LE MARCHE – A WONDROUS REGION WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED

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Some regions of Italy are known for their beautiful coasts. Places where you spend long summer holidays relaxing on the shore with the sound of the sea in the near distance. The region of Le Marche is such a place.
Le Marche, located on the Adriatic Sea, offers over 100 miles of coastline, making it a summer destination. However, 25 years ago we decided to offer tours in Italy and we discovered that Le Marche is far more than just a coastal destination.

Le Marche is bordered on the north by the region of Emilia Romagna, where we live. So it was an incredible discovery that the best and most wondrous part of Le Marche was hidden in the heart of the region. Smooth hills, beautiful villages, castles, olive trees, vineyards are all around with the sea framing the landscape uniquely.

In 2005 the NYTimes wrote an article Le Marche is the next Tuscany? The journalist says that Le Marche is one of the right places where you can still taste the authentic Italian life, as this is an area that despite all has not been yet discovered by the mass tourism, like Tuscany.


Travellers who want an authentic Italy would love to visit Le Marche!
The capital of Le Marche, Ancona, is an important port for passengers and commercial exchanges with Greece, Croatia, Albania and other destinations. This Italian port features magnificent cliffs jutting into the sea and a strong Greek architectural influence.
Le Marche has given birth to Raffaello, the Renaissance painter, Gioacchino Rossini, the famous composer, Giacomo Leopardi a great poet and Maria Montessori, the famous pedagogist. 
The DOC wines offered in they region are Verdicchio, Rosso Conero and Lacrima di Morro d’Alba. Verdicchio, which is the most important white wine from the region, pairs perfectly with the bounty of local fish and seafood. Rosso Conero and Lacrima di Morro d’Alba are very good red wines that take in the flavours from the surrounding hills. Recently Pecorino (DOCG) and Passerina indigenous white wines have risen to great appreciation.


The relaxing landscapes with gentle hills and the kindness of the people will make you feel part of the Italian life.


Cereals are one of the biggest cultivations. Do not think about big fields with massive production, here they grow the cereals that their grandparents grew, without chemical additions in a very small organic production. In 1977 Le Marche gave birth to one of the first organic enterprises in Italy. Bread and pasta are produced in an artisanal way, so you can taste the mouthwatering flavour of the genuine flour.


White and black truffles grow in several parts of the region along with some of the most savory extra virgin olive oil.

The pork meat is very popular and in particular a special “soft salame” called “ciauscolo” that is produced only in Le Marche.  Some people consider it the “paté marchigiano”, as it is spread on the bread. “Porchetta” is another very traditional food that is served often by local food trucks.

The tradition of aging the pecorino cheese in underground caves date back to the 15th century. This tradition includes not only the famous “formaggio di fossa”, but other regional cheeses.

One of our favorite things to do in Le Marche is go to the port in the early morning and buy the fresh fish from the fishermen, then cook with the chef maybe “brodetto”, the tasty fish soup traditional of the region.

To finish any culinary experience, Le Marche offers a special wine, Visciola, that is made from cherries and completes the meal as a digestive.

Come and taste our Italy and discover the Le Marche region on our Le Marche Fish Tour, 23-28 June 2019. This tour is also available upon request in other dates from April to September. Contact us if these dates do not fit in your schedule.

Marcello and Raffaella Tori invite you to come and taste Italy in an authentic, unclose, and personal way. Everything is arranged, from food and wine tastings to cooking lessons, walks in the countryside and meanders through beautiful villages. Marcello and Raffaella live in Bologna and have over 20 years of experience working with people just like you who want to taste all Italy has to offer. Their unique experiences are enduring in their simplicity and authenticity. Join us for a day trip or a 4-7 day tour and taste and see amazing Italy through the eyes of Marcello and Raffaella. What are you waiting for? Come and Taste Our Italy! Find our more at bluone.com and follow us on BluoneCookingWineToursItaly/.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Captivating Capri

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Anne & Kirk Woodyard – Music and Markets Tours

