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Real and virtual Christmas shopping at Toscana Lovers

The best Tuscan handicraft boutique in the centre of Siena “Toscana Lovers” has a new web site and many new hands made objects on sale

ToscanaLovers_Christmas shopping

Would you like to buy an exclusive present such as a collector’s knife created by the knife makers in Scarperia, or a hand woven tablecloth decorated with Renaissance designs, but also soap obtained through the use of bronze mould and aromatized with iris and violet…….you can do it from your home! Important objects and the classical small gifts as Christmas presents.

In the new “Toscana lovers” web site there are 180 sheets with detailed descriptions regarding every object.
The buzz you get from shopping in a real shop is in fact stronger, but even in the virtual shop.

There is practically everything that Carlo Gardini (my husband) and Chiara Nesi have found during the three years of research among the best Tuscan handicraft laboratories.
Starting from the life style dinner service with its shake rims and relief decorations for a royal welcoming, to the towels with honeycomb design with hemstitch finishing that make them resembles those from our grandmother’s bottom drawer, including pepper

Would you like to relax? Come to Fattoria del Colle in Tuscany

Regenerate with massages, Jacuzzi tub with a view, great wines, and traditional recipes for a candlelit dinner….at Fattoria del Colle for the wellness weekend

Relaxation room Fattoria Del Colle

In the wellness centre at Fattoria del Colle the massage rooms are ready. The cabin is intimate, but comfortable and re-proposes the exclusive character of the whole structure with its stone walls, designs with floral tiles, windows with a breathtaking view….The futon for the shiatsu massages is in the warm shady area of the relaxation room.

Carry out the experience made up of water, warmth, panoramas and if you want a toast with great wines in the Jacuzzi.
These are our massages beginning with an experience composed of massages, regenerating essences and aromatherapy <<la natura ti fa bella>> Nature makes you beautiful created especially for our guests.

La natura ti fa bella -shower with essential oils, such as rosemary which gives elasticity and invigorates the skin, followed by a face and body treatment with olive oil, with its antioxidant and nourishing effect, finally, with 4 essences from the Tuscan countryside, a draining massage, purifying, calming and soothing. This treatment is particularly apt for those who require a relaxing approach for wellness. Lasts 2 hours € 180

Face Mousse with poliphenols from grapes to rejuvenate and give back elasticity to the face. Lasts 40 minutes € 70.

Handicraft “collectors knives” because they are works of art

New Year's Eve 2013 in Italy in the tuscan counrtyside

Fattoria del Colle – farmhouse in Tuscany-  suggest a special program for New Year’s Eve with games, wine tasting of Brunello, cookery school and more

Fattoria-del-Colle-albero-di-Natale-dell'agriturismo-

New years festivities at Fattoria del Colle together with friends and relatives, having fun with games from the farming tradition, cookery lessons, wine tastings, treks and good luck rites from the Tuscan countryside. Every day an aperitif with a different theme, every dinner dedicated to a local dish. The New Year’s Eve dinner with the Trequanda winter flavours revisited in a more modern way, followed by a party in the historical cellar.

We will begin the New Year with a big bonfire to dispose of the old year because 2013 be a year of rebirth from the ashes. A jump into the past in our two wineries Fattoria del Colle and Casato Prime Donne, the only ones in Italy with an entirely female staff, to taste the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG and the Cenerentola Orcia DOC.

Our offers from Decembre 29th 2012 to January 2nd 2013:

Packet for three days and two nights – Euro 110.00 per person includes:
Two nights in double room with bathroom
Buffet breakfast
Aperitif with a theme
The bonfire to dispose of the old year on January 1st and all of the activities foreseen by the program

Guided tour of the estate with a tasting of wine matched with local products.

The restaurant Osteria di Donatella at Fattoria del Colle

Shopping proposals for the new extra virgin olive oil

Here comes the 2012 extra virgin olive oil and Toscana Lovers, the Tuscan handicraft boutique, which supplies us with the small dipping bowls for pinzimonio

Extra virgin olive oil-Toscana Lovers-Siena-bowls for pinzimonio

How do you transform an old farmhouse tradition into a refined trendy entree? With pinzimonio. Nowadays the crudités are among the entrees at elegant wedding banquets and are fart of the most exclusive breakfasts. But in fact the pinzimonio, that the old farmers used to eat for breakfast, is till today the tastiest way to enjoy fresh vegetables. Celery, cucumber, carrots, radishes, endivia,  fennel  ….are all dipped in oil seasoned with salt and pepper.

The taste is wonderful especially when the oil has just been made, like at this time of year. Now the extra virgin olive is an emerald green colour and offers it’s best nutritious characteristics – basically it is youth balm for our tissues. The oil at Fattoria del Colle is obtained through cold pressing in the small mill at Castelmuzio by pressing the hand picked olives when they are still green. Three different types are made: mixed varieties, only correggiolo (frantoio) variety and only moraiolo. 1-1,5 tonnes in all which are preserved at a controller temperature and without contact with air so as to preserve its characteristics. So not much is made, but it is excellent.