Yoga and Vegan Food Retreat in Puglia, Italy
September 18-24, 2016
Join us for the trip of a lifetime!

Tour Itinerary

Come discover the Italian region that Condé Nast Traveller calls "the best-kept secret in Italy." Join us for a week-long yoga and vegan-focused food adventure here and discover why Puglia is so beguiling. In a place known for its azure skies, rich red earth, silver-green olive trees, and the deepest blue sea you've ever seen, it's the people that will win your heart. Their warmth and enthusiasm, coupled with their healthy, plant-based Mediterranean cuisine, will make you never want to say goodbye.


Sunday, September 18
Arrival in Puglia
We will meet you at your villa in the afternoon (we will arrange transfer service from local airports and/or train stations separately upon your request) and orient you to your home-away-from-home for the next six nights. Villa Tutti Frutti and Lamia Quercelli are both beautifully appointed, spacious vacation villas with pools, beautiful grounds and every amenity you would expect in a luxurious country home. You will have your own private room and bath, with shared access to living and dining spaces. The villas are located within walking distance of one another on a narrow, country lane. It’s a perfect location for strolling, dotted with olive groves, vineyards and stone, cone-shaped dwellings called trulli.


After you are settled, we will meet as a group at Lamia Quercelli under the pergola for an aperitivo and an overview of the week to come. Dinner at Lamia Quercelli will be prepared by our private chef featuring the bounty of local Pugliese vegetables, legumes, grains and fruits, including Pugliese antipasti; fave e cicoria (fava been puree, sautéed chicory, grilled cornaletti peppers and crispy, olive oil-infused bread crumbs) and a plum crostata (fruit tart).


Monday, September 19
Ancient Olive Trees and Pugliese Cooking
Each day, breakfast will be made available in your villa based on local fruits, breads and cereals. Breakfast may be enjoyed before or after morning yoga practice; snacks and other refreshments will be stored in your villa for your use during your stay.

Today we’ll experience our first morning yoga practice with Amey, followed by a visit to a nearby masseria (farm) and organic olive grove with producing olive trees over 3,000 years old. The masseria owner will walk us through the olive grove sharing family history and olive farming lore. We’ll also visit the farm's underground olive mill and museum of farming life, learning about how olive oil was made traditionally. We’ll learn how to taste and evaluate olive oil, followed by a picnic in the ancient olive grove.

After lunch, we return to our villas for a little rest and relaxation—perhaps a dip in the pools or a walk in the countryside? Later, we’ll reconvene at Villa Tutti Frutti for an al fresco cooking lesson with vegan chef Ornella Palmisano. Dinner will be served under the stars enjoying the fruits of our afternoon’s labor accompanied by local, autochthonous wines prepared traditionally by local vintners.


Tuesday, September 20
Ancient Grain in Puglia's Classic Cooking
After morning yoga practice, we will hit the road for a visit to nearby Altamura, one of the oldest wood-burning ovens in Italy. Dating from 1423, this oven has made millions of loaves of pane pugliese, the semolina flour-based bread prized all over Italy for its flavor, texture and crust. After we wander through this medieval town perched high on the Alta Murgia, baker Vito Macella will show us the secrets of his trade while serving us a lunch in the courtyard based on the swoon-worthy breads, focaccia and other wood-burning oven treats for which he is justly famous.


After lunch, we’ll tip our toes into Puglia’s regional border with Basilicata, home to the UNESCO World Heritage town of Matera. Known worldwide for its sassi or caves, Matera has been chosen as the European Capital of Culture for 2019. Our expert guide, a cultural anthropologist raised in Matera, will lead us on an unforgettable walking tour of the town and its caves, followed by a special treat. Dinner will be served tonight in one of Matera’s caves exploring the regional vegan cuisine of Basilicata, including peperoni cruschi (dried red peppers crumbled over fresh, handmade pasta), local bean soup with truffle shavings and pickled vegetables on crostini made from local bread.


Wednesday, September 21
Farm to Table in Martina Franca
Following yoga practice, we will spend the day close to home exploring the biggest farmers’ market in the Valle d’Itria (Itria Valley). We’ll learn all about the ingredients you’ve been tasting all week from the farmers themselves, along with a few stops along the way in the historic center of Martina Franca, the jewel in the Valle d’Itria’s crown. Next we’ll join two local nonne (grandmothers) for a hands-on pasta lesson, learning the intricacies of Puglia’s much-loved orecchiette, strascinate and tagliatelle. We’ll also learn how to make involtini di melanzane (stuffed eggplant rolls), plic e plac (traditional Martinese hot pepper relish) and a brilliantly fresh tomato sauce used alone or in combination with other ingredients in so many Pugliese dishes. Lunch is with the nonne, their sons and friends while enjoying the dishes we learned to make earlier.


After lunch, we’ll head back to the villas for some much-needed rest and relaxation. A light dinner will be served poolside at Villa Tutti Frutti.


Thursday, September 22
The Deep Blue Sea
After morning yoga practice, we’ll head for nearby Polignano a Mare, a gorgeous seaside town perched high on the cliffs above the stunningly blue Adriatic Sea. We’ll wander through the town’s historic center (a great place to shop) with a local historian, then we’ll get a closer look at all that water during a cruise along the coastline, dipping into the many limestone grottoes that dot this side of the Pugliese peninsula. Lunch will be served on board as we bob along in the sun. After lunch, we’ll sample the region’s best gelato and sorbetto (vegan, too!) based on local ingredients like prickly pears, pomegranates, figs, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, mint, apricots and peaches.


