Walking/Running
There are a number of beautiful and varied walking trails in the vicinity, all accessible directly from the houses and through the olive grove.
Beaches
The beautiful and relatively wild and sandy beach of Marina di Vecchiano with safe bathing, ideal and great fun for kids, bars, restaurants, showers, sun loungers and easy parking is only 8 miles away. More rocky beaches, ideal for snorkeling and scuba diving are just south of Livorno, at La Calafuria, less than an hour away.
Horse Riding
The wooded maritime nature reserve of San Rossore is just 25 minutes away and guided tours on horseback are available upon request. There are also special lessons in understanding horse communication available.
Cycling & Scooters
Bikes and scooters can be easily hired at reasonable rates from Lucca. There are wonderful and well maintained riverside cycle paths just below the farmhouses.
Paragliding
The Pisa Paragliding Club run by Walter Bardi is no more than a 15 minute drive, with ‘take-off’ being from the next hill towards San Giuliano Terme. The club caters for both experienced paragliders and inexperienced adventurers (tandem paragliding with an experienced and certified instructor or pilot). For more information please visit.
Torre del Lago
Ideal for bird watching and also home of the internationally renowned open air summer Puccini Opera Festival is only 7 miles away.
Rafting
Our good friend, Stefano is a fully qualified rafting and canoeing instructor who regularly takes people out rafting at various levels of difficulty and ages on the beautiful and nearby River Serchio and her tributaries.
Cooking Lessons
Our two lovely friends, Erika and Lella offer an excellent and fun service which involves them coming to you with ingredients and wisdom. They’ll teach you the tricks of the trade and later on you sit down and enjoy the fruits of your labours.
Restaurant at Home
Our great friends Massimiliano and Enver come and cook dinner for you at the house. They arrive, prepare the food, you may watch and participate should you wish, and then they serve you at your table. This is a banquet and, as such, one would expect it to be of 2 hours or more at table. It is the essence of slow cooking and typically Tuscan.
Wine tasting
The nearby excellent wineries of Montecarlo di Lucca offer wine tasting opportunities and lunch
Olive picking
We pick and harvest and press our own olives and make truly excellent extra virgin olive oil which is available for directly for sale to our guests.
Additionally, should you happen to be here in the autumn and you fancy helping out picking olives, your help is most welcome! We can also organise for you to come to the local olive press and watch the fresh new oil being pressed – wonderful!