B = Breakfast included L = Lunch included D = Dinner included
Overview
Itinerary
Purpose
Arrangements
Price
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Journey Overview
Join us in beautiful Italy for a culinary and cultural delight that features beautiful scenery, wonderful experiences of Italian wine in spectacular settings, and unforgettable gastronomic experiences.
We will visit Italy during one of the best times of the year to visit. We will enjoy beautiful accommodations in the Tuscan countryside. The cool, crisp fall air will enhance our taste of Italian wine, culture, and cuisine. Our daily adventures will offer wonderful range of experiences from fine Italian food, to Italian art, a boat tour, truffle hunt, and gelato tasting. We will enjoy fine Italian wines in the Chianti region, Montalcino, Siena, and Florence. Fellow travelers will no doubt delight in this spectacular journey.
Your Host for Our Journey
Your current host for An Exquisite Taste of Italy is Purposeful Journeys by MCE Founder and CEO, Mike Malone. While Mike would be very happy to host this journey, this and most other journeys are open to prospective, interested hosts.
There are many benefits to serving as a journey host for your cohort of fellow travelers. We will do everything we can to empower you to serve as host for your cohort of fellow travelers at a level you choose. You may want to engage the experience at a more social level while relying on the expertise of in country tour directors and guides. You may want to become more engaged intellectually or spiritually by teaching, leading devotions, or offering your expertise through one or more talks or conversation sessions. Whatever your interest in your level of engagement as a journey host, we will do all we can to support you so that yours becomes a journey of a lifetime.
Become a Host for this Journey
If you are interested in hosting this journey or would like to consider hosting a journey customized just for you and your group, click the button below to learn what it means to Become a Host. We also invite your inquiry. If you want to learn more about hosting this or another journey, please get in touch. We would love to share the benefits of what hosting a journey could mean for you and your cohort of fellow travelers.
Day 1 – Wheels up!
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Fellow travelers depart for an overnight flight to Florence, Italy.
Day 2 – Arrive in Tuscany, Benvenuto!
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Upon our arrival in Italy, we will check into our beautiful accommodations with time to explore the grounds and before enjoying our welcome dinner. D
Day 3 – An Authentic Florentine Experience
Thursday, October 3, 2024
After breakfast, we will venture to a lovely estate with hills, olive groves, and vineyards. Our tour of the grounds features a truffle hunt followed by a truffle tasting paired with estate wines. In the afternoon, we will visit the “cradle of the Renaissance,” where we will explore Florentine history and culture followed by dinner in Florence. B, D
Day 4 – Organic Cooking Class and Chianti
Friday, October 4, 2024
After a delightful breakfast, we will visit a charming location in the heart of the Tuscan vineyards. We will meet a master chef, then divide into small groups. After we don our aprons and hats we will begin our cooking class followed by lunch featuring what we have prepared. After lunch, we will visit the charming town of Greve in Chianti; stopping along our way at a castle where we will taste local delicacies featuring the typical Cantucci (biscuit) served with vin santo (holy wine). B, L, D
Day 5 – A Taste of Tuscany
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Today we will be treated to a pecorino cheese tasting, music, and wine tasting in Montalcino. We will walk off that wine and cheese during our tour in Siena with a licensed local guide. We will then venture to a farmhouse outside Siena for a wonderful dinner consisting of typical Tuscan dishes paired with local wines. B, D
Day 6 - Wow! Saffron and Gelato
Sunday, October 6, 2024
After breakfast, we will visit San Gimignano to experience what may be described as a medieval open-air museum that includes a view of family towers. We will enjoy an experience of incredible pine nuts and saffron produced here. Before we depart this wonderful city, we will enjoy a gelato tasting at one of the oldest gelataria in Italy. B, D
Day 7 – Picnic in a Vineyard
Monday, October 7, 2024
After breakfast, we will depart for the Chianti region where we will walk the beautiful vineyards. We will gather for a picnic lunch with a panoramic view of Siena. For dinner, we will enjoy a typical Italian meat dinner offered by one of the most famous butchers in all of Italy—Cecchini. B, L, D
Day 8 – Pisa and Pasta Discovery
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
After breakfast, we will travel to Pisa where we will tour this world famous city with a local guide. Our day will include an experience of a true Italian gem—the smallest pasta factory in Lari. B, D
Day 9 – Boat Tour and Lunch on Maggiore Island
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
After breakfast, we will travel to Lake Trasimeno where we will enjoy a boat tour from Passignano di Trasimeno to Isola Maggiore where we will delight in a three course lunch. We will enjoy dinner and a relaxing evening at our hotel in preparation for departure the next day. B, L, D
Day 10 – The Formal End to Our Journey Together
Thursday October 10, 2024
The memories will indeed last a lifetime. We hope your journey will continue with your new friends. Our journey concludes with the departure of our flight home.
Purpose
Encounters with other peoples and cultures have the power to help us appreciate our own. An Exquisite Taste of Italy features culinary and cultural delights in beautiful landscapes and fascinating historical settings. Our wonderful experiences of Italian wine in spectacular settings, and unforgettable gastronomic experiences are sure to create lasting memories.
We will visit Italy during one of the best times of the year to visit. We will enjoy beautiful accommodations in the Tuscan countryside. The cool, crisp fall air will enhance our taste of Italian wine, culture, and cuisine. Our daily adventures will offer wonderful range of experiences from fine Italian food, to Italian art, a boat tour, truffle hunt, and gelato tasting. We will enjoy fine Italian wines in the Chianti region, Montalcino, Siena, and Florence. Fellow travelers will no doubt delight in this spectacular journey.
Our Philosophy
We hope you will measure the quality of your journey, not by the quantity of sights you see, but by the invaluable experiences you absorb.
Balance of stimulating experience, serious reflection… …and just plain fun.
