Experience Tuscany

Relax, romanticism and a wonderful vacation in Tuscany. What more to celebrate your Valentine’s in a superb way? Lulled and spoiled in the splendid Tuscan landscape and attended with great customer care in prestigious hotels and spa resorts, you will rediscover the meaning of taking care of oneself and share the wellness with the one you love.
For this 2010 Valentine’s there are many great hotel offers you should take advantage of, especially if you already are in Tuscany around February 14th and would like to make your romantic weekend extra special.

Hotel Adua & Regina di Saba Wellness and Beauty – Montecatini Terme
1 night at €145 including
1 night and breakfast in a standard double room, 1 dinner at the hotel restaurant, Live music on Saturday, Internet access, discount shopping card in Montecatini, inroom champaign and welcome gift upon arrival, soft robe and slippers for your usage.
Also including entrance at the SPA with thalassotherapy and hydromassage, Swedish waterfall, steam baths with varying temperatures and aromas, fitness room, relax area with herbal infusions of your choice.

The Valentine’s offer also includes the possibility of an extended stay. Two nights at €260 and three nights at €350 for two people, all other details apply. For more info and booking contact Hotel Adua in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany at info@hoteladua.it and here.

Hotel Manzoni – Montecatini Terme
1 night €125 including
All-inclusive stay (including half board stay, welcome gift)in a superior double bedroom, special Tuscan-style dinner with local wine tasting, welcome gift upon arrival, a SPA treatment (including sauna, aromatic showers, Rasul baths, steam bath, Kneipp bath, hydromassage, cromotherapy, relax area with herbal teas to choose), soft robes and slippers in room, courtesy cremes and toiletry, free Internet, and fitness room.
Adding an extra 20 Euros you can also have a 30 minutes relaxing massage per person.
For more info and booking contact the Hotel Manzoni in Montecatini Terme at info@hotelmanzoni.info or here.

Columbia Hotel & Spa – Montecatini Terme
at €168 per person including
1 night and breakfast in a double Liberty-style room, 1 candle light dinner in the hotel’s panoramic restaurant with wines, welcome gift and champaign upon arrival, soft robes and slippers in room, courtesy cremes and toiletry, 30 minutes relax massage, a 1 hour and a half wellness treatment (including steam bath and cromotherapy, Kneipp baths, aromatherapy showers, thepidarium steam baths, sauna and hydromassage), another wellness treatment of one hour and a half (including Rasul baths, saline grotto baths, vascular frigidarium, infrared sauna, ice water fall, relax area and herbal teas of your choice).
If you would like to stay two nights and have even more services included per day, the cost is 320 Euros per person. For more info please contact the Columbia Hotel in Montecatini Terma at info@hotelcolumbia.it or visit the site here.

Casanova Hotel Residence – San Quirico D’Orcia, Siena
at €95 per night per person including
2 nights in a double bedroom with half board service, buffet breakfast, relax spa treatment, and special candle light nocturnal baths, hydromassage pools, Watsu bathtubs, sauna, fitness room, pool towels, tennis court, pool table, tennis table.

Other wellness offers are available. Request more info at the Casanova Hotel Residence of San Quirico d’Orcia at info@residencecasanova.it or visit the site here.

Il Falconiere Relais & Chateaux – Cortona, Arezzo
starting at €445 for two nights for two people including
2 nights in double room of choice (€445 for a Classica, €545 for a Deluxe with hydromassage bathtub, €645 for a Junior Suite with living room and hydromassage tub, €745 for a Suite with living room, hydromassage and shower massage, €445 for a SPA room facing the pool with hydromassage tub, and €745 for the SPA Suite with hydromassage tub facing the pool), champaign and chocolate strawberries in room, Valentine’s breakfast with the love pie and a glass of muscat wine, candle light dinner, access at the Thesan Estruscan spa with a ritual for couples in the spa. A third night stay will cost you half price.
SPA ROOM Fronte piscina Spa, bagno con vasca idromassaggio € 445,00
SPA SUITE Fronte piscina Spa, soggiorno con vasca idromassaggio € 745,00

More info and reservations at Il Falconiere Relais & Chateaux in Cortona at Il Falconiere Relais & Chateaux – Cortona or at the hotel site here.

