What you won’t normally hear is that the Ice Age is actually here now! But believe us, it currently feels like we have a mini-Ice Age – and we’re definitely not as tough as our ancestors were. Thank goodness for a wood burning stove, easily available supplies of wood and food and a well insulated home.

People of the Deer by Farley Mowat

If you really want to get an idea how it would have been to live under those conditions, we suggest you read Farley Mowat’s book ‘People of the Deer’ – it’s quite old now (published in 1954) but it is a fascinating read and remarkably well researched. Leaving aside the emotive issues centring around the devastating affects that the white man has had on the lives of the Innuit, it vividly describes just how harsh life was in those climatic conditions,. The hunger – to the point of starvation – and hardships. The struggle just to survive in a desperately harsh environment where the odds are heavily stacked again humanity. However skilful and resourceful as hunters and survival experts, the people knew they were incredibly vulnerable. The caribou (or reindeer) migrated in such seemingly endless numbers, covering the landscape for days, shaking the ground several miles away. But this living torrent could stop or go somewhere else for no apparent reason. If this happened they starved. There was no well stocked freezer to fall back on as there is for us today; no supermarkets to rely on.

How do you gather firewood when the landscape is blanketed under snow and ice? How do you weatherproof your home? (if indeed you are fortunate enough to have one). How do you clothe yourself? Without giving too much of the book away, Mowat comes to the conclusion that it is not the shelters they live in that are the Innuit’s home, but in fact it is their clothing which is so efficient that it insulates and protects them, so if their homes are draughty, it does not matter. They carry their ‘home’ with them!

Reading this book also gives a really good idea of how things were for our Ice Age ancestors and how life would have been back then in the Vezere Valley.

Snow capped Chateau de Losse

Right now, we have a few inches of snow and temperatures around zero – and we know it won’t last. We can be confident that it is temporary. Spring will soon be here and meanwhile we can admire snow capped Chateau de Losse and fondly remember occasions when we’ve stopped there for a sunny photo call.

A sunny photo call at Chateau du Losse in more normal conditions

And we’re looking forward to the warmer times ahead when we’ll be welcoming more new friends here to join us at Les Rosiers for a Caves & Castles Tour or self catering holiday – it’s not long at all now. It’ll be Spring before we know it!

Steve and Judie Burman live in the beautiful Vezere Valley in the Dordogne region of South-West France. Together they run Caves and Castles, specialising in prehistoric Cave Art and medieval Castles Tours. Small groups tours (up to six people) are based at their recently converted farmhouse. Alternatively, they offer non-residential tours for a day or longer.

Professional archaeologist, Steve and his wife Judie love to share their passion for the ‘Cradle of Humanity.’ World famous sites such as Lascaux, the ‘Sistine Chapel of Prehistory’ and Font de Gaume are close by. Coupled with gastronomic meals and superb wines, your Caves & Castles Tour is really special

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

The performers

The audience

Everything is focused on the festive parade of magnificent papier mâché floats that sally forth every Sunday for a month or so and on Shrove Tuesday (the schedule changes each year). You need to arrive early to get a parking space, but you won’t get bored while waiting. The setting is the passegiata or boardwalk with its backdrop of ‘stile liberty’ buildings and beach establishments.

People of all ages come to enjoy the spectacle, many showing off their costumes.

Old

Young

In between

Aspiring teenagers

Animals are there too.

Rare species

Only known case of a ladybird (bug) being born to giraffes

Exotic

Common

Dead

If you’re alert, you’ll see some amusing vignettes.

Ciao tutti!

Which storybook are you from?

He-man

She wasn't impressed?

There’s fast food…

Fast food

…and slow food.

Cacciucco (fish stew) at a bagno

At 3 pm three canon shots announce the start of the parade of floats.

Puffs of moke from the canon

Some are several storeys tall…

Obama above the bankers

…and others are people on the ground wearing elaborate headdresses.

Berlusconi beneath the babes

Some satirise politicians…

Superman to the rescue

Cradle snatcher

Who's she?

…and some feature films and pop stars.

Nearly his last appearance

Some are monuments to the skill and ingenuity of the people who design and build the floats, now full-time jobs.

