Italian Journeys

with Isabella and Luigi  Dusi

 

HOME

 BACK TO TOURS 2010

 

Cinque_Terre_Vernazza.jpg (40025 byte)

Villa_front.JPG (59992 byte)

 

 

A Villa in Tuscany - 2010

 

 

Villa Arborea

 

with

Dick Frizzell

Sunday 30 May to Friday 11 June 2010

 

 

12 nights in Renaissance Villa Arborea set in the hills behind Lucca

8 full workshop days with Dick Frizzell

1 half day workshop with Dick Frizzell

Half day and evening excursion to Lucca

Full day excursion to Cinque Terre

Full day excursion to Apuan Alps and Carrara Marble Mountains

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with wines, included every day.

 

 

 

 UPDATE 15 MARCH 2010 - FULLY, FULLY, FULLY BOOKED

Day 1. Arrival in Italy – Villa Arborea

Sunday 30 May: Your driver and coach will be waiting for you at the airport to transport you to the Renaissance Villa Arborea in the hills above the Italian town of Lucca. Guests who may have arrived in Italy prior to today are welcome to link up with the coach and driver and group flight arrivals at the airport. Alternatively, Villa Arborea is a short taxi ride from Lucca and you will be able to make your own private arrangements, co-ordinated with your booking agent, to arrive at the villa, if you prefer.

 

Immediately after arrival at Villa Arborea we will check in and show you to your room, give you time to unpack and explore your beautiful surroundings which will be home for the next twelve nights. A detailed description of Villa Arborea is attached to this itinerary so that you can see you will be staying in magnificent surroundings in a tranquil setting with all you need for a fabulous workshop vacation at your fingertips. You will be free to relax after your flight, perhaps a swim in the villa pool, a walk through the olive grove, or an afternoon siesta, and we’ll welcome drinks and our first dinner together this evening in the great dining hall in the villa, or on the magnificent loggia facing the olive grove.

Welcome Drinks and Dinner with wine included at Villa Arborea.

Day 2. Workshop with Dick Frizzell

Monday 31st May:  Today is your first Workshop day with Dick Frizzell.

You will be able to help yourself to breakfast in the villa kitchen, a light lunch will be served during the day, tea, coffee, biscuits and fruit available at any time of day, and you will finish the day with dinner at the villa.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, wine included, at Villa Arborea.

Day 3. Workshop

Tuesday 1st June:  Today is your second Workshop day with Dick Frizzell.

You will be able to help yourself to breakfast in the villa kitchen, a light lunch will be served during the day, tea, coffee, biscuits and fruit available at any time of day, and you will finish the day with dinner at the villa.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, wine included, at Villa Arborea.

Day 4. Workshop morning - Lucca

Wednesday 2nd June: Following breakfast, the morning will be spent in a half-day workshop with Dick Frizzell and a light lunch will be served. In the afternoon we’ll transfer to the nearby small city of Lucca. In Lucca, you can spend time on your own if you wish, or you can accompany your host, Isabella Dusi, on an orientation walk around Lucca to see the Cathedral, Amphitheatre and Teatro Giglio. There is a good art supply shop in Lucca should you need to make any purchases. You may like to hire bicycles at a very small fee and ride around the magnificent walls of Lucca, a circuit of around 4 kilometres.

 

Shops will open in the late afternoon and Lucca is excellently served with high quality boutiques. Dinner this evening will be in what your host considers to be the very best restaurant in Lucca – a gourmet experience of excellent quality and representative of the local creative Lucchese cuisine. Following dinner in Lucca we’ll return to Villa Arborea.

Breakfast and Lunch at the villa, Restaurant dinner in Lucca, wine included.

Day 5. Workshop

Thursday 3rd June: Today is your third Workshop day with Dick Frizzell.

You will be able to help yourself to breakfast in the villa kitchen, a light lunch will be served during the day, tea, coffee, biscuits and fruit available at any time of day, and you will finish the day with dinner at the villa.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, wine included, at Villa Arborea.