It is February, but never too early to start thinking about the hot Tuscan beaches and crystal clear Mediterranean sea. Actually, during this time of the year a relaxing summer vacation in Tuscany is a very attractive thought. Each passing year finds the Tuscan coast and the sea clean and well kept. In addition, the coast in front of the Argentario offers one of the most beautiful underwater sceneries of the Mediterranean sea.
This contest is dedicated to all those that are dreaming the beaming sun and an ice cold drink aboard a sailing ship. The first prize of this contest is indeed a fantastic week-long cruise aboard a sailing ship in front of the Tuscan coast. The ship offers plenty of room for 6 people and your personal skipper. WOW!
You just need to send 4 electronic postcards and try your luck. Winning has never been easier! To participate to the sweepstakes just click here. You will be brought to the page where to register (a five seconds step) and then send the postcards to your friends. Each friend that participates to the contest in turn will give you an additional chance to win the contest!
If you win the first prize you will need to find two pairs of friends to sail with. The specific rules of the contest are not out yet, but you can get more info on the prizes here. The contest is valid from February 6th (yesterday) to April 19, 2010 and prizes will be redeemable from May 24 to June 28, 2010.

Click here to show or hide prize details

Whichever prize you win expect pristine beaches and excursions to the Tuscan archipelago islands. The Tuscan coasts is rich in history and romanticism. The Adventure in Tuscan Islands draw will take place on April 26. The first prize winners will depart from one of the most prestigious harbors of Tuscany. The second and third prize winners will still be able to enjoy boat tours to to the main Islands of the Tuscan archipelago while residing in prestigious seaside bed and breakfasts.
Good luck!

February 14th 2010 is not only Valentine’s day, but also the Chinese New Year. In Tuscany, and precisely in the Prato area, resides the largest Chinese community of Italy. 2 hundred thousand Chinese people, composed by immigrants, first and second generation members of this fast growing community.
Fortunately in recent times many prejudices about the Chinese culture and immigrant community in Italy have been tackled and dismantled, also thanks to movies like Miss Little China, which offers an interesting insight in the everyday life of a Chinese family in Italy.
Each Chinese year is tied to one of 12 animals that repeat in cycles. This year it will be the year of the Tiger. The Chinese calendar is a lunar one, and each new year starts with the second new moon after the winter solstice. This year it will be on February 14th, and in Tuscany it will be celebrated in Prato and Viareggio.
Viareggio. Today the first Chinese carnival float ever of the Viareggio carnival will participate to the street parade. It will be accompanied by the Chinese group Tongilang and an official Chinese delegation from Chongquin.
Prato. On February 12nd and 23rd there will be two days dedicated to people of any ethnicity. On the 12th at 8 pm there will be an open dinner in a Chinese restaurant in Campi Bisenzio. The typical dinner menu includes Chinese dishes with some Tuscan accents like melon and raw ham. Only 15 euros for a vast menu that will expand the boundaries of many on Chinese traditional cooking. If you are interested call +39 055 8959330.
On February 23 at 7 pm there is going to be a music concert at the Spazio Reale San Donnino. Internationally famous Chinese artists will sing Chinese and Italian songs accompanied by dances and traditional Chinese flute musics. A famous magician from China will entertain after the concert. Entrance is free and there will be a fund raise to help Haiti’s earthquake victims.

The original nucleus of the Boccale Castle is represented by a watchtower built by the Medici in the Sixteenth century, probably on the ruins of a previous structure built by the Republic of Pisa in medieval times. Only the keeper and some soldiers stayed at the castle, and its size was small, so that there was no room for artillery.
During the second half of the Nineteenth century the castle was transformed adapting the remains of one of the many lookout towers that dominated the coast and constituted the complex system defense of the Medici family. Each tower was in direct visual link with the neighboring ones. Their duty was to recognize and and report any danger that arose from the sea. This particular tower certainly was in contact with the Calafuria and Antignano towers.
In the late Nineteenth century the tower became property of th Marchesa Eleonora Ugolini and was incorporated into a Medieval-style style residence that included battlements. Later the house passed to the Witaker-Ingham family who in the early Twentieth century removed the battlements, replacing them with normal-pitch sloping roofs.
The castle has been recently restored after a long period of neglect. It was split into several residential apartments, while a small tower used as a warehouse was rebuilt in the park. They say that Giovanni Boccaccio got his inspiration here for the tenth story of the second day of the Decameron, which tells of the beautiful Chinzica kidnapped by Paganin from Sea at a certain tower of Montenero.
The Boccale Castle is located at the beginning of the Romito cliff, a short distance from the Tower of Calafuria and Castello Sonnino.
The complex is composed of a rectangular body surrounded by three small round towers. The ancient Medici tower rises on the side closest to the sea. It’s windows and roofing configuration have been atered from the original. This tower has a square base of about 5.7 meters on each side and used to be 13 meters high above the original plan with an inclined wall of 4.85 meters.
The main body of the castle is marked by two rows of large stone-framed windows. Under the gutter line runs a row of shelves, over which used to be the battlements, before the Witaker restored the tower.

