Harvesting Holiday October

We've just added a harvesting holiday to the website... Running from October 29 to November 5, come and learn about olives, olive oil production and help us harvest our 300 year old trees.  Mornings will be spent picking olives using traditional hand-picking techniques, and the afternoons will be free - continue picking olives, sight-see or relax in the tranquil surroundings.  Lunches will be provided on picking days, and there will be a welcome and farewell dinner, but otherwise your time with us will be on a self-catering basis.  You'll also take home freshly pressed, extra virgin olive oil from olives you've helped harvest!

It's a great opportunity for a few friends to get together and do something a bit unusual, it's a very gentle and therapeutic activity, picking olives, and the weather is usually wonderful -  t-shirt weather in the day with crisp, cold nights.  Perfect for a communal meal with some of the butcher's wine....

It's almost Midsummer's Eve....

We've had such a busy spring!  Camera Toscana photography and Photoshop workshops, a Lakeland Photo holiday with John Gravatt, pasta making lessons, wine and honey tastings, the Sagra della Lasagna in Montenero....  it's been a feast for the senses, shared with some very lovely and interesting people.

We discovered the joys of wild garlic - a prolifically abundant flower and bulb growing along the sides of the road, and made a pesto with it.  The fragrant pink flowers, bulblets and leaves are all edible and all taste of... well, garlic.

The Sagra (festa) della Lasagna was a treat, the food was great and the atmosphere very convivial, with lots of dancing involved!  Jimmy took some wonderful photographs, to be exhibited at some point in Montenero, and our guest at the time, Gus, really enjoyed experiencing a properly local festival.

This weekend we have a few guests for a weekend of rejuvenation and re-balancing with Kay Wraith, a Pilates and dance professional.  Kay will be running a week-long version of this workshop in August, perfect for completely unwinding.  Visit www.piandelcolombaio.com for details, or email us at info@piandelcolombaio.com.  As always, Angela will be ensuring that everyone maintains their energy levels with fresh, locally sourced home-cooked delights...

Next month we have a Citrayus Pilates retreat with Jennifer Stacey, a celebrated teacher from San Fransisco.  A couple of places still remain on this eagerly anticipated retreat, contact Karen Law at www.citrayus.com or info@piandelcolombaio.com for details.

Alex is very much looking forward to building his test clay oven, a one-loaf/pizza prelude to a permanent outdoor fixture that we're all looking forward to decorating.  We'll keep you posted with details of upcoming pizza and pasta making weekends that we hope to start running later in the year.

First Spring workshop!

The weather is finally warming up after a week of turbulent weather - patches of glorious sunshine but also torrential downpours and a fantastic electrical storm one evening...

Our first guest of the year, Nikki Biggs, left this morning after a really diverse photography and Photoshop workshop - we managed to dodge a lot of the rain and we captured some amazing photographs over the course of the week... some macro of blossoms, vines and a couple of bumblebees mating (!).... some beautiful landscapes over near Pienza and an afternoon spent pottering around a ruined, traditional Tuscan farmhouse.

As always, we ate and drank superbly, Angela's farewell dinner was amazing - Asparagus wrapped in Carlo's prosciutto, roast Tuscan pork and (my personal favourite) Zabaione to finish.... There was even time for a pasta making lesson this week - Nikki's sausage and sage and lemon ricotta ravioli were devoured as soon as they could be cooked!

Three days until our next group arrive for a weekend workshop.....