Day 6. Workshop

Friday 4th June: Today is your fourth Workshop day with Dick Frizzell.

You will be able to help yourself to breakfast in the villa kitchen, a light lunch will be served during the day, tea, coffee, biscuits and fruit available at any time of day, and you will finish the day with dinner at the villa.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, wine included, at Villa Arborea.

Day 7. Excursion to Cinque Terre

Saturday 5th June: Setting off after breakfast, we’ll travel to the Tuscan coast at Lerici, from where we’ll board the ferry to take us to Portovenere on the tip of the Cinque Terre, five sparkling villages strung along the coast which, although now cannot be said to be isolated, are as stunning and picturesque as they were ten years ago before Cinque Terre began to appear on the wish list of every visitor to Italy. A ferry boat will take us along the coast and you’ll be able to visit whichever village you prefer, hopping on and off the boat, but meeting Isabella in one of the villages for a delicious fish lunch. Some people may like to walk through the hills and valleys between villages, however this depends on your agility and time. One walk is relatively flat and comfortable, others are more arduous and demanding, requiring 2 to 3 hours or more.

 

The choice will be yours. If the weather is unkind the boats cannot dock at the villages, in which case we’ll make the journey to the villages by train. When we return to Villa Arborea at the end of the day, with time to refresh and change, dinner will be served.

Breakfast, Lunch in Restaurant at Cinque Terre and Dinner at Villa Arborea, wine included.

Day 8. Workshop.

Sunday 6th June: Today is your fifth Workshop day with Dick Frizzell.

You will be able to help yourself to breakfast in the villa kitchen, a light lunch will be served during the day, tea, coffee, biscuits and fruit available at any time of day, and you will finish the day with dinner at the villa.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, wine included, at Villa Arborea.

Day 9. Workshop

Monday 7th June: Today is your sixth Workshop day with Dick Frizzell.

You will be able to help yourself to breakfast in the villa kitchen, a light lunch will be served during the day, tea, coffee, biscuits and fruit available at any time of day, and you will finish the day with dinner at the villa.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, wine included, at Villa Arborea.

Day 10. Excursion to Apuan Alps and Carrara Marble Mountains

Tuesday 8th June: The Apuan mountain range beyond Lucca, known as the Lunigiana, is not only stunningly beautiful, but one of the less visited areas of Tuscany with wild and craggy scenery and unspoiled villages and hamlets among the wooded mountains and valleys. Well lunch in a family trattoria along our route, and in the afternoon arrive among the amazing mountains of white carrara near the towns of Carrara and Pietrasanta where we’ll visit the workshop of a sculptor.

 

It is estimated that there is still three hundred years worth of white carrara to be mined. Slowly, year by year, the white mountains are mined away, as they have been since the days of ancient Rome, and since Michelangelo travelled to Carrara to personally select the huge blocks for his many famous sculptures and Papal tombs.

At the end of the day we’ll have dinner at a lovely restaurant a few kilometres from Villa Arborea, where we’ll enjoy family specialties of the Lucchese kitchen.

Breakfast at Villa Arborea, lunch at a family trattoria, dinner at restaurant close to villa, wine included.

Day 11. Workshop

Wednesday 9th June: Today is your seventh Workshop day with Dick Frizzell.

You will be able to help yourself to breakfast in the villa kitchen, a light lunch will be served during the day, tea, coffee, biscuits and fruit available at any time of day, and you will finish the day with dinner at the villa.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, wine included, at Villa Arborea.

Day 12. Final Workshop

Thursday 10th June: Today is your eighth Workshop day with Dick Frizzell.

You will be able to help yourself to breakfast in the villa kitchen, a light lunch will be served during the day, tea, coffee, biscuits and fruit available at any time of day, and our final banquet dinner will be at our villa so that we can relax with music and fun together, relishing our last night at Villa Arborea.

