Just got back from Tuscany (Oct. 14). What a great time! We had a great group of folks once again on our third adventure to Tuscany, Italy’s land of all things beautiful, landscape, ancient villages, many-towered medieval hilltop fortress- cities, centuries-old cathedrals with audio-tours, religious art spanning the millenias, marble sculpture, alabaster sculpture, plaster and clay sculpture, stylish clothing, local olive oil, local wine, sherry-sweet balsamic vinegar, all types of cheese, fresh, today’s fresh… you get the picture. It goes on.

Our host Franz presides over an 800-year-old organic farming villa tucked into a forested Tuscan hillside about an hour southwest of Florence about 20 minutes from Sienna and the Chianti district. Renovated in the late 80s by his Mom, a devoted follower of Osha, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and avid world traveler, the estate, Podere Ebbio, has been restored from the neglect many rural properties suffered after WWII, into an authentic experience of the Italian countryside, close to the earth, bursting with life, sage colored olive groves, rambling vineyards, vegie gardens, rollicking animal life and storied wildlife (the rooting wild boars that visit at night and leave patches of snouted earth). At Ebbio the animal life greets you in the form of the welcoming trio of Mystico, the elder, and the alpha, a vocal pomeranean, Rinko, the playful 2 yr old Bernese and Rocco, the new kid on the block a sweet, deferring 3yr old Rhodesian Ridgeback. Besides barking a welcome to all visitors and perimeter transgressors, they play tag with the 1/2 dozen or more cat brood, who are always on time for meals in the vine-covered garden veranda where we have all our meals (except on occasion when the air gets a bit crisp. Then we retire to the expansive 2nd floor dining room/living room/great-room-like cathedral-ceilinged central room where we hang out in the evenings around the cavernous fireplace).

My darling wife Joyce co-manages the trip each year, drives the 2nd van when Franz doesn’t join us, helps with Italian translation, Internet and Cel Phone use issues, chief photgrapher (on her IPhone), provides emotional sanctuary for moi, celebrates each year by bringing a toy or book for each of Franz’s children (who live with their Mom, Isabella, now in Arezzo, a nearby city. Joyce and I decided to spend our first two days of the trip based at Ebbio with Franz, exploring  the local area. Franz is a great host, because he sees the potential of a situation and he knows everyone in the area, so he has offered to take us to a hot-spring spa nearby where he ‘ll meet his wife and have a family day and have time to spend with us. Isabella met us with the charming, energetic and mischiefous 5yr old Gabri and sweet, playful 3 yr old Julia.  After entering the snazzy spa main desk area, we change in the comfortable locker rooms and head out to the laidback lounging-by-the-pool area. Here, the pools are many, each hot, warm or cool, the faint smell of sulfur and what I would call a great collection of Italian and European lounge lizards, chilling (or warming) in these healing waters from the earth, walking around in terry-cloth bathrobes or just their suits, with the ever-present olive groves and vineyards in the mid-ground of the landscape, rolling rocky and verdant hills in the near distance. There are all types here. It’s hard to tell too much about anyone. There are a few families with young children, a few teens, but mostly adults clearly committed to chilling out, letting down their hair, melting into the soothing waters, slowing down and rejuvenating.

Joyce loves spending time with Gabri and Julia, developing her Italian. They’re much more flunt in English than we are in Italian. A rare, brief rainshower passes through, chasing the lounge lizards into the spacious indoor pools. I find one of the larger cooler pools and try to peel off a few laps, loosening the tensions from the relatively easy Boston to Zurich to Florence flight. After a snack at the spa cafe, Franz takes us all to his favorite pizza haunt in Sienna where it seems he is a dear old family friend. Most places we go, Franz has close friends. You could say, he connects! He’s full of life. Full of things to say. When we’re toodling around the Tuscan countryside in his VW van his banter with the children illustrates the beauty of the Italian language. There’s a quality of an uplifting sing-song playful melody bubbling forth like a streaming marble Piazza fountain.

I know I’m waking up at Ebbio when I place my feet on the polished, large, uneven, rectangular brick-like tiles often found in Italian farmhouses and homes. Smooth, glossy, uneven, bumpy, radiant, cool to the un-slippered foot.  It’s Saturday and time to meet our group at the airport in Florence at 11am. Joyce and I each drive a van in. The drive is getting more familiar. This is my fourth trip, third program. But I’m still getting the route down cold and there is one wrong turn on the way in and one on the way home. But we don’t lose much time on the brief hour-long drive. Everyone showed up, in good shape.

A smooth transition at the airport helps us have a smooth transition to inhabit our base for the week, entering the world of authentic Tuscany, a rambling stone farm, sunny rooms with big tall windows looking out onto various views, back up the farmland into the forested ridge, out across the valley dotted with steeples, towns, walled castle-like mountain-top towns, a patchwork of fields, forests and fortresses. Everyone gets settled into their rooms, lunch is in 15 minutes

Our first meal, al fresco, of course, is full of oohs and aahs. The food as Ebbio is as good as it gets. It’s not fancy. It’s not complex. You know it’s fresh. Soups. Rice or pasta. Fresh romaine. Tomatoes that zing with flavor. Fresh bread. Cheeses with names I’ve never heard before, fruits of all types, pitchers of wine and pitchers of water, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Pasta with avocado pesto sauce, pumpkin soup, risotto, absolutely “produced today” fresh ricotta. And when you’re totally satisfied after munching down on this feast, some little dessert emerges from the kitchen. Italian pastry, a pound cake,tarts, custards. Each night it’s another unexpected treat. Seems that Franz has been chatting up a local baker who sends us up a treat each day at the end of the day. She’s happy to have a captive audience.

Franz runs the farm and “inn” with the help of a sister and brother from Rumania, Stella and Dino. They are the picture of ease in service to Franz qand us. Throughout the week they are there at every turn to make our stay comfortable. They won’t let us carry our bags up stairs. Bags are taken to our rooms. They serve and clean up after every meal and that’s what they do between their full list of chores, cleaning our rooms and the bathrooms, feeding the livestock, horses, mules, chickens, dogs and cats. One morning during a strole after breakfast we hear Dino whistling a tune. He’s up on a ladder propped into an olive tree. He’s trimming the branches. Another day he has plowed the entire field slated for a sunflower crop next year. Both he and Stella seem to be up and at it early each morning and into the evening. The sincerity of their service warms our hearts each day. Another endearing aspect of our experience in Italy. Sincerity. Generosity. Graciousness.

One of our guests, Sharon, a retired teacher from Connecticut, put it best when she wrote, “I revelled each day, thinking it can’t get any better than this. And each day I was surprised with new experiences that built into the most satisfying vacations I’ve ever taken”.

Next year’s program has been scheduled and I am taking registrations for it now. It’s October 3 – 10 (again), the first week in October, Sunday through Sunday. Click here to receive more information.