A Working Itinerary

Culinary Italy

The below itinerary is subject to some changes as visits to vineyards and other culinary sites are further fleshed out.

Pre Trip Orientation Seminars

During the months before the trip, the group will meet for a series of 2-3 hour seminars reviewing the following topics:

• Art & Topography of Rome
• Italian Culture and Language
• The food and wine of Italy
• The Slow Food Movement

A reading list will also be developed to prepare those who are interested.

Part 1:  The City

The first half of the trip will be spent in Rome exploring the rich traditions and history of “The Eternal City.” From ancient Rome through the, Renaissance and Baroque periods, we will visit important historic sites using the city as our classroom. There will also be time spent exploring the culinary history of Rome, with trips to the outdoor markets, bakers and butchers as well as gelato shops, coffee bars and restaurants.

Day 1    Friday, October 7      

Walking Tour of Ancient Rome

  

•         The Forum/Palatine Hill

•         The Arch of Constantine

•         The Colosseum

•         Trajan’s Market and Trajan’s Column

Day 2   Saturday, October 8

Ancient to Renaissance Rome

•         The Pantheon

•         Campo dei Fiori Market

•         Piazza Navona

•         Santa Maria della Pace

•         San Luigi Dei Francesi (Caravaggio paintings)

•         Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Michelangelo’s Risen Christ)

•         Santa Maria del Popolo (Caravaggio paintings)

Day 3   Sunday October 9

Baroque Rome

·        Borghese Gallery 

·        Spanish Steps- Trevi Fountain

·        San Carlo alla Quattro Fontane (Bernini church)

·        Santa Maria Della Vittoria

Day 4:  Monday, October 10

The Vatican

·        St. Peter’s Basilica

·        Vatican Museum

·        Sistine Chapel

·        Raphael Rooms

·        Pinoteca- Picture gallery

Day 5   Tuesday, October 11

Travel to Umbria 

The group will travel by coach to Umbria with stops on the way in Orvieto for sightseeing and wine tasting as well as a local farm for a cooking demo and  lunch.  Orvieto is a city situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic stone. The site of the city is among the most dramatic in Europe, rising above the almost-vertical faces of cliffs that are completed by defensive walls.

Highlights in Orvieto include:

•         The Medieval Duomo, or cathedral, is one of the most impressive examples of medieval architecture in Italy. Building started in 1290 but it took almost four centuries to finish it. The cathedral's stunning facade is embellished with mosaics that shine in the sunlight. The Gothic style interior holds frescoes by Fra Angelico and Signorelli and beautiful wooden choir stalls.

·                     Saint Patrick's Well, built in the early 16th century, is an architectural marvel. Its double spiral staircases run along the sides of the well, 62 meters deep, without meeting. Each has 248 steps and is just wide enough for pack animals to descend and then carry water back up.

Orvieto is also main center for majolica pottery and many shops in town sell the pottery. Other handicrafts are lace making, wrought iron work, and wood crafts. Wine, especially white, is made in the vineyards of the hills and you can taste or buy it in town. 

Our base in Umbria will be the walled city of Todi. Todi is a town perched on a tall two-crested hill overlooking the east bank of the river Tiber, commanding distant views in every direction. In the 1990s, Richard S. Levine, a professor of architecture at the University of Kentucky, chose Todi as the model sustainable city, because of its scale and its ability to reinvent itself over time. After that, the Italian press reported on Todi as the world's most livable city . Todi combines all the beauty of hill towns of central Italy, a precious countryside, fields lined with sunflowers, art and ancient buildings among which are the Roman and Etruscan walls of Todi.

Day 6     Wednesday, October 12

AM       Assisi

Assisi was the birthplace of St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan religious order in the town in 1208. The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi (St. Francis) is a World Heritage Site. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, and the lower and upper church (Basilica inferiore e superiore) of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253. The lower church has frescos by renowned late-medieval artists Cimabue and Giotto; in the upper church are frescos of scenes in the life of St. Francis previously ascribed to Giotto and now thought to be by artists of the circle of Pietro Cavallini of Rome.

PM

Torgiano

Visit to the Wine Museum of Umbria

Deruta

Deruta is  a main center for majolica pottery and many shops in town sell the pottery. The visit will include a tour of a pottery factory

Day 7  Thursday, October 13

Valle Umbra

This beautiful region of Umbria is marked by olive groves and green valleys, waterfalls and thermal springs. The landscape is dotted with castles, villages, fortresses, towers, churches, monasteries and cloisters, and farm houses surrounded by fields of wheat and sunflowers. Here saints, poets, writers and illustrious painters have left their mark.

We will spend some time exploring some small towns and villages:

Foligno

The abbey of Sassovivo (Abbazia di Sassovivo), standing in splendid isolation, was founded by Benedictine monks in the 11th century. Particularly remarkable is the Romanesque cloister with 128 filigree spiral columns.

Spello

Northwest of Foligno, picturesquely situated on the lower slopes of Monte Subasio, is Spello, the ancient Hispellum, which still preserves part of its walls and gates, among which the Porta Venere of the Augustan period. From the Porta Consolare, with three portrait-statues, a street leads up to the church of Santa Maria ... More >

Maggiore (1285), with a number of notable works of art - in the Cappella Baglioni frescoes by Pinturicchio (1501), as well as majolica flooring from Deruta (1566); on the high altar a magnificent marble tabernacle by Rocco da Vicenza (1515); in the sacristy and presbytery are frescoes by Pinturicchio

Montefalco

Considered one of the most marvelous medieval city of Italy, Montefalco doesn't stop of stunning the attentive visitor for its magnificent buildings such as the San Francesco's church (now seat of a the Pinacoteca (Museum) that keeps works by Benozzo Gozzoli and Perugino, the Santa Chiara's church and the Sant'Agostino's church, both medieval. Montefalco is famous in Italy and all over the world for being the Sagrantino wine area of production.

Trevi

Home to some of the most famous olive groves, the group will be able to visit a historic olive oil mill as well as have a tasting

Day 8  Friday Oct 14

Return to US

Take A Tour of Culinary Italy- October 2011

The University of Richmond
School of Continuing Studies

Presents

Culinary Italy

October 2011

Well known for its culinary arts, Italy is a food-lovers “paradise.” From the open air markets and specialty shops of Rome to the vineyards and olive groves of Umbria, this trip will explore the culinary roots of Italy. From visits to vineyards and olive oil producers, you’ll meet winemakers, bakers and chefs, and have an opportunity to sample of their rich bounty. We’ll visit bakeries, gelato shops and butchers as well as take in the café culture. We’ll eat some of the hundreds of different shapes of pasta Italy has to offer and have a chance to get in the kitchen as well. The Slow Food movement started in Italy nearly 25 years ago and its legacy continues today in cities as well as the fertile countrysideand small towns of Umbria.

Between meals we’ll spend a good bit of time visiting some of the artistic highlights of Rome and the towns of Umbria. The first part of the trip will be spent in Rome exploring the rich traditions and history of “The Eternal City.” The group will visit important historic sites using the city as our classroom.

The second half of the trip will take us to the fertile Umbria region of Italy, just a few hours northeast of Rome. Using the walled city of Todi as a base, we will visit small towns, vineyards and food producers.

The trip will be led by John Haddad, a local food writer for Style Weekly and Flavor Magazine who is the Vice Chair of Slow Food RVA, a chapter of the Italian based organization focused on local and sustainable food.

For more information contact:

Christina S. Draper, Program Specialist, Personal Enrichment

(804) 289-8937, cdraper@richmond.edu

or

John Haddad

johnghaddad@hotmail.com

804-402-6130