There was no doubt the next contest on the line to win a free stay in Tuscany was going to be dedicated to wine lovers and cellar tours.
Tuscany each year produces a relatively small amount of wine (around 160 million liters per year over 33 thousand hectares of land), as it applies a strong selection over the lands dedicated to vineyards, and another strict selection to the grapes allowed to become wine. Indeed each year a large part of the grape production is discarded to maintain a high quality wine. Needless to say that Chianti wines dominate the Tuscan wine production, with about 50 percent of the total, which increases to 66% with Chianti Classico. Brunello and Morellino di Scansano amount to 9 percent of the production with the remainder 25% occupied by all the other small fractions of the market (excellent wines nonetheless, like Vernaccia of San Gimignano or Nobile, or Sassicaia).
There are hundreds of wonderful cellars in Tuscany. Many are historic and ancient ones, brick vaulted and located in the basement of prestigious wine farms or mansions and castles. Others are modern cellars, completely automated, computer controlled and located in more contemporary buildings. It is in these places that you will be able to discover their secrets and the great knowledge that makes of grapes a delicious nectar. Wine in Tuscany is a serious thing. therefore your holiday extension will be a great opportunity to dwell into this important aspect of the region’s cultural heritage.
Three are the prizes to be won in the sweepstakes. A four-night stay in the Lucca area and two two-night stays in the Brunello-Montepulciano area and one in the Sienese Chianti area. To be eligible to receive the prizes you should have already booked a holiday in Tuscany or be willing to do so within ten days of being acknowledged of their win.
Participating is very easy. You just need to send 4 electronic postcards to participate. Click here to go to the flash application for the contest.

Click here to check out and hide the full rules of the contest or visit this page

Cheers and good luck!

Do you love mystery movies and books? Is Ercule Poirot a hero of yours? Fantasizing what would be like finding yourself in a situation like Ten Little Indians? There is a fun way (one that does not involve any risk for your life!) to live an Agatha Christie’s mystery novel in Tuscany!
Between February and May 2010 every weekend (apart from the Easter weekend) is a great occasion to spend three days under the shadow of murder and mystery. A charming Tuscan accommodation, most likely a hotel, will be the setting of the role play. Someone will die during the first evening, and you will be called to solve the mystery, search for clues, think like the murderer to get to him or her. You have two full nights and three days to enjoy your holiday with murder in Tuscany.

The program is as it follows click here to view and hide it

The cost of the weekend is quite affordable. The price is 235 Euros per person in a double room and 205 Euros per person in a triple or quadruple junior suite. Prices include 2 nights, 2 buffet breakfasts, 1 aperitif, 2 dinners and 1 lunch with beverages (wine, water) and the roleplay murder game organization.
To reserve please contact Colori Toscani at +39 0575 26677 or at their contact page.
Whether you are thinking of coming to Tuscany for few days or for a longer stay, try to include one weekend with murder, it will be an original way to spend few days in a charming Tuscan accommodation…with mystery!

The Tuscan Region has started another contest to allow more and more people to get to know aspects of Tuscany that are hidden to mass tourism. This contest is specifically targeted to those who love open spaces and exploring them horseback riding, biking, hiking, or simply fishing. You will be able to extend your holiday in Tuscany for free with a 3 nights stay in one of five parts of Tuscany. Five, indeed, are the possible prizes of this contest titled “Exploring Tuscan Paths“. The contest started on January 30th 2010 and will go on until March 22, 2010.
Participating to this contest is extremely easy. You just need to go to this page, click on the Wllness and Sport tab, then select the Exploring Tuscan Paths contest and complete the easy registration, then complete the easy picture matching game to immediately participate in the sweepstakes to win a free stay in Tuscany. It is important to remember that this is not a “stand-alone” Tuscany holiday, but an extension to a holiday in Tuscany you have already booked or will book within 10 days after acknowledging your win. You have got five days to do so after being notified. Be sure to read all the rules below or here.

Click here to show and hide the rules of this contest

Take a look at the five prizes in detail in the contest rules above. Good luck!

Gnocchi is an Italian word that indicates a lump of fresh pasta ready to be cooked and tasted right away. There are many a way to make each kind of gnocchi, and there are many kinds, prepared with a quite varying range of ingredients. Of course, here you will find the recipe of gnocchi with potatoes the way they are prepared in Tuscany.
The recipe is extremely easy humble, but you need to follow quite several little tricks during the preparation for the dish to result tasty and soft.
This recipe is made with potatoes, white flour, and salt. Nothing more! The very first tip is on the kind of potatoes to use. Always try to use the most common potatoes, the yellow ones. They are sweeter and firmer than other kinds while gnocchi are cooking. Feel free to experiment though! The next tip is to steam cook the potatoes, not to boil them. This will increase their water content by a minimum, as opposed to boiling them. Do not puncture their peel with a fork before cooking, do not overcook them. The fork needs to stick in nicely but the potato has to remain firm. Another tip is to peel them after cooking. Other tips are mentioned in the preparation bit.