Breakfast, lunch and farewell dinner, wine included, at Villa Arborea.

Day 13. Villa Arborea - Departure Day

Friday 11th June: You will be able to help yourself to the usual breakfast in the villa kitchen.

Depending on the group flight departure time, guests will be transported to the designated airport with adequate time for check-in and customs for the designated group departure flight. Only one airport transfer will be made and if you have alternative flight plans, please co ordinate with your booking agent. For any guests not departing by air and wishing to connect by train to another part of Italy, your hosts will be happy to assist with arrangements, which will be at your expense. A wide margin should be allowed on the final day of the tour for any ongoing travel. Your hosts do not take any responsibility for delays due to traffic, weather, strikes nor any other kind of delay which might interrupt your departure plans.

Breakfast at Villa Arborea.

 

 

TOUR INCLUSIONS

  • 12 Nights accommodation in fully furnished “self catering” Villa Arborea in the hills above Lucca, Tuscany.  Single accommodation is limited – please consult your booking agent for availability. Rooms will be allocated in order of booking confirmations and payment of deposit.

  • MEALS:  Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with white and red wines, included every day. Please see the Information Sheet accompanying this itinerary for comprehensive details about Villa Arborea.

  • 8 full workshop days with Dick Frizzell

  • 1 half day workshop with Dick Frizzell

  •  Half day and evening excursion to Lucca

  •  Full day excursion to Cinque Terre

  • Full day excursion to Apuan Alps and Carrara Marble Mountains.

  • Please note there are no extras to be paid for by you.  Your only additional expenditure will be for snacks to your own taste not included in the food items supplied by the tour operator in the Villa kitchen, and your own selection of pre dinner beer, spirits and mixers or additional wine at any time other than at mealtimes. Your hosts will help you purchase any items you require whilst at the Villa.

  • Hosts: You will be accompanied by host Isabella Dusi on all excursions. Isabella will guide and conduct visits according to her personal knowledge of the people who live, farm and produce in Tuscany.

  • Transport:  One Airport transfer to Villa Arborea on arrival for the commencement of the tour and one transfer from the villa to the designated departure airport at the completion of the tour. Your booking agent is aware of the specific and only times for airport pick up and return – if your private travel plans mean you are unable to take advantage of the airport pick up and return service you will need to make your own arrangements which are at your expense. Please consult your booking agent who, together with Isabella, will advise you on the best solution for your arrival and departure plans. 

  • Travel on excursions will be by air conditioned touring coach.  All boat transport costs, and rail transport (if required) on the excursion days, forming part of the tour are included in your costs.

  • Porterage: Villa Arborea does not employ porters and is a self catering Renaissance Villa. You will be required to be responsible for transferring your luggage to and from your room on arrival and departure. Please ensure your baggage is BOLDLY labelled using large letters for your surname, and for your own comfort, on wheels and of a sensible manageable size. If you are unable to handle your own baggage please advise your booking agent so that special arrangements can be made.

  • Gratuities to restaurant staff at all meals outside Villa Arboria scheduled on the itinerary are included.

 

EXCLUSIONS

Travel Insurance – please note personal travel insurance is mandatory on all our programs and it is essential for you to insure your travel and tour holiday in case of cancellation due to sickness or any other cause. It is your responsibility to ensure you have adequate insurance and your attendance on tour will only be confirmed once you have signed and returned the Tour Operators Booking Form and Terms & Conditions to your booking agent.  Visas and passports, meals other than those specifically noted on itinerary, personal expenses, excess baggage, laundry charges, internet charges, telephone and fax charges, and any other item not listed as included in your itinerary, are all at your expense.

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Price may vary due to increases by service providers or if adverse international currency fluctuations deem it necessary.

 

Project Travel retains the right to make practical itinerary alterations deemed necessary or for reasons outside their control. Any such alterations are generally of a minor nature, and you are assured of an equal quality tour in both value and content.

 

 

HOME

 BACK TO TOURS 2010


To top of page