Flying and breathing fire as the band plays and choir sings

As the sun sets, the floats go round for the last time and spectators drift happily homewards.

(I’d like to thank Klaus Falbe-Hansen for his keen eye, excellent photos and unfailing sense of humour at Carnival 2010.)

Heather Jarman invites you on inspiring culinary tours of life behind the scenes that you won’t find in any guidebook — get to know the food artisans and craftspeople of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Liguria. Come join me and my Italian friends and dip into a lifestyle where lunch is more important than business. Find out more at Sapori e Saperi Adventures and follow Heather’s own adventures on her blog.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Every year, during our season, guests ask what we do during the winter months. Sometimes the question is entirely open – more often it is loaded, as if to say “you guys must have a wonderful life, only having to work for half the year!”

It is half true. We do feel that we have a wonderful life, but not because we can put our feet up for six months of the year! In the first place, the winter months provide us with the time to do things that we cannot do during our cruising season. This includes all the medical appointments – teeth and eyes to be checked, overall check-ups and screenings – France is very strong on preventative medicine. We also catch up on the social life that we have to forego during the season, part of which is to do with the walking group in our little village – last week for example we went on a 2-day trek high in the Pyrénées.

In the mountains

We also spend our time on all the essentials to do with the marketing of our small business – trade shows to visit, agents in other countries to meet, and back home all the booking procedures and client enquiries to handle. Most often, the people who would like to book a cruise on our hotel barge have all sorts of questions first, and it is the way in which we respond to these questions that develops a rapport with our future guests, so that when they arrive on the boat we know them as friends already, and they know what to expect by way of hair dryers, slippers, dressing-gowns, and all the little services that we provide. All of this information is available on our web site, but the personal contact we have with our guests before their arrival greatly helps to get the week off to a good start.

There is, however, another major category of work that takes our time and energy during the winter months, and that is all to do with the maintenance of the barge. Over the years, each winter we have tackled major works on the boat, bringing it up to a higher and higher standard. Neither of us like the “last minute panic” style of preparing for the season, and the high level of presentation we achieve is the result of weeks and weeks of work during the winter months.

We had one adventure with the boat last autumn, when we took her to the dry dock in Toulouse. The journey there and back was fairly routine, but this is not part of the canal system that we normally cruise and so everything was a bit unfamiliar.

We are obliged to put the boat into a dry dock every five years in order to keep our “Permit de Navigation” up to date, and to do routine cleaning and painting of the hull. This year our surveyor had all sorts of new inspections to do, because a new set of regulations has come into force since our last docking. I am pleased to report that we passed with flying colours!

Saint Louis in the covered dry dock

The dry dock itself is a remarkable piece of engineering, right in the middle of Toulouse. The facility was built at the same time as the canal, around 1670, and the covered dock that we were in is a listed building. Originally, there were four open-air dry dock chambers and one covered one, and it is easy to imagine the bustle that was part of the scene in the days of all the working barges on the canal – it is an important part of the industrial heritage of the country. Nowadays, only the covered dock and two open-air ones are ever used.

One of the magnificent elements of the dry dock is that no external energy is used for the docking process. A valve is opened to fill the dock from the basin, which in turn is connected directly to the Canal; water for this comes from reservoirs in the Black Mountains and flows by gravity down the Canal du Midi. The boat enters the dock and is moored. Then a floating plug that forms a door to the dock is moved into position, and a big valve on the side of the dock is opened. The water is emptied from the dry dock and the boat settles on its supports. One fascinating element of this engineering masterpiece is that the water flowing from the dry dock is channelled down about five kilometres of brick-built vaulted tunnel, to flow into the River Garonne.

Part of the open air dry dock, Saint Louis behind

Of course, Italy and Orvieto epitomize artful living. It is what attracts us to them. We tend to forget life is art as we go about our busy lives. Any vacation can return us to this understanding. But one to Italy, when you go slow enough to enjoy the place rather than trying to see it all, immerses you in life as art. You see it in the way people dress. You enjoy it when you eat on tables with linens – most restaurants use linens. You appreciate it with the care that the coffee is made and presented. You recognize it in the ancient monuments so beautifully built and decorated. It infuses everything.

