Farm experiences

Handicraft “collectors knives” because they are works of art

Toscana Lovers, the boutique with the best Tuscan handicraft in the heart of Siena, presents is collectors’ knives from Scarperia, the village of cutting blades [caption id="attachment_7456" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="ToscanaLovers_Siena_handicraft knives_Saladini"][/caption] Scarperia, like Toledo and Sheffield, is one of the oldest places for prestigious blade productions. Still today they are made in the shops by master knife-makers. Among them is Saladini who produces exclusive objects of great tradition but with new and refined styles. The starting point is the traditional shapes, to which are applied up to the minute technology and a refined design. So laser work helps achieve a perfect cut of...

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

From the Trequanda housewives recipes to the "Pinci" lessons a brief history of Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s restaurant at Fattoria del Colle [caption id="attachment_7418" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Osteria di Donatella's restaurant_fireplace"][/caption] When Donatella’s father, Fausto Cinelli, gave her Fattoria del Colle, where today one finds the dining room adorned with floral decor inspired by the fin-de-siècle period long ago was a dark area, used for playing table tennis, the kitchen was empty and where the veranda is today was a grassy area which reached as far as the old vineyards. Creating the Osteria was for Donatella one of the first steps to transform the...

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.

Siena’s All Saints’ Day cake recipe: Pan coi Santi

Donatella Cinelli Colombini presents the secret recipe of the Pan coi Santi

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“Pan coi Santi” is made each year at Fattoria del Colle in the occasion of All Saints’ Day in November. It is possible to buy it in the cake shops and in all bakeries. It is an ancient cake with a mixture of tastes: sweetness of the dried grapes and spiceness of the black pepper. This cake tell us the ancient and noble history of Siena, the gothic capital where bankers and medioeval merchants brought in town money, tales and gastronomic cultures from abroad.

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Weekend October 20th-21st for those who love wine and Sienese art

Breathtaking intense program for two days (one night) in the Siena land: night time visit to the Duomo in Siena and end of grape harvest festival with wine tastings

Buffet contadino - farmhouse in Tuscany

A cultural appointment which will give you great emotions: the night-time guided tour of the Duomo di Siena, in the occasion f the opening of the flooring, a one time event during the year. Sunday dedicated to the end of harvest with a vertical tasting which begins with a future Brunello jus born and reaches a great Riserva. At the end a farmhouse style lunch with “polenta” to be cut with a string, and pans of soups, grilled meats and lots of folk songs.

Italian recipe: how to cook a tasty and coloured chicken

A recipe created for the event of Calici di Stelle  2012 and for the Casato Prime Donne Award 2012 held at the Osteria di Donatella of the Fattoria del Colle  [caption id="attachment_7211" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Fattoria del Colle-Chicken-Mars"][/caption] The recipe was enjoyed by everyone, in fact it was greeted with enthusiastic acclaim during the night of the falling stars and for the dinner in occasion of Casato Prime Donne Award . It is a new recipe, it was conceived by Antonio Corsano, who based the idea on traditional Renaissance Tuscan cuisine with its combination of savoury and sweet flavours, the use of spices and...

A message for women from Maria Carmela Lanzetta an example of civil courage

Here is the quotation from the winner of the Casato Prime Donne award 2012 that will always remain in the Brunello vineyards [caption id="attachment_7175" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Montalcino-Casato Prime Donne Award 2012-Maria Carmela Lanzetta"][/caption] The Casato Prime Donne award 2012 has been assigned to Maria Carmela Lanzetta as an example of new femininity and civil commitment able to create involvement. The Mayor of Monasterace Ms. Lanzetta has had her family chemists shop set fire to, she has had her car shot at and has been threatened several times, but she has accepted to maintain her role in defence of legality and her fellow...

Farmholidays with emotions at Fattoria del Colle in Tuscany

Happy wine with Brunello and Tuscan cigars, “pinci” cookery lesson, trekking through the vines, … relaxation, panoramas and wonderful experiences at Fattoria del Colle [caption id="attachment_7131" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Bonella and Riccardo with Felix"][/caption] The Tuscan country inn belonging to Donatella Cinelli Colombini is definitely an unusual place. The rooms and apartments are furnished with antiques; many have a Wi-Fi internet connection, but no television. In the restaurant we serve the tradition dishes of Trequanda, a small and not famous village, but with 40 local recipes. The three swimming pools at Colle have views similar to advertisements; there is a wellness centre, a...

The sexy mermaids in Val d’ Orcia

Everyone knows about the Andersen mermaid but here in Val d’ Orcia we have sexy mermaids with two tails and posing in a provocative position [caption id="attachment_7120" align="alignleft" width="275" caption="Pieve-di-Corsignano-Pienza-luring-mermaid"][/caption] Near Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda and Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino, in southern Tuscany, it is possible to find the luring-mermaids. Here are the instructions for a very enjoyable cultural experience. The most famous luring mermaids are at Pieve di Corsignano in Pienza, in San Bartolomeo in Montefollonico and in the archaeological museum in Pienza which has just opened. The latter is an urn made of a type of stone that when wet...

Slow tourism, some suggestions in Tuscany

Alternative itineraries to motorways, bicycles, trekking … Fattoria del Colle is a good starting point for a slow travelling hunting for panoramas [caption id="attachment_7111" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Country Inn-in-Tuscany-Fattoria-del-Colle-"][/caption] In our area one finds a bit of everything: from the most beautiful kilometre in Italy, to the Eroica circuit, and its paths for strolling. Fattoria del Colle supplies news, maps of the circuits and even the bicycles… absolutely everything so that the guests can appreciate the spectacular panoramas of the Val d’Orcia and of the Crete Senesi. It is also possible to appreciate them from your car, but travelling slowly they are even...