Explore Italy’s Celebrated Cuisine from A New Vantage Point – Hands-On from Sourcing to Preparation to Table –to Truly Experience the Art of Italian Cooking

BOSTON, MA

EF Go Ahead Tours (GAT), a premier provider of culturally immersive experiences offering more than 175 guided trips to all seven continents, announces a new partnership with America’s Test Kitchen (ATK), a go-to resource for home cooks. The two cultural powerhouses join forces to create a new one-of-a-kind, hands-on, fully immersive, culinary led travel experience through Italy called A Food and Wine Adventure through Tuscany and Piedmont with America’s Test Kitchen.

“We’re beyond thrilled about this partnership as you can learn so much about a culture through its mealtime traditions, making food such a unifier. When people from all different backgrounds come together at a table to eat, it connects them as they share stories and traditions around their food,” says Heidi Durflinger, President, EF Go Ahead Tours.

“This partnership is the perfect combination of the unique, local experiences we provide on all of our tours together with America’s Test Kitchen’s deep understanding of all things culinary,” continues Durflinger. “While on our tour, travelers will learn about recipes that have been passed down for generations while visiting a Tuscan Agriturismo. They’ll have the opportunity to attend the annual Alba White Truffle Fair and learn how experienced hunters, with their dogs, use smell to determine the key characteristics of fungi and how to select the best truffles for food. It’s truly a special itinerary that travelers will never forget.”

This 11-day immersive gastronomical adventure will be capped at 28 travelers and departs October 2020 at a cost of $3,079 per person (land-only). Sites visited include Turin, Alba, Barolo, Bologna, and a 3-day stay in a charming Tuscan agriturismo (working farmhouse) via the famous wine towns of San Gimignano and Chianti.

Celebrating the region’s notorious wine, parmesan and olive oil are akin to the sun coming up every day, but this tour goes a step beyond with standout itinerary highlights including:

• The two Cs of Turin: Coffee and Chocolate. Sip famous Bicerin coffee at Caffè al Bicerin before a private tour and chocolate-making less with world-famous chocolatiers.

• The Dog Days of . . . Truffle Hunting. Attend the seasonal Truffle Hunt and Alba White Truffle Fair and learn how these delicacies are hunted!

• Shop like a local. Visit local fish and vegetable markets with experienced shoppers… one night in Florence, a trip to the market becomes a casual picnic dinner!

• Live like a Tuscan. Spend three nights at a Tuscan working farm, located between tiny villages and the cultural centre of Florence. Spa treatments, wine and olive oil tastings, cooking classes and excursions create the quintessential experience.

• Apprentice-style cooking lessons to bring home. In Bologna, learn how to make pasta, eat your creation for dinner and tour a family-run balsamic vinegar villa.

“Bologna is one of my favorite food cities on the planet. The fresh pasta is so good, especially filled pasta like tortellini, which travelers will learn to make on this trip. Some of Italy’s most famous ingredients, including balsamic vinegar, come from the regions featured on this tour,” says Jack Bishop, Chief Creative Officer, America’s Test Kitchen. “We’re so excited to participate in this unique culinary and travel experience and to provide information and recipes that will help travelers continue the experience back in their home kitchens.”

Learn more about this immersive experience in Italy here. An online concierge is available to answer any and all questions!

Additional America’s Test Kitchen tours may be added per demand throughout 2020.