Pick and Press Your Own Olives at Villa Gioianna!

Euro 595/week, including meals & wine
October 23 - November 29, 2010




Spend a blissful week this Fall in an ancient Umbrian olive grove and take home as your reward liquid gold: pungent, peppery, fragrant, altogether wonderful olive oil.  This year, in addition to our own grove, Villa Gioianna has arranged to pick the entire 400-olive estate of a neighbor, who has generously agreed to cede 85% of the harvest (instead of the usual 50%) to the pickers.  We're passing the benefit on to our guests, offering a week of food, accommodation, outdoor fun and olive oil.  We'll supply the equipment for you to pick by "stroking" the trees and then gathering the fallen olives in the nets stretched out below.  When you have enough to press, you'll accompany them to the mill, weigh them, and watch as they progress from olives to oil, placing your containers carefully in position to catch the bright green liquid as it streams out.  Afterward, we'll celebrate with a ceremonial bruschetta, grilled over the coals in the kitchen fireplace and anointed with the just-pressed oil.  You may never taste olive oil again without recalling the sharp flavor of this fresh, fruity oil.

This Special Offer includes your room, breakfast and dinner at Villa Gioianna (see below).  We suggest you pick for 4-5 hours/day and save some time for sightseeing, relaxing or participating in one of the many local activities and events.  Or, if you wish, you can pick all day; you are only limited by your stamina and the weather.

A bottle of the olio nuovo makes a welcome and very Italian Christmas present.  In fact, you can treat yourself to a week or more at the Villa in good conscience, secure in the knowledge that what you're doing is actually an altruistic act.  You are spending your precious vacation time creating for everyone on your Christmas list a useful, environmentally friendly, non-battery-operated gift produced by your own sweat equity, not a sweat shop.  A person like that is a saint.  If it just so happens that you are being cosseted in a gorgeous Villa in a sublimely beautiful setting with extremely fabulous food and wine while carrying out this selfless task, so be it.  Those are the kinds of noble sacrifices such Heroes of the Olive Grove bear with great fortitude.

Or, if you're the family cook or a professional chef, pick enough to supply your own estate-bottled olive oil for a year's worth of family meals, your catering business or small restaurant or cafe.  Use our labels (a watercolor of the Villa) for your bottles, design your own, or store it simply in 5- or 10-liter tins.

In addition to the above, the Villa is delighted to announce that Dr. Carol Firenze, author of The Passionate Olive, will be in residence October 22 - November 8.  She will lead educational comparative olive oil-tasting lessons and serve as an in-house reference on the history, uses and benefits of olive oil.  She will also be organizing, upon request, day outings, including an exclusive tour of the Torgiano Olive Oil Museum with lunch at Le Tre Vaselle, an award-winning restaurant owned by the Lungarotti winemaking family.

You are Looking at the Secret Ingredient of Umbrian Cooking

Ask even the most worldly Italian where's the best place to eat in his home town and he will unhesitatingly respond: "At my Mother's table."  That's because in a culture where food is an important and creative part of life, he has been shamelessly spoiled since birth by his own personal culinary maestra, an artist who fashioned honest raw materials into masterpieces for her family, day after day, meal after meal.  Combine the skills honed from a lifetime of preparing good things to eat with a ferocious insistence on high-quality, in-season ingredients and an extraordinary generosity of spirit and you have simple, down-home Italian cooking and eating as near perfect as it gets.  This is why, quite frankly, in my next life I'm coming back as an Italian male.  

At Villa Gioianna, you will be just as pampered with the lovingly prepared food of an Italian mama, in this case our favorite nonna. Because all the best pleasures in life are earned, pick olives or traipse around the countryside all day and come home hungry and pleasantly tired to the warm hospitality of a crackling fire, a glass of red wine and a house filled with the intoxicating smells of roasting meat and bubbling sauces.  Then join your fellow travelers at the table and tuck into big platters of really good food and carafes brimming with a fine, Umbrian wine.  A meal like that makes you realize just how nice life can be.

The next morning, awaken to birdsong and fortify yourself for another day of harvesting with fig jam spread on a flaking cornetto or a slice of our locally famous torcolo (coffeecake).  More robust morning diners might want to treat themselves to an omelette made with yolk-rich eggs laid just hours before, perhaps enclosing a filling of tartufo or sauteed wild mushrooms.

Will you eat well?  In response, I quote an elderly Italian gentleman who, after doing justice to an impressive plate of pasta and a respectable portion of grilled rabbit and rosemary roasted potatoes, reached for his second helping of dolce, then winked at me and said:  "It's a sad man who can't give into his weaknesses and she's just the woman to put temptation in my path."  Need I say more?

The Umbrian Fall is Italy for Italophiles

Fall is an engaging but less-travelled season in Umbria: tourists no longer outnumber the locals and life is less hectic, much more relaxed and more  . . . well, more Italian.  The cooler but still balmy weather encourages coziness and the food metamorphoses from vibrant tree-ripened fruits and summer vegetables to the earthy autumn flavors of roast game, porcini, truffles, porchetta, persimmons, figs, quinces, deeply satisfying pastas, risottos and polenta, and, for those blissfully nonchalant about what consequences the evil bathroom scale may later report, a hot chocolate so rich and thick you can stand a spoon in it.

