meeting with the Artists in Pietrasanta” program of event at no extra cost!

This enchanting medieval town, so beloved to very renowed sculptors as Mitoraj, Botero, Cascella, Finotti, Capotondi, Rhon, Gamundi, Heppe, etc. , will be the special meeting point where spending a delightful and unforgettable day. This chance is not to be missed! It is an opportunity reserved to few and lucky people who love to be in touch with the “sculptor’s closest world”. Realise a work of art is always an intimate process for the artist and he is sometimes very jealous about his works, but we are allowed to this unique, incredible experience.

To start our trip, it is a pleasure for us to welcome you in Duomo Square (one of the most beautiful square in the world) around 10 o’ clock, 10:30 a.m.

We immediately reach the artist’s studio/workshop. The artist waits for us, as an old, kind friend, just to disclose his secrets and show us how his sculpture was born. Behind a creation there is always an hard work, lot of passion and affliction till the last day, when the work is finished and the artist finally feels a great joy and forgets the agony.

A fine collection of bronzes take the same care and attention, in order to see statues made of bronze, we will visit a foundry, where we could feel again the same charm as before. The artist, as an intimate friend, will gladden us sharing the “pleasures of the table”.

We can choose a characteristic restaurant in the countryside, or one of the many restaurants on the beach breathing the sweet smell of the sea and eating fresh fish. The inevitable conclusion is a toast to celebrate this wonderful day together.