On our way back to our villas, we’ll stop at at an organic, family-owned masseria overlooking the piana degli ulivi (the olive oil plain). Here we’ll learn how to preserve fruits and vegetables the Pugliese way, including infused after dinner digestivi based on local herbs and flowers. The class will be taught by the farm’s young owner, Roberta Blasi, who runs the farm with her fiancé.

Dinner tonight is a pizza party at Lamia Quercelli featuring the villa's wood-burning outdoor pizza oven, local wheat, vegetables and organic olive oil.


Friday, September 23
Figalicious
After yoga practice, we will visit an incredibly special setting: a conservatory devoted to the preservation of fig varietals worldwide. This farm boasts more than 200 varieties of figs, rare specimens of pomegranate, pear and apple trees, a labyrinth of lavender and restored trulli, the ancient stone houses with cone-shaped roofs for which the Valle d’Itria is famous. We’ll tour the orchards with its botanist curator, tasting figs and learning about their properties. Lunch (if we can eat after all those delicious figs) will be served at a local Pugliese tapas restaurant run by two young organic farmers who produce most of the ingredients they use in their kitchen. And the day wouldn’t be complete without more gelato and sorbetto, so we’ll walk to Cisternino’s well-preserved town center and central piazza for a taste of the area’s best.


The afternoon is free for one last swim, a walk around your villa or packing. Our farewell dinner will take place in the charming nearby town of Locorotondo on the roof terrace of a stone building in the center of town. We’ll start with a toast to our time together, then sample an array of the vegan cuisine we have enjoyed all week prepared by a well-respected local chef. From antipasto to dolci, we’ll reminisce about our experiences during the week and say farewell to one another and to Puglia until next time.


Saturday, September 24
Arrivederci a Puglia
After breakfast at the villas and perhaps a final stroll around the grounds, a dip in the pools or a walk through the countryside, it will be time to say goodbye. We'll send you home with some organic extra virgin olive oil and a compendium of the recipes you learned during your week in Puglia. Arrivederci—speriamo di rivedervi presto! (Farewell—we hope to see you again soon!).


Photo credit: masserielefabriche.it

Copyright © 2016 Via Appia Imports DBA Pascarosa, All rights reserved.


Trip Details

The detailed itinerary is on your left, but for quick reference, your visit to Puglia includes:

  • An intimate, authentic introduction to the food and wine traditions of Puglia with a focus on healthy, vegan options traditional in this region
  • Five yoga sessions with Amey Mathews, open to all levels of students
  • Exceptional accommodations including pool, walking paths, and organic fruits and vegetables
  • All transportation during the program as noted in the itinerary
  • All meals, including vegan wine
  • Two hands-on cooking classes with local experts
  • Guided walking tours of historical town centers (gratuities for tour leaders not required but much appreciated by our young, highly professional guides)
  • Visits to markets, an ancient olive orchard, a museum of country life, a centuries-old wood-burning oven, a fig orchard and conservatory, and other artisanal food producers
  • An Adriatic cruise
  • All transportation upon arrival at Villa Tutti Frutti or Lamia Quercelli (airport transfers arranged separately)


Cost:

Price (includes lodging; all meals and beverages, including wine; and all activities identified in the daily itinerary):
$3,200 per person based on double occupancy. A $400 supplement is required for solo travelers.


Weather in Puglia

Puglia is blessed with a temperate Mediterranean climate, with sunny summers and only slightly cooler temperatures in the Itria Valley, where we will spend the majority of our time during your Yoga and Vegan Retreat in Puglia Italy. During mid-September last year, temperatures ranged from a high of 82 degrees to 60 degrees at night. It was an especially warm summer all over Europe last year, though, and it is too soon to predict what will happen during your visit. Here is a great weather website to bookmark so you can check the weather in the weeks before you arrive.


Transportation

There are lots of air travel options to choose from to arrive in Italy. We recommend arriving at least a few days before the retreat begins, perhaps by flying into Rome. We can suggest an itinerary and lodging there before the short trip to Puglia and the start of your adventure with us.

Regardless of your time and method of arrival in Italy, your Yoga and Vegan Retreat in Puglia, Italy adventure will probably begin at one of the area's two airports: Bari Palese (Bari International Airport Karol Wojtyla) or Brindisi Papola Casale (Aeroporto del Salento). Both airports are about an hour's car drive away from the site of our program, which begins at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 18th at Villa Tutti Frutti and Lamia Quercelli just outside of Cisternino in the Itria Valley.

Based on your arrival time, we can arrange for a comfortable shuttle service from the Bari Palese airport, the Brindisi airport or the Bari Centro train station at reduced rates. Please let us know if you anticipate using this service once you have booked your air travel.


How to Reserve

To reserve your spot on the Yoga and Vegan Food Retreat in Puglia, Italy, visit: http://www.pascarosa.com/6-shop

Scroll down to the 5th item in the online shop and select it: Pascarosa Insider's Food and Wine Tour of Puglia—Deposit

The site will lead you through the payment process. For more information about Pascarosa and its founders, Brian and Catherine Faris, click here.

Once you reserve your place, we will stay in regular communication with you, providing you with e-news to get you ready for your adventure with us. We can help plan pre- and post-retreat travel in Italy and advise you on what to see and do while you're here. We'll also remind you when it is time to complete payment for the retreat so that you can plan ahead.

We're also available via email to answer any questions at any time, so don't hesitate to stay in touch.


About Amey Mathews

Amey Mathews, a Stanford University alumna, is an accomplished yoga teacher and vegan blogger with a passion for Italy. With over 20 years of yoga practice, she imparts a sense of enthusiasm, curiosity and dedication for teaching and for life. And Amey's infectious sense of humor makes her a perfect travel companion. Learn more about Amey here.


 
Updated Feb 7, 2016   ameyfm@yahoo.com