In your downtime, we recommend you embrace our Umbrian hill town social life:  in late October, mingle with local families taking a break from picking at the charming local olive oil sagra (festival) where our miller treats his clients to bruschetta con olio nuovo, chestnuts roasted ingeniously in a converted washing machine and a simple, young sangiovese; in mid October, gorge yourself at the Perugia Eurochocolate Fair; in early November, hunt in the woods for truffles or pluck them effortlessly from a stand at the Truffle and Woodland Fair in Citta di Castello;  practice your Italian in the time-honored tradition of dawdling at the local bar for hours over an espresso or aperitivo and gossiping non-stop (filling in with expressive hand motions as necessary); or celebrate the Festa di San Martino at our neighbor's cantina with their excellent wine, chestnuts, bruschetta and live music. It's an absurd amount of fun.

Need more ideas?  Try soaking in the warm, therapeutic waters at the ancient thermal baths; increasing your cooking skills with a hands-on lesson; walking, biking or horseback riding under a full moon through the hills, vineyards and olive groves surrounding the lake; shopping at cashmere/designer outlets or crafts or antique markets; expanding your Italian language skills with private lessons; touring archaeological, historical or artistic sites, exploring the local medieval villages and hill towns, winetasting . . . there are so many possibilities, it exhausts me to think about them.

Give Thanks at Villa Gioianna

Thanksgiving at Villa Gioianna is a collaboration: an American and Canadian celebration with an Italian spin.  Around the table will be Italians, Americans, Canadians, Swedes, Poles and other nationalities, 20-25 (or maybe more) family, friends and guests sitting baronial style at one long table in the front hall.  On the table will be a joyous abundance of food representing American and Italian favorites.

Our menu reflects our love affair with this holiday, cherished family traditions, and, admittedly, a chance to show off the Villa's Fall produce and the cook's skills.  Two things to remember:  First, we have selected a large number of dishes so everyone can find something they like.  Despite this largesse, guests are welcome to suggest a menu item that they simply cannot do without, perhaps a favorite dish that always appears on their Thanksgiving table.  Second, please abandon your diet and carbo-counting for one day and enjoy the feast!  Just step out the back door into picture-perfect scenery for a long run or walk the day after and you'll burn off this once-a-year indulgence in no time.

Thanks giving Dinner

Black Pepper and Parmesan Biscotti, Crostini di Fegatini Scattered With Pomegranate Seeds,
Platter of Home-Cured Artichokes, Olives and Prosciutto;
Homemade Pumpkin Tortelloni in Tomato Sauce, Homemade Porcini Ravioli with a Cream Sauce;
La Bestia (the turkey) with Pan Gravy;
Cipollini in Agro-Dolce, Roasted Cauliflower with Olive Oil and Capers, Honey-Ginger Glazed Carrots, Roasted Fennel with Olives and Garlic, Caramelized Brussel Sprouts and Chestnuts, Mashed Potatoes, Maple-Glazed Roasted Squash, Green Beans with Pancetta and Shallots;
3 Stuffings: Traditional, Oyster, and Sausage, Apple and Cornbread (there can never be too much stuffing);
Pumpkin Pie, Deep Dish Apple Pie, Meyer Lemon Semi-Freddo, Polenta Cake with Rosemary Syrup and Poached Pears, Barely Lavender Panna Cotta with Fighter Pilot Plum Sauce, Persimmon Gelato, Ricotta and Fig Gelato, Pear Sorbet.

We would be pleased to arrange a cooking lesson for budding or even experienced chefs the day before, in conjunction with the preparation of the pasta, gelato and desserts.  

The Villa is available for Canadian as well as American Thanksgiving for four-five day stays.  A slight additional contribution payable for special wines for the Thanksgiving feast.

Details:

Cost:  € 595 (approx US$770) / week, single occupancy; € 980 (approx US$1265) / week, double; includes accommodation, daily breakfast, daily 3-course dinner, access to the olive grove and lesson in picking, use of the picking equipment, accompaniment and help with the milling, translation at the winery and mill.  Two nights/week, guests will be invited to dine at a unique lakeside restaurant, at a local restaurant handpicked for its cuisine and ambience, and/or at a local winery in connection with a winetasting (all included in the above price).  Table wine included at dinners served at the Villa.  All wines included at the wine tasting dinner.

Terms:
Individual rooms available, or for geometrically more fun, book the entire Villa for a family or group adventure.  Why not consider this activity as the focus for a corporate team-building long weekend or a family reunion?
A 30% deposit will reserve your room; the balance is due three weeks before arrival or, if within three weeks, upon booking.

Other Details and Information:
You pay for the milling of your own oil, approximately €1/liter, and containers to hold it.  We'll provide advice and information for shipping.

A list of optional activities (including cooking lessons and organized day trips) and prices are available upon request.  Guests who book for late October/early November can also join in the brining of part of the harvest and are welcome to take home the results.

We recommend you rent a car for more freedom and flexibility; daily transportation to and from the olive grove can be arranged at a minimal price.  We highly recommend the purchase of travel insurance.

The Special Offer is valid for a minimum one week booking (except Thanksgiving) Can't make it this year?  Forward this to a friend!  But we hope you do and we look forward to seeing you at the harvest!  

Anna Tapay