Relaxed Tuscan Ride & Cooking Classes
- combined with horseback riding -

Trail rides, excellent culinary classes and  good accommodation
The hotel complex in Scansano, overlooking the hills of the Maremma region in Tuscany, with a riding centre, fields, woods, silvery olive groves and Morellino di Scansano vineyards, offers visitors an opportunity to discover the secrets of typical Maremma cuisine. During your one-week stay you can attend a cooking course which includes three days of cooking practice and tastings, alternating with three horseback riding days. Both beginners taking their first culinary steps, and experts in other types of cooking, will learn the subtle expertise behind the simple yet sophisticated recipes used by Maremma's country cooks to make the best of the fruits of their generous land.
You’ll stay on a beautiful estate that has regained its ancient splendor after the restoration that has transformed it into an elegant and refined hotel with restaurant and spa facilities.
On three days you ride through gentle hills, along meandering rivers, and through small forests (about 3 to 4 hrs each). Each other day you participate in a special cooking course.
Very few people know that the famous French cuisine had developed from the Tuscan cuisine: Caterina de Medici, unhappy spouse of the French king Henry II., brought several experienced cooks from Florence with her when she got married; their cuisine laid the foundation stone of the later “Haute Cuisine”.
Cuisine-course program with horseback riding
The cooking program provides 3 lessons (half a day) Monday-Wednesday-Friday - no riding on those days. 
Each cooking class lesson takes about 3 hours.
The first day in the kitchen will be dedicated to Italy's pièce de résistance: homemade pasta - tagliatelle, tagliolini, gnocchi, tortelli with a seasonal filling, brigoli and pappardelle. You will prepare these dishes with your own hands under the supervision of an expert, and taste them after the lesson with the right wine: red Morellino di Scansano, white Aione from Macereto, etc.
The course will continue with wonderful country soups, flavored with simple local olive oil. You may prepare mushroom, Mediterranean vegetable, chick pea or bean soups as well as tasty traditional acqua cotta. And the Casale kitchen will reveal the secret of its own Zuppa del Casale. And then sauces - wild boar, spring vegetable, ragù to enhance the different types of pasta. The starters are always fun to prepare, like Tuscan crostini, or simple bruschetta with olive oil, tomatoes, etc.
To crown it all, on the last day of the cooking course, you will learn how to make traditional desserts like panna cotta with wild berries, tozzetti to serve with vin santo and other little delights, whose secrets will be revealed to you in due course.
On Friday, at lunch time, all participants will be treated to a special wine tasting session with local white and red wines (most of them out of the own production)

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Rates include lodging in double room with balcony, breakfast, 3 riding days (3-4 hrs per day) and  3 cooking classes
-- or 2 days ride, 2 cook and 2 spa.
8 days/ 7 nights  $ 1,645 
-- based on €1160   
Options:
-superior room w. balcony + $50 (€36) pp/ week
-suite with 3 pax  + $85 (€61) pp/ week
-suite  2 pax only + $250 (€175) pp/week
- Single room (with balcony) + $395/week (€278)
- Single room (no balcony) + $110/week (€75)
- dinners can be included at $40 each

2008 Dates: Weekly Sat - Sat , except March 19-25, Aug 2-29, Dec 22-Jan 7
HT SPECIAL  $200 OFF for weeks from Jan 7 to 25 and Nov 3 to Dec 19

Meeting:    Scansano
Airport:      Pisa or Rome
Transfer:   Grosetto train station $156
                        (€ 110)  return per car (up to 3)
                        .. we recommend to rent a car
Level:        Novice+
Tack:         English
Horses:      Maremmano
Pace:         Slow with trots & short canters
Min/Max Riders: 2-10
Note: Non riders ($850) are welcome - this beautiful estate has 20 rooms with private bath, mini bar, telephone and TV, an indoor and outdoor swimming pool and  Spa facilities.
The wine that is served here (not included) comes from local vineyards and has already been awarded several prizes.
And the riding stables convince even the most discriminating rider that their owner is a horse-lover.
Altogether a very pleasant atmosphere where everybody likes to be spoiled for a week or two.