Stefano at Scarponi's in Orvieto

One little example. When you step up to the bar for a cappuccino at Scarponni’s  in Orvieto, Stefano always spins the cup on the plate so the handle is to the right. He puts the spoon on the plate so the handle faces you on the right of the cup. Always. Then he pours in the frothed milk in front of you. It is this kind of simple gesture happening around you all the time that you begin to absorb.

Living is the original art. Slow travel helps remind of us that!

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations” to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets.

Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year.

Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

The pleasure of a special place (on the Dordogne River in France)

Ah, travel! Simply hearing the word evokes memories of favorite places visited, wonderful things experienced, and the happy anticipation of more adventures to come. No other word in our language encompasses so much that is important to so many people.

Investment Review estimates that 260 million people worldwide are employed in some facet of the travel industry. Annual revenue of all businesses associated with travel amounts to the staggering sum of almost 12 trillion dollars. If the travel industry were a country, it would be the world’s second largest economy, according to the World Bank. Close behind the USA, travel’s economy would be roughly equivalent to the combined economies of Germany, Russia, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Obviously, much travel is done for business, government, and other non–tourism reasons, but the subset of travelers called “tourists” recorded 940 million arrivals in 2010 according to the World Tourism Organization. That’s three times the entire population of the United States who set foot off a plane, train or car just for the sheer pleasure of getting away from home to see something new.

I account for three or four of those 940 million arrivals each year. An avid and frequent traveler to Europe, I would love to ratchet up the “frequent” part but alas my budget and certain European Union restrictions limit my time there. I compensate and travel vicariously by reading whatever printed materials I can find about my favorite places. This can be guide books, maps, blogs, novels – I don’t care. If I can’t be there physically, let me be there in my imagination.

St. Wolfgang in the Salzkammergut

Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds

If asked what I love so much about travel, I used to say it was the lakes, the mountains, the cozy little villages, the sophisticated cities, and so on. It was what was in the guide books, the physical things that set one place off from another; the things that make the Scottish Highlands different from the Alps of Austria, or the lake district of England distinct from the lakes of Northern Italy.

Now that I have more miles behind me than I care to acknowledge, I am more apt to say the greatest pleasure in travel is getting to know something about the people who inhabit these strange and wonderful places. Many of their customs are different from our own. They may eat differently, dress differently, and think differently about politics and religion and a hundred other things. But being fellow members of the human species, there are invariably a lot of things that are the same. Here’s where travel can take on a new and more meaningful dimension. It’s where a visit can become an experience.

With my 'French daughter' Nathalie

Nathalie and I have now made this little joke so many times that we do it automatically and with a warmth that, although we aren’t really family, we are friends, and if she really were my French daughter, I would be very proud of her and her accomplishments. And it’s been a great pleasure for me to watch her grow into her new role during the past six years.

Talking with a Frenchman or an Italian or a German about family and work or hearing them wax nostalgic about their youth has a familiar ring. Hearing them laugh at the foibles of some politician or complain about taxes and government gives me the sense that we have more in common than we have that separates us.

They get up in the morning, fight through traffic that frazzles nerves in Munich or Marseille as well as it does in Boston or New York. They labor at jobs that may be fulfilling or simply labor to get through the day. Family, community, health and happiness are usual topics of conversation.

Two special friendships that we have made in Italy touch our hearts with the concerns common to friends everywhere. Rita and Rosita are two sisters who live in a large 12th century castle on a hilltop in Chianti. They are as warm, human, and worthy of being called ‘friend’ as anyone I know. They share their moments of sadness as well as their times of happiness with us. We look forward to visiting and catching up with them when time and distance have kept up apart and to introducing them to our Chianti Experience groups this June. What else is friendship?

The pleasure of special people (sisters Rita and Rosita in Chianti, Italy)

Ultimately, we’re all ‘in the same boat,’ so if we all rowed together, we’d not only get ‘there’ quicker, we’d get there together. I’ve always thought that travel provides a wonderful education, but now I’m beginning to see travel as the best way to bring different peoples and cultures together for the benefit of all.

