Cooking & Cycling is one of our favorite tours. Why? We pack all our favorite routes and superb kitchen adventures into this week. We get to ride our home-town roads around Castagneto Carducci, visit our favorite cafes, farms and wineries in the area, and we learn something new every year from our cooking lessons. We’re in the heart of Bolgheri DOC, Italy’s hottest district for booming reds. Cycling, food, wine—Heaven!
This tour is full. Please email elaine@cinghiale.com to be placed on the waitlist, or check out a similar itinerary: Castagneto to Elba
Book this tourWe’ll pass the entire tour at a family run inn, Hotel Zi Martino. We’ve become family with the crew at Hotel Zi’ Martino, a simple inn built by a former Tour de France rider, Carlo Guarguaglini, and his wife, Isa. Now run by their son, Fausto and his family, the Guarguaglinis understand what we’re looking for in a vacation–the best riding, a great kitchen, and a family atmosphere with fun people.
This is our most flexible recipe for an unbelievable week in Italy. You get a bit of everything on this itinerary–the chance to immerse yourself in the local cuisine and culture, great cycling, and plenty of time to relax, too. Non-cycling chefs study most mornings, learning a different recipe or technique, while the cyclists spin through rolling vineyards, chestnut forests, and over the hilly countryside. For anyone looking to mix in equal parts cooking, cycling, and culture, this is the tour for you!
This is a quiet, untrammeled corner of Italy and we ride the roads around Castagneto during our shorter days, with longer rides taking us to through ancient villages of the maremma and in to the wilds of the Metaliferi hills. The Mediterranean sparkles from the hill tops and we hope to be lured to the beach at least one afternoon.
Cooking classes commence while cyclists turn their legs, and chefs discover the secrets of the Tuscan kitchen most mornings or afternoons in five classes. Our cooking maestro is Chicca Maione of Cooking in Tuscany and she invites us into her kitchen for instruction . In each class she will guide us through a selection of recipes–antipasto, primo, secondo, contorno, dolce– that incorporate into our everyday lives using fresh, seasonal ingredients. Classes are limited to 10 people to allow a hands on experience.
Cooking & Cycling begins and ends with transportation to Pisa airport PSA.
Pick-up: 11:00 Saturday, Sept 9th
Drop off: Sunday, Sept 17th: two shuttle times will be offered to accommodate the 6:30/7:15 a.m. departures and later-morning departures. We will also provide drop-offs at the local train station in Castagneto.
Tuscany | September 9 - 17, 2023