I was reading a post from Rick recently and he spoke of "food tours" in Italy. We are planning a 14-16 day trip in either late May or early June staying in Venice-Florence-Rome and are intrigued with the idea. Any suggestions? Wine would be nice as well.
Jonathan
A couple of years ago I did four hour food tour of the Testaccio area. We visited restaurants, the market, a deli etc. Lots to eat, including a pasta lunch with wine and a very good guide to an intriguing area not visited by too many visitors to Rome. The same company does similar tours of the Trastevere area. Website: http://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com
You can also do Cooking Classes in Florience where you'll visit the market early and do the shopping for the meal.
OMG, the BEST food tour ever...out of Bologna, totally the best experience I had with my son this trip to Italy.
Italian Days Food Experience http://www.italiandays.it
....Alessandro leads each tour, is so enthusiastic about the slow food movement. You have options of different tours, but the best is the full day tour. Not cheap, but worth every Euro..
Beautiful Mercedes Benz vans pick you up at your hotel and the driver escorts you to each stop on the way. He also helps Alessandro by filling your wine glasses, and making sure you have food in your hand.
The trip is very well planned, with just enough time at each stop...questions and lots of photos are encouraged. What an amazing memory!
The "light meal" included is anything but. Wine flows during the entire meal, and the meal is non stop amazing pastas and local dishes....Alessandro won't let anyone go hungry.
Don't eat breakfast before you take this tour...but expect to eat and be treated to tastings at every stop...not one little bite, but as much as you'd like to have.
On a personal note, I took my 31 year old son on a quick 5 night, 4 day trip to Bologna..we spend one day in Florence, one day in Venice and 2 days in Bologna, one of those dedicated to the food tour. My son will tell everyone that the food tour was the highlight of his first trip to Italy...more so than the sights in Florence, the climb up the bell tower, walking all the side streets in Venice....
Taste Florence - obviously in Florence - is a lovely way to spend 4 hours. The tour consists of walking to numerous food venues in central Florence. It includes a number of restaurants/shops that I had read about but would have never been able to find easily by myself. There is one stop with a lengthy wine tasting, a trip to Mercato Centrale, gelato, pastries, cured meats among others. The price was reasonable and I returned to a number of the places I was introduced to on the tour. I recommend going early on when in Florence.
Although Rick didn't mention specifics in that recent article, his Italy 2015 guidebook includes quite a few suggestions. If you have the book, see the guided tours listings at the start of most chapters (especially Venice, Florence, and Siena) and also find more page references for Cooking Classes in the Index. Roberto Becchi's tour company is one that offers a lot of options around Florence and Siena. See also this recent discussion of one of Rick's recommended guides in Venice.
Robert,
Do you have details for the Florence food tour? I love cooking, and I'm frankly looking for a way to eat meat without offending my vegetarian family (It's like a badly written vampire comedy, with me eating a salume in back alleys....)
Thank you. I'm going next week for 2 1/2 weeks.
Elizabeth Minchilli in Rome does food tours. I haven't been on one but am an avid reader of her blog, and they sound delicious. Elizabethminchilliinrome.com
Happy travels,
Cynthia