One word describes our intention for your journey: balance. We believe each place we visit should relate to whole story, the arc of a narrative. We believe in creating journeys formed and shaped as narratives; journeys that are serious, purposeful, and fulfilling with time to reflect with fellow travelers or alone while providing opportunity for experiences that are just plain fun.
Expert interaction and rich personal encounters
Rather than a trip led by a tour guide trained to disseminate information from a script, we endeavor to seek experts to lead you on a journey who are available as a resource for as much depth as you desire or to leave you to your own reflection.
One beautiful base location
Too often, group travel can leave you feeling like you are part of a herd of a large group of strangers hustled from sight to sight, packing and unpacking everyday of your trip. With us you will stay in one beautiful base location that serves as a base for our excursions. Changing hotels as few times as possible during a journey allows greater opportunity to experience people and culture.
Meticulously planned; yet flexible journey
How does a trip become a journey? Carefully selected excursions that form a narrative, staying in one beautiful base location, with time and flexibility for reflection, and activities that are just plain fun.
Cuisine as a delectable complement to culture and conversation
Cuisine, and the wonderful dining experiences we share in an eclectic array of venues, provide a delectable complement to your rich encounters with the culture and the delightful conversation you enjoy with fellow travelers.
Arrangements
Arrangements for this journey will appear in this section as those arrangements are confirmed. The information provided here will tend to be of a more general nature. More detailed information, such as group flight times, will appear on the password protected Fellow Travelers page. Once you become part of this journey, you will be sent a password to access specific arrangements for this journey:
Flight Information
As a fellow traveler, you will have the flexibility to choose how you will join your cohort to formally begin your journey. Purposeful Journeys marks the formal beginning of your journey with the welcome reception and dinner at our destination hotel. On most journeys, you will have three options to join your cohort. Below are the options for joining your cohort with the primary advantage for each option:
- Join Your Cohort on Our Group Flight: On most journeys, Purposeful Journeys will arrange a group flight from a major airport in closest proximity and convenience for the majority of the cohort. The group flight will include a transfer from the destination airport to the hotel.
Advantage: This is often the most cost effective and certainly the most convenient option. - Meet Your Cohort at the Destination Airport: For a number of reasons, you may want to choose a flight other than the group flight and still meet your cohort in time to transfer from the destination airport to the hotel. Fellow travelers who choose this option will incur an additional cost for the transfer from the destination airport to the destination hotel.
Advantage: Fellow travelers may find a balance between the convenience of choosing their own flight from an origination airport other than the airport where the group flight will depart while still taking advantage of the group transfer to the destination hotel. - Meet Your Cohort at the Destination Hotel: As a fellow traveler, you may want to choose to meet your cohort at the destination hotel in time for the formal beginning of your journey with the welcome reception and dinner.
Advantage: This option offers fellow travelers the most flexibility. Fellow travelers will need to weigh the flexibility of this option with what will likely be additional costs.
Group flights will usually be announced between 90 and 180 days prior to departure of your purposeful journey. Fellow travelers will be kindly requested to choose the option for meeting their cohort to formally begin their journey soon after group flight arrangements are announced.
Hotel Accommodations
Arrangements have been made for fellow travelers at hotels rated four star and above.
Ground Transportation
Ground transportation by deluxe travel coach will be provided throughout the journey. Transfers to and from the arrival flight into and departing flight from Europe will be provided as specified in the final itinerary.
Meals
Most meals are included in this purposeful journey. Dining in Europe tends to be as much of a leisurely event as a means of taking sustenance. Meals provide time for us to relax, taken in the culture, and discuss all that we have seen and experienced as fellow travelers that day. See the current, tentative itinerary for details.
Sightseeing and Events
This purposeful journey includes entrance fees to attractions as specified in the final itinerary.
Land Only Cost—$3,950 (Please be sure to check for current incentives!)
Current Discounts and Incentives:
- Ask about the host discount of up to $300
- Settle your balance in full by the due date of your first payment and receive a discount of $150
- Make payments by check instead of credit card and receive a discount of $150.
- Deposits through December 31, 2023 are just $150. Your deposit will only become non-refundable with your first payment. Until then, you can cancel at any time.
- NO PAYMENTS UNTIL 2024: Your first payment will not be due until January 2024.
Your journey includes:
- Deluxe coach transportation throughout your itinerary
- Double occupancy hotel room ($xxx single supplement)
- Meals as specified in the final itinerary
- Admission fees as specified in the final itinerary
- Only goods, services, or activities as explicitly included in the General Terms and Conditions.
Your journey does not include:
- Gratuities for service staff, coach driver(s) and guides
- Alcoholic beverages, bottled water, after dinner drinks
- Travel insurance
- Any goods, services, or activities expressly excluded in the General Terms and Conditions.
Remittance Schedule:
- Deposit of $150 is due with your application.
- Payments due as specified in your remittance schedule.
- Final payment must be received no later than the date specified on your invoice and remittance schedule.
When approved as a fellow traveler…
…you will receive an invoice and a remittance schedule from Malone Clan Expeditions, LLC along with a link to a password protected page on our website that will offer details and updates about your journey.
General Terms and Conditions
Malone Clan Expeditions, LLC will administer your journey. You must accept the General Terms and Conditions at the time you submit your application. Please refer to the General Terms and Conditions for any applicable additional fees that may apply in certain situations and circumstances such as any deviation from the group flight itinerary or your requirement of a single room.
We cordially invite you to apply to join us as a fellow traveler
Please complete the application form. You will be prompted to submit a payment deposit of $150 (regularly $300) with your application once your form is complete with all required fields. We are delighted you are taking the step of submitting your application to become a member of a journey with us. We look forward to notifying you of your acceptance as a fellow traveler.
