Monday 9 to Sunday 22 Sept. 2024

This is a food tourism and cooking tour (with some passive sightseeing on the side). The food tour will be led by Luke Piccolo, an award winning chef of Italian heritage. Luke and his family own and run Limone restaurant and Piccolo Family Farm in Griffith, regional NSW. Luke’s cooking awards have taken him to Italy where he studied and worked in the restaurant and food business for a few years including a time at a Michelin restaurant.

Luke’s extended family are centred around the north of Lake Garda and are also in the restaurant business.

Luke will be assisted by Bill Balding, a wannabe Italian and possibly an award winning eater. Bill runs a small group tour business that focuses on the beauty and adventure of a road less travelled primarily visiting rural NSW and South Australia, with a few forays to Japan (where he lived, studied and worked for a few years) and Europe and Morocco where Luke and Bill have family.

Our tour focuses on the north of Italy. We will explore three very different regions of northern Italy.

Region 1. We start in Bologna in the Emilia Romagna region (the food bowl of Italy). We will base ourselves at the one villa and stay 5 nights.

Region 2. We head north to the Alps in the South Tyrol or just over in the upper Veneto, staying around Cortina D’Amprezzo (an alpine village and location of one of the Michelin restaurants where Luke worked). Again, we will base ourselves in the one hotel for 3 nights and do excursions from our accommodation.

Region 3. Our last location is around Lake Garda. We will spend a couple of nights in the north of Lake Garda at Riva Del Garda (where Luke’s extended family are based) and 3 nights at the south of Lake Garda. Lake Garda is bordered by the regions of Lombardy, Trentino and the Veneto. We will be in the Lake Garda region for 5 nights.