Below you’ll find a review of the Gourmet Tuscany itinerary operated by Cosmos. I took this tour in 2018, however, the path has not changed much in the interim.
Rating:
This tour was a dream. You stay in a single hotel, so you can unpack and relax, the town itself is peaceful and still has great dining options, and you eat amazing food every day and drink fantastic wines. If you go during August like I did, you even get to celebrate Ferr’Agosto! I recommend this tour to everyone I speak with that’s interested in tours. That’s how much I loved it.
Despite this being very much a food-based tour, I didn’t actually take that many photos of the food itself during my trip, so taken in by the moment instead.
The tour itself is amazing. It’s a small group tour which means that it will feel like a tight-knit family experience. We had 16 people on our leg, which meant that we also never took a large tour bus. It minimized feeling of being herded like sheep and opened up the group for closer bonds. For all the tours I’ve taken (over a dozen now), these are the people I’ve kept in touch with. Years later, I was thrilled to get a repeat tour guide on a new tour. Ursula, our tour director, was a starring point of why this was also so great.
One more note to keep in mind. You’re going to feel painfully full at times. There are days when you have three or four food stops. Everything is so delicious that you won’t want to pass it over, but it will take up your stomach space. Limit your other snacking, if you can, to make room for the amazing food and wine on offer.
Day 1: Arrive in Montecatini
Check into your hotel. Tonight, meet your Tour Director and travel companions for a special welcome dinner.
The one downside of this tour is that the closest airport is Florence. For the most part, most airlines won’t fly directly to Florence, which means that you’ll have a connection. When I arrived for my tour, my transfer never arrived. This has happened before.
TRIP TIP: If your tour transfer at the airport is a no-show, grab a taxi and make sure you get the receipt as the tour guide will reimburse you for the ride. Don’t be like me. Once, I was so exhausted that I forget to get the receipt from my Paris cab from the airport.
Upon your arrival, your first night is to meet the group and have dinner. This is a small tour, so there’s approximately fourteen to sixteen people, which is a fantastic number. Spoiling the tour for later, but even though I’ve done 10+ tours, this is still the one where I made the deepest connections, to the point I received birthday phone calls from people after. During this meet-up, the tour director will review the general expectations of the tour so you can prepare yourself for the week ahead!
The first night of dinner is a hotel one, which tends to be lower in quality. However, given that you’re in Italy, you still get a fantastic meal. One thing to be wary of is that in Tuscany, they sometimes make bread without salt, so it may taste a little different than you’re expecting. After dinner, you get to explore. However, seeing as you’ve likely just flown in, getting a good night’s rest is key.
Day 2: Excursion to Vinci
This morning, head out into the lush, rolling landscape of the Montalbano hills. Pass terraced grape vineyards, olive groves, and chestnut trees on your way to the quaint village of Vinci, birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci. Here, learn all about the Renaissance master at the museum dedicated to his life and many areas of interest from painting, sculpting, and inventing, to anatomy, music, and cartography! Round up the morning with the visit to a local bakery. Learn how bread is made and enjoy a light lunch with an opportunity to sample local products such as focaccia bread, sandwiches, wine, cheese, cold cuts, and olive oil. Everything tastes better in Tuscany! See for yourself with an optional culinary experience in the Tuscan countryside to indulge in authentic traditional dishes—with wine, of course!
Hopefully you will have rested up to combat the jet leg, but even if you didn’t, this is a fairly light day unless you opt into the optional excursion in the afternoon.
Your day begins with a quick drive out to Vinci, which is where Leonardo da Vinci was born (as the name would suggest). While da Vinci spent the last years of his life in France (and passed in Amboise where there’s also a robust museum), this is still a truly interesting place to visit.
However, you’ll want to temper your expectations. It’s not quite what you might expect. In the town, you see the family house, the church and baptismal where he was baptized. As well, there’s a small museum that features some inventions and drawings. There’s a large Vitruvian man statue outside, great views of the countryside, and some neat sculptures, but overall it’s less of a museum stop and more impressive to be in the place that such an incredible genius was born.