Go ahead, pack up and hit the road… it’s the ultimate form of diplomacy and international relations.

Charley Wood and his wife Kathy lead European Experiences, week-long “slow tours” in some of the most beautiful areas of Europe, including The Luberon Experience in Provence, France. In 2012 they’ll host groups in the Luberon, the Chianti region of Tuscany, and the Salzkammergut region of Austria. Charley recently published his first book, A Chateau in Provence.

Kathy and Charley have been traveling in Europe for 20 years and love sharing their special places in Europe with other travelers. Read more about Kathy and Charley here.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

The most popular day trip from Barcelona is the ascent of craggy Montserrat, topped with a vast monastery and dotted with hermit’s caves. First a short train ride from Plaça Espanya, as we watch the serrated pinnacles piercing the clouds ahead then the Cremallera de Montserrat, a cog railway that zigzags up, up, up through the clouds to the holy mount.

Shrouded in mystery and rife with millenias- old legends (Saint Peter brought an image of the Virgin here?) the jagged mount is the site of a Benedictine monastery tucked into the crags. The pure voices of the Escolania boys choir, Europe’s oldest choral school, soar to the vaulted ceiling of the Renaissance- era basilica daily at 1 pm.

A pilgrimage site second only to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, Montserrat is laced with walking trains to caves, chapels, and photo-worthy vistas. Funiculars can take you even further up the pinnacles.

Our trip down, via the Aerie, goes much faster than the zig zag ascent, which took about twenty minutes. We swoop down through the clouds and in about five minutes we see our destination and gently swing into the station, and soon we’re on the train back to Barcelona. In just a short time, we’ve experienced a unique part of Catalonia, not to be missed!

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The The best way to describe us (Kirk and Anne Woodyard) is that we’re interested in the stories that make the places we visit come alive.
We’ve visited Europe more times than we can count, learned some entertaining stories there, and met some warm and helpful people who also enjoy the wonders of music and life in Europe.
Between our music-related travels, we split our time between our homes near Washington DC and the south of France. We look forward to sharing these stories and friends and experiences with our Music and Markets guests.
While both of us have experience in organizing travel and music groups Kirk’s background is in project management and competitive writing, and Anne is an accomplished pianist with over thirty years of teaching experience, and a travel and food writer specializing in France and Italy.

First, it’s important to know a few things about yourself.  Some questions to ask oneself would be 1)  Do I enjoy being part of a large group, probably all strangers or am I more comfortable interacting with small groups?  Does the median age of the group matter to me? 2) What level of physical comfort is important to me?  Simple lodging and food or more luxurious? 3)  What are my interests in the country I am visiting?  Art, history, cultural influences, food, wine, or archeology and anthropology?  4) What is my budget?  5)  How long can I be away from home, comfortably and in consideration of my responsibilities and obligations?

These are all essential questions to ask before choosing a company or guide to travel with.  Once you have narrowed the focus from this vantage point you have some strong criteria for choosing who to travel with as you will be spending quite an extended, intense period of time with folks who are essentially strangers to you.  Of course, that’s part of the travel adventure and a great way to meet new friends, as we have discovered over the years.

One recommendation I make to potential guests on my tours is to clearly define their current interests and motivation for the trip under consideration.  If someone is interested in learning more about art to further their own technique or love for it, then a tour that offers the experience of actually drawing and painting while vacationing is ideal.  If it’s the actual history of art and one does not feel inclined toward the experience of creating then I might suggest traveling with a guide who is experienced in art history.  This sort of distinction can have a profound effect on the ultimate experience and memories of the trip but I find that many travelers sign on to tours without preparing for satisfying their own special expectations.  Another example might be that of food.  Many people enjoy eating and savoring the food of a certain culture but have no interest in learning to cook it, so taking cooking lessons might be a big disappointment.