Sample Itinerary

Saturday: check in - overnight.

Sunday: Ride to the small medieval village of Poggioterro through woods and meadows on the North-East side of Scansano. You will have lunch at a typical inn where you will enjoy the local cuisine (lunch is not included). After lunch you ride back to the hotel.

Monday:   The cooking program provides 3 lessons (half a day) Monday-Wednesday-Friday - no riding on those days. 
Each cooking class lesson takes about 3 hours.
The first day in the kitchen will be dedicated to Italy's pièce de résistance: homemade pasta - tagliatelle, tagliolini, gnocchi, tortelli with a seasonal filling, brigoli and pappardelle. You will prepare these dishes with your own hands under the supervision of an expert, and taste them after the lesson with the right wine: red Morellino di Scansano, white Aione from Macereto, etc.

Tuesday: Breakfast and departure for another beautiful excursion of Maremma countryside. We ride along old car-roads, going down hill slopes and across torrents where we can see the typical plantation of this area and , if we are lucky, meet a wild boar or a fallow-deer searching for food. We then stop for a rest before returning to the hotel.

Wednesday: The cooking course will continue with wonderful country soups, flavored with simple local olive oil. You may prepare mushroom, Mediterranean vegetable, chick pea or bean soups as well as tasty traditional acqua cotta. And the Casale kitchen will reveal the secret of its own Zuppa del Casale. And then sauces - wild boar, spring vegetable, ragù to enhance the different types of pasta. The starters are always fun to prepare, like Tuscan crostini, or simple bruschetta with olive oil, tomatoes, etc.

Thursday: Today we ride to Macereto where you will visit the agricultural farm Roccapesta. Here we visit the wine cellar where Morellino of Scansano is produced. Lunch is offered at the farm. (not included. In the afternoon we return to the hotel and relax. Total Riding: around 4 hours plus lunch break.

Friday:  To crown it all, on the last day of the cooking course, you will learn how to make traditional desserts like panna cotta with wild berries, tozzetti to serve with vin santo and other little delights, whose secrets will be revealed to you in due course.
On Friday, at lunch time, all participants will be treated to a special wine tasting session with local white and red wines (most of them out of the own production)
 
Saturday: after breakfast … good-bye to everybody.

If you choose the Spa option:

First half day in spa
Body scrub
A body scrub with marine thermal salt rich in active ingredients that leave the skin feeling smooth, fresh and ready for further treatments
Duration 20’
Holistic massage
This massage involves a combination of western and oriental techniques to create a feeling of physical, mental and spiritual harmony.
Duration: 25’
Second half day in spa :
Furò treatment
Delightful cleansing in a wooden bath with hydromassage, chromatic stimulations, sweet scents and special oils.
Duration: 20’
Ayurvedic massage
This massage originated in India around 5000 years ago. By using heated vegetable oils, the massage encourages detoxification of the body, relaxes the mind and invigorates the spirit.
Duration: ‘50

The Wellness Center
Welcoming light colors and wood in the oasis of wellbeing. The Spa philosophy is based on the oriental ideal of harmony between body and mind as a source of health and beauty. The hotel's world of wellbeing thus responds to the contemporary desire to find peace and serenity in an increasingly stress-ridden society blanketed in smog and pollution. You will leave this space dedicated to total care of the body and soul feeling perfectly fit. The area includes a covered pool, a hydrotherapy tub with Dead Sea salts; and the "Sensual Paradise", a space dedicated to health with relaxing music and delightful perfumes, where bioclimatology and the right quantity of heat in different temperatures and rooms will bring surprising health benefits and a general state of wellbeing and relaxation. A series of paid treatments for clients who care about their wellbeing. With the "cloud tub", an emotional trip back into the womb floating in a warm embrace or with the "wooden tub" for treatments in water. For those who prefer the outdoor life, there is the beautiful VITAE route, by mountain bike or on foot.