After this, the tour continues on to a bakery. In our case, we went to Pan Brioche near Montecatini where you’ll watch the bakers prepare pizza and bread before getting to sample. The focaccia and prosciutto sandwiches that they offered were truly next-level and an incredible taste. One thing to note is that in some places in Tuscany, they prepare their bread without salt, so you might be lacking a little flavour if you eat bread as is. This will likely serve as your lunch, but the samples are generous enough to hold you.
In the afternoon, you have two choices. You can opt for a day at the pool to lounge, or you can join in the optional excursion to try some more food. Note: This is a new optional excursion, so I’m unable to provide a review. In general, all the food on this tour was amazing when it isn’t the hotel meal (which are chronically low-quality with these groups).
Day 3: Excursion to the Chianti Valley
Cradled between the provinces of Florence and Siena, the Chianti Valley is the heart of Tuscany and has been hailed for its exceptional wines since the 13th century. Your journey today takes you to Greve, with time to visit the village and to enjoy lunch at a charming wine shop. Complete the day with the visit to a historic Tuscan estate known for its Chianti wine production.
The morning begins in Greve where you visit a macelleria to see how meats are stacked and sold in a little Tuscany town. Food isn’t included on this stop, however you can purchase whatever looks interesting. You’ll get some time in town to do some shopping. There’s a few great finds. For me, I found a great little art shop that was selling prints of the area. I picked up a few of these to bring home and frame. It’s one of my favourite souvenirs because when done right, it pairs house decor with nostalgia in the best way.
You won’t be leaving Greve without trying some wine. On our tour, we went to an Enoteca in town and served a meat and cheese platter. Don’t sleep on the boar sausage at all in the area, it might be the best thing you taste. There’s also some incredible wine jam, pecorino, and more cured meats to fill your stomach. At this particular location, you’re given credit card style cards with credits on it to try some wine. There’s a wealth of choice, so you’ll be able to try what you like. However, given that you’re in the chianti region, you should at least try one of those.
The day isn’t over yet. It’s on to try more wine. The stop on my tour was the Castello Vicchio Maggio, an old castle turned into a winery. You’ll get a tour to see their massive 5000L casks and their production area. It won’t be long before you’ll be doing more sampling though. There’ll be chianti, of course, but then a mix of other wines. We got a rosé and a spicy cabernet to try.
The wine isn’t the only amazing thing about this stop. There’s also some beautiful views of the Tuscan countryside. After this stop, you’ll head back to your hotel and have the night free for dinner. I found myself feeling a little overly-wined, so instead found a place in town that served more modern food and had some good craft beer options.
Day 4: Montecatini
Enjoy a leisurely morning in Montecatini. Maybe go for a walk in the Parco delle Terme with its tall shady trees. Most of the afternoon is dedicated to the Italian cooking lesson at a rustic farmhouse in the Tuscan countryside. Once you arrive at the farm, enjoy a welcome drink, explore the orchard to pick some fresh ingredients, learn about Italy’s most famous delicacies, and then roll up your sleeves for a fun, hands-on cooking experience. This evening, relax with your traveling companions and taste the delectable dinner you prepared—maybe your team will win the master chef prize!
Your free day in Montecatini offers lots of options to explore. One of them might be the market if it’s in town, however if you’re unlucky like me, it’ll be a holiday and have an extremely small offering in the food halls. However, the clothing and merchandise booths might be a little better. I was able to find some fantastic little finds here and got some great souvenirs.
Later, the main event means that you’re about to get your hands dirty. Literally. The tour in our case went to a farmhouse called La Piaggia where we began with a lemongrass welcome drink right as we arrived. This is followed by leisurely time in the gardens. Don’t get too comfortable though.
As soon as you’re done your drink, it’s time to contribute to dinner by picking herbs, tomatoes, and zucchini. Then, you go into the farmhouse to begin preparations by chopping all the vegetables. Some of the tomatoes were for sauce and others for bruschetta.