Ingredients for 4 people:

- 800 grams of potatoes
- 250 grams of white flour
- salt to taste
- two cups of semolina flour (optional)

Preparation:
Steam cook the potatoes, peel them while hot, then let them cool down naturally. You may cook and peel them the previous day if you wish. Now you have to mash the potatoes. You may use a potato masher, a food processor, or a food mill. The latter is better as it produces fluffier mashed potatoes. Now prepare a clean working surface where you will knead the potatoes with the flour. Set the mashed potatoes on the surface and start adding the flour a little at a time, always using a soft touch to mix them together. Salt to taste. Keep adding flour until it is over, then set to rest for half hour. Now it is time to prepare the gnocchi!
With a knife cut a fist size portion of dough, then set it on the previously flour dusted working table and start rolling it into a long string about half inch in diameter. You may decide the size of your gnocchi by the thickness of your dough string. Make it as homogeneous as possible, then start chopping away bite size pieces of dough (about one inch). Grab a largetray or several medium ones, and dust them with the semolina flour or the regular white flour. Gently set the cut gnocchi on taking care that they never touch one another to prevent sticking together. Distribute one layer only and dust over with a light dusting of semolina. Continue until the dough is over.
Now fill a pan with 4 liters of water (a gallon), better if a tall and not to large one. Add salt to taste and when it is at a rolling boil drop in the gnocchi a few at a time (about twenty to twenty five). They are cooked once they come to the surface. Use a small colander or a perforated scoop to remove the cooked gnocchi and set them in a bowl with meat sauce or butter and grated Parmesan cheese. Repeat until you run out of raw gnocchi.

Yesterday Sunday January 31st was the very first of the 5 float carnival parades in Viareggio. The first crazy weekend of the Tuscan city facing the sea and famous for one of the most beautiful and historic carnivals of Italy.
The floats of Viareggio are among the most sophisticated and elaborated of Italy, and perhaps the world. They move and create impressive visual effects thanks to the highest level of craftsmanship of their makers.
These are the perfect days to spend your holiday in Tuscany, as you will be bale to be in Viareggio or the Versilia area to attend this unique and majestic happiness fair. The spectacular floats and the pervading happiness are enhanced by the fair weather that characterizes the city of Viareggio. Just to confirm this, while most of Italy is under freezing cold in Viareggio the sun shines!
The following is a video that shows the 2010 creations of the First Class floats. There are various classes of floats, and of course the first-class are the most prestigious and elaborate ones, although great care is put into making all floats. Each float building team participates to the selection to win the first prize and to make the parade more spectacular each team is accompanied by a number of people dresses in theme with the float and carries out a dance at the rhythm of the chosen music for that particular float. You will see floats addressing current themes of national and international relevance, all with a lot of irony and a bit of sarcasm.

Enjoy the video, just 3 minutes long, but it will give you a good idea of the healthy fun going on in Viareggio right these days!

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Valentine’s Day is coming soon and it is a great occasion to celebrate romantically in Tuscany. February is low season in Tuscany, and it is a great occasion to take advantage of the many beauties of this wonderful Italian region and the many discounted rental offers. There are many last minute holiday rentals that offer great romantic offers to spend Valentine’s Day in Tuscany. Here is a list of some accommodations that offer discounted stays in several parts of Tuscany.
If you are looking for a stay near Pisa and are 2 couples then this is the place for you. For as little as 112 Euros per person you will stay for two nights in a lovely country house with bed and breakfast formula and included Valentine’s dinner. The dinner includes locally produced wine and organic products. At the Agriturismo Bellavista in Lajatico.
Near Volterra you will be able to spend one night in an apartment in a country house and be offered a romantic Valentine’s dinner for two at 97 euros per person. There is a wellness center on the premises you will be able to take advantage of. If you would like to stay one extra night it will only be 40 euros per person. Heating not included. At the Relais Poggio del Melograno in Montecatini Val di Cecina.
Moving towards Siena, you will find a luxurious 2 night stay in a country hamlet, where a romantic Valentine’s awaits you with a special dinner, a wine and food sampling package, welcome package with fresh fruit and cocktails in room, and a luxurious deluxe bedroom, all for 210 euros per person. At Antica Dimora Le contrade in Torrita di Siena.
Grosseto offers a Carnival Valentine’s in a luxurious stay for 289 euros per person for two nights. It includes the splendid costume dinner, wellness package at the thermal spas, relaxing massages, tanning sessions, late check out and more. At Colle degli Angeli in Arcidosso.
To close this list a great bargain for great value at 64 euros per person near Florence. AN old convent is now a hotel, where your most romantic night of 2010 can be spent in very comfortable rooms and a nice Tuscan dinner. It is possible to get extra massages, and saunas and breakfast are included. At Country Hotel Borgo Sant’Ippolito in Ginestra Fiorentina.
Treat yourselves at Valentine’s!