What else did you do with Accidental Tourist?

Teresa, I signed up to do the "Snooze Tour" with Accidental Tourist a year ago. The whole group is met at a Piazza south of the Arno and are taken into Tuscany. First stop is a villa with an operational Chianti winery (where they also produce Olive Oil). You tour this facility (you do not go inside the villa however) if you are visiting on a weekday. Next you are taken to a different building on the property where you taste their wines, eat tuscan bread with their olive oil. Later you are taken to someone's home (this will differ) for the 2nd part of your tour. This is where the group who signed up for cooking class learns to make several pastas, while the "Snooze group" visits with the homeowner drinking more Chianti and kicking back. I've read comments over forums that people who signed up for the "cooking class" were disappointed, thinking it would be much more in depth. It was a great day for me and 10 others. It was pouring rain all day, but it didn't spoil the day in the least.

When we did the cooking tour, they had a walk and a bike ride scheduled as well. Since they didn't have enough people to make sense to have all three options, they offered their money back or to go anyway and do the 'cooking class'. They all decided to go so we had a packed van. The cooking was really just making pasta and then a meal (filled in with all the host's own homemade specialties) but what really made it was the dynamics of the group and the interaction with the host family. Making pasta in the cellar a 400 year old farmhouse that was open to the olive grove was amazing and was followed with an incredible lunch with the host family around their kitchen table. It was our best day in Tuscany on that trip. The other options sound just as fun. Just be prepared to be flexible if they end up changing the schedule....