If your group is big enough, then not everyone needs to work at once. There’s wine on hand to sip as well, which makes the cooking a much easier time. However, that may not last. Everyone will watch a demonstration on making pasta, either via roller or cutting by hand. However, unfortunately some of the group had wandered away mid-pasta, so the few of us who had some experience in rolling it out continued and finished off the fresh pasta for the whole group. It’s not a bad experience, but it can get quite hot and sweaty from the effort! Luckily, they both looked and tasted great. There’s also a chance to go see how a tiramisu is made, if that’s something that’s made your curious.
When the prep work is done, you get to head into the kitchen which boasts the most incredible smells of fresh vegetables and tomato sauce on the boil. There’s one last touch here, which is preparing the bruschetta so that you can sit down and finally enjoy the spoils of your hard work in the form of dinner.
For our dinner, the menu looked like this:
- Antipasti: The aforementioned bruschetta, an incredible zucchini frittata, meats, pecorino cheese, bread with rose jam, and focaccia
- Primi: Zuppa toscana with white beans and veggies
- Secondi: The tagliatelle pasta that you made, paired with either an eggplant sauce or a meat one
- Dessert: Tiramisu and a biscotti cookie with Vinsanto
You’ll have wine at your disposal throughout dinner as well. That wine can also be purchased on your way out. Given that it’s a farmhouse production, it’s a fairly affordable price for good quality and I highly recommend it. You’ll also receive printed recipes for how to make pasta. Of course you can find that online with ease, but it’s a fun souvenir.
You’ll arrive back at the hotel before it gets too late, but this is a great night to keep the party going with the others from the tour group as there’s lots of great options in Montecatini for some fun!
Day 5: Excursion to Lucca
Visit Lucca, a stunning showcase of medieval architecture and layer upon layer of rich history and culture. Marvel at the beautiful art and tapestry collections at the baroque Palazzo Mansi National Museum, then take a guided walking tour around the Old Town with its fine, intact Renaissance-era wall, cobblestone streets, and café-lined piazzas. A lively café-crawl snack brunch is included, followed by a main course at a local restaurant. Then, your Local Guide will introduce you to the stunning ornamental gardens and grand arched ceilings of Palazzo Pfanner.
Your day in Lucca begins with a visit to the Palazzo Mansi to see the house. It’s a fairly quick tour and it’s nothing out of the ordinary. Still, it’s nice to get a little history before going on to snack some more.
This is the only day of the tour where my stomach felt fit to burst so I recommend going extremely light on breakfast on this day to be able to try it all, because it’s all so very good. The first snack is at an olive oil tasting bar. In general, Lucca has fantastic olive oil. You’ll also get some antipasti to go with it. Snack lightly here, because there’s so much more to come.
TRIP TIP: Load up on as much Italian olive oil as you can. It truly is a higher quality than anything you can get in North America, so if you’re Canadian like me, this is where you’ll want to buy your souvenirs.
In fact, our next snack came to us. While we were tasting, the guide left to bring back some chickpea-crusted pizza. This was absolutely amazing and made me feel like I was back in my Nonna’s kitchen. The snack included wine, bread, and more antipasti. It may be wild to think that you haven’t even made it to lunch yet, but there’s much more to go.
After the snack, you walk to the Amfitheatre and the shops within it for a brief stop. Then, it’s onward to lunch. Our tour stopped at Plan Ellen Clan, where I had pesto pasta and chocolate mousse. The pasta was heavy, but the dessert was light — desperately needed after such a heavy day of treats.
After this, you can walk it off with a visit to Palazzo Pfanner to see inside the house, some artifacts, and then the gardens. It’s a great stop for both the beauty and the history, not to mention the ability to walk off some of the food. Then, it’s on to walk a little of the Lucca wall before heading to the bus. That said, our tour guide brought us one last treat — a local cookie delicacy to snack on before we drove back to the hotel.