There is also the consideration of who is leading the tours.  Are you more comfortable traveling with a group of couples and being led by such or are you a solo traveler who enjoys meeting others who are doing the same?  Does the age of the guide have an impact on your expectations?  Or the gender of the group leader? Do you like traveling with groups of families, including children or just the opposite?  How much activity will the guide expect?  Hiking, lots of walking, lots of sitting?  Does it matter to you if the guide is a native of the country or not? These are things to ask before making your final choice to sign on with a tour as you will have to “live” with the result of your choices and expectations for at least a week if not longer.

So, when making inquiries of tour companies don’t be afraid to ask as many questions as it takes for you to be comfortable with your final choice.  This is YOUR trip, so you get to create an experience for yourself that meets or exceeds your wildest dreams.  Happy New Year from all of us at slowtraveltours and may all your travels in 2012 be enjoyable, safe and memorable!

Cheryl has been traveling to Europe, particularly Italy, for more than fourteen years. Her interest in Italy, its history, art and rich culture led her to purchase property near Orvieto, allowing her to spend more time there. Cheryl’s exploration of Italy include the regions of Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio, as well as the areas around Venice and south towards Sorrento. She continues to travel into Italy’s less traveled regions, and enjoys sharing her discoveries with others. Relaxed, leisurely tours are her specialty with an emphasis on the comfort of her guests.

Cheryl spends the rest of her time near the beach in San Diego, cavorting with her two small grandchildren. She’s an avid reader, health advocate and community volunteer. Her career as a social worker brings an understanding of people’s needs to the tour business.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Matthew Daub is a professional artist and university professor with works in major public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. He has been leading plein air painting workshops in Italy since 1994. In 1999, Matthew and his wife Barbara formed Arts Sojourn as “a vacation for artists and their friends.” The program is designed to appeal to artists of all levels as well as non-artists who enjoy the company of creative people in a slow travel format.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Where is Abri Cro-Magnon? Steve will show you.

“Don’t think of a visit to this region without booking Steve as your guide – his insight and knowledge never fails to amaze us. This is our third visit and once again we have realised that there are still plenty more things for us to do in the area”.

These are words left in our Visitors Book and were written by a family after their third visit to Les Rosiers. It gives us a lovely buzz when people comment so favourably, whether it’s about a self-catering holiday based here at Les Rosiers with days out guided by Steve or a full board, fully guided Caves & Castles Tour based here.

So what is it all about? Why the excitement?

Well, the Vezere Valley is one of the most important areas in the world when it comes to the history of man. Our species, Cro-Magnon man, was discovered here and named after an easily over-looked site down at Les Eyzies. Most people wouldn’t even know to look for it, never mind where to find it, but Steve can take you there.

How do we know this? Through painstaking archaeological excavation, hours of post-excavation work and, very often, sheer luck! Evidence from the past can be extremely fragile and easy to overlook.

Our local chateau - Steve (centre) with guests

As well as prehistoric sites, the area is renowned for it’s castles – or chateaux as they are called in French. There are over a 1000 – ranging from magnificent Castelnaud-la-Chapelle which towers over the Dordogne river dominating the landscape to Le Petit Marsac above La Madeleine troglodyte village Chateau Milandes, the former home of Josephine Baker and her adopted “rainbow” family is a favourite with all ages. The poignant story of her life and the thrilling raptor flight displays in the grounds of the magnificent chateau make an unusual combination.

So much has gone on in this region for so long – the Hundred Years War has left many a mark. The Dordogne was often on the front line and the region was frequently pillaged and burnt. The bastide towns with their uniformly laid out street patterns were laid out by the French or English kings as territorial markers, when they attempted to extend their kingdoms.

There’s so much else to do to – gardens to visit, museums, exhibitions, walking, riding, cycling, canoeing – the list goes on. The area is also known for it’s gastronomy – our neighbours produce the most wonderful walnut oil – and foie gras is a favourite with many. The local markets are great for buying fresh, colourful local produce – ideal if you’re on a self-catering holiday and, of course, there’s dozens of local restaurants to try.

So often we’re asked to show people ‘the Dordogne’ in 24 or 48 hours! It’s a huge department – the 3rd biggest in France! You just can’t do it justice in this time and it is such a shame when people come on ‘whistle stop tours’. Ok, so the Dordogne box has been ticked – but what can you really see in such a short time? Holidays shouldn’t just be about ‘ticking boxes’ – so much time is spent travelling from place to place, that the time to actually see places, to stand and admire, and ‘get under the skin’ of the area is drastically reduced.

