Overview The Casentino Valley, a hidden corner of Tuscany, bristles with medieval villages bustling with life. During this program we’ll plan our day’s excursions sitting on the 7th-floor roof terrace of our own castle tower sipping coffee and looking out over the valley’s riches. This will be a learning experience that will delight you over and over again. You will be traveling with a small group of other people involved in real estate development: Builders, developers, realtors, and lenders. As we visit the historic hill towns of this region you will experience a built environment you can only find in the remote corners of Europe. We’ll have discussions, both formal and informal, about how you can use what you see here in your own projects. Imagine sitting at a café in a plaza that is 500 years old, enjoying the local food and wondering what it must have been like to live right here during the Renaissance, or to be a child or senior here today. We’ll visit several towns and villages: some famous, some unknown to American tourists. Each one is filled with delights of taste, view, and history. And filled with inspirations about how we could build, if we could only remember. We’ll look closely, as we savor our last few sips of wine, and see what features make spaces that are so compelling. We will take a relaxed pace so that we can soak up the flavors and sights. And then there is the countryside. We will walk miles each day. This is how we can best experience how farm and forest so closely integrate with the center of the towns. From the Tower it is a mile to the town, and we will walk through olive grove and field. This program is limited by our accommo-dations to 8 people. With a group this small, your trip will be a personal experience rather than a production tour. Accommodations We will do and see lots of things. But we will come home to our castle each night, where we can sit on the roof terrace and watch the sun set over the Casentino Valley. The Castello di Porciano was built 1000 years ago. The remaining Tower was remodeled in the late 20th century. The first 3 floors of the tower contain a museum, and the upper 3 floors are a 4 bedroom home like you have never seen. You can walk up through the museum, or take the tiny elevator. The tower, with walls 5 feet thick and a living room 20 feet high, will take your breath away before you even make it up to the roof terrace behind the battlements. The Castello di Porciano has a laundry room with washer and dryer. So pack as light as you can. Your travel information package will have suggestions for what clothes to include. It has a full kitchen with dishes of handmade Tuscan ceramic with traditional patterns and spatterware. It’s important to realize that the castle is comfortable, but it is not luxurious. The baths are down the hall and have claw foot tubs and hand showers. Most of the bedrooms have twin beds. One has a double bed. So the Tower does not offer the maximum of luxury. It offers the maximum of experience. The owner of the Tower, the Contessa Corsi, warns her visitors “You can make excursions to other towns, or you can stay right here all day. My guests always regret that they did not spend more time in the castello.” We will face the same dilemma. Do we stay and steep in the ambience of the tower, or venture out to other delights? The program also includes 2 other nights: One night in Florence on your arrival day, and one night in Milan before your departure flight. Meals The program includes continental breakfasts. The kitchen is always available, and you can stock the fridge and pantry with whatever you want. We will dine out often, and dine in when you wish. The castle is equipped with a small, but amazing kitchen. There are arched openings 10 feet high, and a door onto a balcony that is 4 stories up. Stia is deep in the Apennine mountains, and so has a tradition of hunting. Many local restaurants feature a culinary experience of authentic regional specialties including venison, wild boar, and rabbit as well as chicken, beef and pork. The Canto della Rana in particular has a hunting lodge atmosphere and serves game. You will find Tuscans are passionate about freshness in their food, and you can taste it at their table. Fresh seasonal vegetables from the area are always featured. If some participants want, cooking classes can be arranged at small additional charge. Program Highlights During our week in the Casentino Valley we will come to understand what features make a community so compelling, so rich in life that it is continuously inhabited for 500 years with only a minimum of change. We will visit several towns in the area, each with an historic center hundreds of years old, and each with a different way of creating the places that nurture community. We’ll also visit tiny hamlets, including our own Porciano, and see how built forms can be compact, accommodate privacy, and enjoy farm and field at the doorstep. Porciano alone contains almost every lesson you need to create an exquisite sustainable neighborhood. We will be staying a short walk from Stia, included in “The Most Beautiful Villages of Tuscany”. We will get to know this little community well as our daily shopping takes us to the green grocer, bakery, butcher, and wine shop. And as we walk to the local train station for our excursions to other towns. From our tower windows you can see Poppi (In 2003 Poppi has been awarded the title "Most Beautiful Town in Italy") that played a major role in the battle that led to the Medici’s dominance in Florence (and led to Dante’s exile). Its castle is renowned for the ghost of the Count Guidi, who still resides there. In Poppi we will begin to recognize the patterns that create community space and a sense of identity for its inhabitants. From Poppi you can see Bibbiena. Bibbiena is noted in the guidebooks as an industrial center (they make precast concrete there). But the historic town, on the hill above, contains beautiful examples of superb 400-year-old urban place making. Again we will see how density is paired with views and open-space to achieve a lifestyle so successful that it has changed very little over 500 years. We will make a day-long visit to Cortona (also included in “The Most Beautiful Villages of Tuscany”), the setting of “The Light in Tuscany” and the home of the UGA art school. Anghiari is little known to American tourists. But it is the town that native Italians go to when they want to experience a superb historic village. We’ll spend a day wandering it’s side streets and alleys answering the question “How do you make a settlement so excellent that it is prized for hundreds of years as a place to live?” Lectures and Discussions. Your program leader will offer prepared talks on subjects of urban design, land planning, economic planning, architecture and history. But only as much as you want. Program Fees 2009 per person, double occupancy. Single supplement $550 May Trips $2650. June Trip $3160. All trips are subject to registration of the minimum number of participants. Typically, this is six registrations. For trips that are cancelled because they do not meet the minimum number of participants, the reservation fee will be refunded. Fee includes: Seven nights of unique accommodations in the Castello di Porciano Two nights in your arrival/departure city. Continental breakfasts A group dinner Train transportation from Milan to Stia and return. Educational programs, presented by a Village Habitat principal. Travel and destination information to assist you in your planning. Certificate of completion Does not include: Air transportation Meals other than noted above Land transportation other than noted above Single occupancy The program is designed to be an allowable tax-deductible expense. Please consult your tax professional to determine the tax treatment of this program for you. For more information please do not hesitate to contact Clay Preston 404-271-4647 CPreston@VillageHabitat.comhttp://www.virginia.edu/cavaliertravels/2007/italian.html#tophttp://www.virginia.edu/cavaliertravels/2007/italian.html#topmailto:CPreston@VillageHabitat.comshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2

Tuscany 2008

 Forms and Flavors of Tuscany Led by Clay Preston May 8-18, 2008 Trip Full May 18-28, 2008 Trip Full May & June 2009 Write for schedule http://www.villagehabitat.com
 

Photos from 2007

 

FOR RESERVATION FORMS CLICK HEREReservations.html