To say that we were full after this day is an understatement, so plan in advance.
Day 6: Excursion to Bolgheri
Travel through the vineyard-dotted countryside and along cypress tree-lined Viale dei Cipressi for your grand entrance into enchanting Bolgheri. With its red-brick castle and atmospheric Old Town, it’s not hard to imagine that Bolgheri jumped right off the pages of a storybook. There’s time here to visit one of the wine cellars and taste Bolgheri’s celebrated Super Tuscan reds. First created in the 1980s, many wine experts believe these now rival French Bordeaux. Later, stop at nearby Castagneto Carducci, known for its splendid panoramic views of the Etruscan Coast. Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant and the chance to sample the local liqueur.
On this day, the first stop is Bolgheri, a town of 800 where you get an hour. I found that was a little too much time, but there’s a nice church and fountain and a good view. However, the real appeal is the 5km line of cypress trees that line the way into town. If you want a great spot for pictures, this is the spot for it.
The next stop on our tour was the Chiaccini winery where we sampled a white and two reds in a beautiful vineyard that had amazing breezes and views. Before you do your tasting, you’ll get a chance to see the cellar where they store it and then enjoy the wines on the patio with the breeze through your hair.
Then, it’s on to lunch! Castagneto Carducci is a hilltop town where you can see the sea in the distance and where you’ll get to have a lunch at an intimate little local restaurant that barely ever sees tourists outside of this tour. The food here was incredible and there’s more wine to be had. You’ll get a chance to walk it off, however, and if you’re lucky (like we were), the guide will bring you to a shop for a shot of digestive liquor before you head back to Montecatini Terme for the day.
Day 7: Montecatini
This morning is yours to do as you please. You could choose to explore more of the city on your own, to relax and shop for souvenirs. This afternoon is dedicated to a baking class at your hotel, focusing on the creation of cakes and desserts.
In the morning, you can opt to laze about. Sometimes, there may be an option excursion. On my tour, there was a chance to visit Pistoia, which was beautiful in its art and architecture. There are markets, churches, and plenty of places to shop. When you return, the afternoon is spent at the hotel kitchen to learn how to make traditional Italian desserts. We made ricotta-custard pies and cantalucci (a type of biscotti).
TRIP TIP: One of the perks of this being at the end is that if you package them properly, the cookies serve as fantastic souvenirs! Bring some kind of ziploc bag with you on this tour for preserving the baking!
The woman who was teaching our class was a true Nonna, who spoke no English at all, which really added to the authentic experience (and brought me back to my own Italian childhood!)
Day 8: Departure
Your vacation ends with breakfast this morning.
It’s time to head home. Hopefully you’ll be full of delicious Italian food. Maybe you’ve even bundled up some of the cookies from the baking class you did the day before to snack on. That can help make the vacation feel like it hasn’t ended!
During my tour, there were two optional excursions. There appears to be a new culinary excursion added, but as it wasn’t available, I won’t be including it in the list below.
Optional Excursions:
- Pistoia: This was a nice excursion, but in retrospect, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. I liked the market and learning facts about the town, but I also could have done with another leisure day at the hotel. If you really want to pack in as many activities as possible, choose this, but otherwise, take the day off.
- Pisa: You can head to Pisa as one of the optional tours. Personally, I’ve visited multiple times and the main area that you’ll be seeing is the tower, church, and the baptistry. These days, that also means being flooded by other tourists and vendors peddling cheap merchandise. Unless you’ve never seen the Tower of Pisa and are eager to check it off your list, I’d give this one a miss. I opted to stay at the hotel and have a leisurely time at the pool with a good book.
Overall, whenever someone asks me about my favourite tour that I’ve ever taken, I’m quick to recommend this one. The price is right, it’s not heavy on bus travel, and it’s amazing Italian food at locations that aren’t as heavily visited. It’s 100% a tour that should be taken, especially if you dream of the Tuscan countryside and all the amazing Italian delicacies to go with it!
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