A Day Tour is a great way to ‘whet your appetite’ but please don’t think you can see it all in just one day! By all means come and have a ‘taster’ but bear in mind you are only just ‘scratching the surface’. The philosophy of the Slow Travel Tours group is to travel slowly, stay a while and use a local guide. It’s a good investment. You save time and fuel and really get the most out of your visit – and that’s what it should all be about surely?

Everyone in the Slow Travel Tours Group joins with us in wishing you all the very best for the Festive Season and the New Year – and if you have a break from work, we hope you’ll take the opportunity to plan your 2012 travels!

Steve and Judie Burman live in the beautiful Vezere Valley in the Dordogne region of South-West France. Together they run Caves and Castles, specialising in prehistoric Cave Art and medieval Castles Tours. Small groups tours (up to six people) are based at their recently converted farmhouse. Alternatively, they offer non-residential tours for a day or longer.

Professional archaeologist, Steve and his wife Judie love to share their passion for the ‘Cradle of Humanity.’ World famous sites such as Lascaux, the ‘Sistine Chapel of Prehistory’ and Font de Gaume are close by. Coupled with gastronomic meals and superb wines, your Caves & Castles Tour is really special

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Este fort

Trassilico from the fort

This year a native of Trassilico, a pensioner who had been an archivist in the Lucca State Archives, offered to give us a guided tour of his beloved village. Pietro Rocchi welcomed us on the warm summer evening and led us to a spring with a long history and many legends attached to it. Since he spoke only Italian, it was my job to interpret to my guests. I begged him in advance to speak slowly and clearly and to leave time for me to translate, but his enthusiasm kept running away with him. What he was explaining was genuinely interesting, but its intricate detail was akin to examining each individual stitch in a complex tapestry. There weren’t any historians in the group, and I could see several beginning to shiver in the damp shade of the stone structure around the spring.

Spring at Trassilico

We managed to lure Pietro up to the rocca, the Este fort, still warm in the rays of the setting sun, but not without many a stop on the way to show us the exact spots where the tough inhabitants had bravely resisted recurrent sieges, tricked their enemies and won the battles. Now the group became interested and began to ask questions.

The way up to the fort

Pietro waiting for us to catch up

We made it

It was worth it

On the way back down to the main piazza by a different route, Pietro showed us a wall partly constructed of old tombstones. He was the person who had deciphered the inscriptions and signs carved on them and had realised that the cemetery from which they came must have spanned the transitional period from paganism to Christianity. The retired Episcopalian minister in the group explained some puzzling symbols, which Pietro was interested to know about too.

The piazza

Back in the piazza some of us tucked into the festival food while others preferred a small restaurant that, with typical village hospitality, provided a table for our communal supper, even though we weren’t all ordering from its menu.

Hospitable restaurant

I later wrote to the friend of a friend who had recommended Pietro as a guide to thank him. I said how interesting it was, but perhaps a wee bit too long and detailed. He reproved me with this slow travel wisdom: ‘When Pietro is your guide, he is like a river in flood and from that one sees all the love he bears toward his village. Your clients must keep in mind that a tour of Europe cannot be accomplished in a week or there is the danger of Stendhal’s syndrome.’ The alarming symptoms include rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and sometimes hallucinations when exposed to a large amount of especially beautiful art or a surfeit of choice among too much beauty. Whew! That was a lucky escape. Much healthier to slow one’s pace, to bathe in the flow of Pietro’s words, to take time to ask questions and engage in a dialogue, and to appreciate the depth of history in a single extremely beautiful village.

A street in Trassilico

Heather Jarman invites you on inspiring culinary tours of life behind the scenes that you won’t find in any guidebook — get to know the food artisans and craftspeople of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Liguria. Come join me and my Italian friends and dip into a lifestyle where lunch is more important than business. Find out more at Sapori e Saperi Adventures and follow Heather’s own adventures on her blog.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.