Enticing, tempting, captivating….that’s what Capri has done through the millenia, whether to emperors, photographers, A-list stars, or just ordinary people like you and me.We returned to this dreamy island, where we’ve often spent a few days, earlier this year in preparation for our newest tour, The Wonders of the Amalfi Coast, planning to confirm a few things for a day trip, similar to the ones we’ve done on our Music and Markets Amalfi Coast Tour since 2005.
We stayed in Capritown on our last visit, but this time we chose to base ourselves in Anacapri, high atop the cliffs – see that dot of white about a third of the way down the ridge? That’s our usual destination when we arrive with our tour guests – who knows what it is?!
The only way to get from the marina, and Capritown, to Anacapri until 1874 when a road was built, was a still-usable stairway zigzagged into the cliff.
On our Capri day trip we load into a surrey-with-the-fringe-on-top taxi and head up the rock from Marina Grande, and soon we’re walking the peaceful paths of Villa San Michele in Anacapri, Dr. Axel Munthe’s exquisite house and gardens built over the ruins of a Roman emperor’s palace in the early 1900s. We love how he incorporated Roman relics discovered during construction – a marble face here, a bit of a pillar there.
Through the shaded gardenswe stroll to that white spot we saw from the sea on our approach…and there, far below is where we sailed in, with this red granite sphinx gazing down on us – we could see the white building, but not this red speck from so far away.
Of course this wonderful villa, garden and view will be part of our Wonders of the Amalfi Coast tour, but as the two of us strolled the lovely lanes of Capri we continually gasped at the views, even though we’d seen them many times before, and both of us realized that we HAD to include more than a day on Capri…so our April tour will begin with two nights on mountaintop Anacapri! We found the perfect hotel – with more to-die-for views, and know our guests will love having more time to better appreciate this gorgeous spot in the Mediterranean. A meal at our Anacapri favorite, Il Solitario, will of course stay on the itinerary – this happy group from a previous summer tour shared a toast, and agreed that a Caprese Salad tastes best on Capri! We’ll have time to wander the lanes of Anacapri and Capri, spotting beautiful ceramic benches and flower-filled hidden paths, pausing for lunch by a flower-bedecked beauty, taking in the vistas from the water as we cruise around the island, sipping a crisp white by the pool,  and enjoying the quiet piazzas and lanes after dark, when the day-trippers have sailed away.We can’t wait to return to share Captivating Capri with our guests in April!

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The best way to describe us (Kirk and Anne Woodyard) is that we’re interested in the stories that make the places we visit come alive.
We’ve visited Europe more times than we can count, learned some entertaining stories there, and met some warm and helpful people who also enjoy the wonders of music and life in Europe. We look forward to sharing these stories and friends and experiences with our Music and Markets guests.
Between our music-related travels, we split our time between our homes near Washington DC and the south of France.
While both of us have experience in organizing travel and music groups Kirk’s background is in project management and competitive writing, and Anne is an accomplished pianist with over thirty years of teaching experience, and a travel and food writer specializing in France and Italy.

The Mysteries of Ötzi

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In 1991, a pair of German tourists hiking in the Dolomite Alps spotted something very strange: the remains of a man protruding from the ice of a receding glacier. They contacted authorities, suspecting it was the body of a recently deceased hiker. They had no idea the body they discovered was older than the pyramids and would become an international sensation.

Numerous artifacts were found with the body, including several articles of clothing, weapons, and tools; among them a rare copper axe. Analysis determined the copper came from Tuscany. He was also in possession of the oldest medicinal kit ever discovered.

A forensic reconstruction of The Iceman in Bolzano’s Archeology Museum

We read about Ötzi, The Iceman, back in the nineties, and have casually followed his fascinating story ever since. The 5300 year-old remains have been studied extensively. DNA has been analyzed; thirteen living relatives have been identified. The contents of Ötzi’s stomach revealed his last meals – ibex, wild goat and grains, eaten only two hours before his death at the age of forty-five.

It was originally thought Ötzi died during a winter storm while crossing the Alps, but more recent forensic analysis has proven he was murdered. CT scans revealed an arrowhead lodged in his left shoulder that likely severed an artery. He has cuts and bruises on his hands and wrists, one of them down to the bone at the base of his thumb. There is also evidence of a blow to the back of Ötzi’s head.

The Iceman

Much has been written about The Iceman; far too much for a brief blog post, but if you’re interested the New York Times ran a most revealing piece last year on the forensic discoveries surrounding Ötzi’s murder. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/26/world/europe/bolzano-italy-iceman-south-tyrol-museum-of-archaeology.html

A more recent article focusses on  what we’ve learned about the Copper Age from Ötzi’s tools. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/science/otzi-iceman-tools.html

The Archeological Museum  in Bolzano, Italy is almost completely devoted to Ötzi and his artifacts. You can even view him in his climate-controlled chamber. If you’d like the chance to study Ötzi up close, we invite you to join us in Bolzano, Italy from June 2-9, 2019.

A view of Bolzano from the Renon Cable Car.

Matthew and Barbara DaubMatthew Daub is a professional artist and university professor with works in major public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. He has been leading plein air painting workshops in Italy since 1994.

In 1999, Matthew and his wife Barbara formed Arts Sojourn as “a vacation for artists and their friends.” The program is designed to appeal to artists of all levels as well as non-artists who enjoy the company of creative people in a slow travel format.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.