Buon Gustaio Gastro Tours –a business in the making?
One day, Adje and I hit on the idea of organising one day wine & food tours along the Umbria/ Tuscany ‘border’. Like all good ideas hatched over a glass or two, the idea seemed simple and a winner in the making.
First came the research, several very pleasant days were spent driving round the countryside visiting different vineyards, restaurants, Frantoii & gourmet outlets – of course sampling as we went and coming away with an amazing number of free bottles of wine! We visited hire car companies to discuss daily rental charges & insurance and after this leg work finally narrowed our choice down to three basic tours with a bespoke option. Of course the website side of things fell well behind whilst we were ‘researching’ but we did create a Facebook page, make an application to Trip Advisor and create three stylish presentation documents.
Almost as an afterthought I approached the Tourist Office to ask what we needed to do to register with ‘THEM IN CHARGE’ and hit not just a snag but a dirty great boulder. Apparently in order to do the tours on a regular basis we need to be registered tour guides, which involves a year long course, no doubt a sizeable fee and worst of all a written exam –eeek! Also these courses may not run every year and we need to enquire again for 2014! We were told that there was some kind of ‘get out’ for occasional tours which we need to follow up with a Commercialista, or we could try and find a friendly travel Agent who will let us use their registration as umbrella cover. In desperation we could also use the time honoured method of trying to remain under the radar.
In the midst of all these deliberations we got our first booking –three South American ladies wanted our Fabro to Montegiove tour. We confirmed everything, did a dry run to check timings and spent hours cleaning our cars (anyone who knows the state of Adje and my cars will fall about laughing at this point). We had a last minute panic when one of the party informed us they only drank white wine and our selected vineyards produced only reds, so we had to nip out and purchase several whites from other vineyards so she could participate in the wine tasting.
On the day we filled freezer bags with iced water, provided first aid kit, glasses, wet wipes, itineries maps etc , got up at the crack of dawn and arrived early (yes, really I got there early) . Surprisingly the tour went really well. We took them first to a little gourmet shop at the foot of Fabro where they feasted on truffle Bruscetta, cheeses and pastries from the local baker. Luckily they repaid the generosity by buying lots of goodies. From there we travelled through Ficulle to the VitaLonga Estate where they toured the vineyard before sitting down to a delicious three course meal paired with the estate wines, all charmingly explained by one of the proprietors. A pretty drive later we arrived at the Il Castello vineyard in Montegiove where our guests again toured the Cantina and tasted the wines, hosted by the handsome Il Conte. Helped by the wine no doubt, there was a great deal of flirtatious banter going on. Finally prizing them away from Il Conte we ended the tour with a visit to a sheep farm near their hotel where they bought Ricotta and the best Yoghurt ever.
Feedback from the tour was very complimentary –well organised and professional -we were thrilled, now all we need are more clients. (Click here for more on Jan and Adje’s Tours )