18 reviews
Sep 21 - 28, 2025
Group size: 8 - 14
Tuscan Traditions
53024 Montalcino, Province of Siena, Italy
18 reviews
$NaN
Sep 21 - 28, 2025
Group size: 8 - 14
About this trip
Terms & Conditions and Liability Waiver
What’s included
- 7 Nights in 4* Hotels
- Transportation on tour
- Breakfast daily
- Free wi-fi
- Most meals
- Brunello Winery Tasting
- Food tour of Lecce
- Cheese Maker Visit
- Siena Tour
- 1 Hour Trip Planning
- Carrara Marble Tour
- Rome TransferGroup Transfer from Rome to Montalcino
What’s not included
- Airfare
- Items of personal nature
- Gratuity for tour leader
- Hotel taxesPayable per person at each hotel upon check-out
- Florence TransfersAirport/Train transfers in Florence OYO
Itinerary
Day 1
Rome - Montalcino
Your Organizer
Forktown Food Tours, LLC
18 reviews
Forktown leads guided culinary tours in and around Portland, Oregon as well as many fantastic places around the world. The owner, Heidi Burnette has taken thousands of guests locally and abroad to places as diverse as Italy, Spain, China, Georgia, and Australia since 2005. Forktown's tours are always small groups for better access to experiences and locations that just aren't possible in larger groups.
Reviews
MS
We had the best time mushroom hunting with Heidi in the woods! She is so knowledgeable and teaches you how to locate them so you feel confident enough to go on your own. We felt like little kids on Easter finding all the forest treats. Would love to traverse the forest floor or anywhere else with her again!
By Melissa S for Fall Mushroom Foray on Oct 22, 2025
This was a lovely trip! We saw many of the key features of Italy (Leaning Tower of Pisa, The David, the Marble mines, beautiful picturesque countryside, villas, vineyards, etc.). I have only good things to say - the lodging, transportation, meals, hosts - all were top notch! Heidi - the tour guide - is a gem of a person too (knowledgeable, personable, strong communicator, prepared, diligent, etc.). Can't go wrong with Forktown Tours!
By Emily B for Tuscan Traditions on Oct 20, 2025
The Forktown trip to Emilia-Romagna was our second culinary adventure with Heidi, following conveniently on the heels of our trip to Tuscany. We were a group of 8, and after a quick train ride from Florence to Bologna, we settled into a lovely hotel centrally located adjacent to the Piazza Maggiore. On the day we arrived, there was a highwire artist walking a slackline between 2 tall edifices in the square. What a spectacle! (I am wondering how Heidi arranged that!)
For lunch that day, Heidi reserved a table at a very special restaurant serving the traditional Sunday dish of green Lasagne, and another speciality of Bologna not to be missed: Tortellini en Brodo. It was a delicious lunch and a fitting way to begin our tour in this region.
Heidi used her excellent contacts in the area to arrange private tours and tastings at a Parmesan Reggiano cheesemaker, followed by a tour and tasting of aged balsamic vinegar. We tasted and we purchased! Heidi also arranged a private tour and tasting at a prosciutto fattoria, followed, by a winery visit and tasting of Lambrusco, a regionally produced sparkling red wine.
The last day, Heidi arranged a cooking class at a historic family estate of our charming host and cooking instructor. It was the highlight of the tour, learning about the history of the home, making our own pasta, and learning to make the traditional bread and an Italian plum cake, then enjoying the fruits of our labor in this inviting setting. The warmth and camaraderie of that day will long be remembered.
Heidi proved to be an expert in curating an unforgettable food and wine experience in Bologna, and we highly recommend her tours.
By Linda P for Phillips Bologna Final Payment on Oct 13, 2025
Although we have been to Tuscany before, the Forktown small group Food & Wine tour was special. The accommodations at the villa in Montalcino, the seaside hotel in Viareggio and the well-located hotel in Florence were luxe. Heidi was an excellent tour leader, speaking Italian well and arranging special private tours for our small congenial group of 10. Each day we ventured out to explore the area, including visits to a UNESCO site, a Pecorino cheese tour and luncheon, and a winery tour and luncheon at the medieval castle of a producer of local DOCG Brunello de Montalcino red wine. Heidi even arranged for the perfect sunset for our evening trip to the lovely spa town of Bagno Vignoni!!
Heidi used her many good contacts for tours, my favorite being the tour in Siena, focusing on the annual tradition of the Paleo horse race. Our small group was privileged to take a private tour of one of the Contrade (neighborhood) churches where blessing of the horse takes place before the race. We were also allowed access to a private museum showcasing costumes and flags from previous Paleos.
The tour pace was good, the dinners with special menus for our group meals were delicious, and our farewell dinner at the fun and happening restaurant Trattoria ZaZa in Florence was memorable.
We highly recommend Forktown tours. Heidi has “nailed” the small group food & wine experience in Tuscany!
By Linda P for Phillips Tuscan Traditions Final Payment on Oct 13, 2025
We had an absolutely wonderful trip. The food and wine were amazing. Heidy, our guide, was just the best, so fun and she really did an amazing job putting everything together. I would love to take another tour with her.
By June M for June Jarrell Tuscan Traditions Final Payment on Oct 10, 2025
References
Georgia, the Country May 2025
This was one of the best organized trips that I have ever taken. The other trips from this company we have taken were to Tuscany and the Amalafii Coast which were equally well organized. All these trips were incredible. I am tired of doing all the planning and dealing with large tour groups. This time there were only 8 of us in our small tour group.
When our tour guide Heidi Burnett stated that “ she was going to be our ambassador to Georgia.” She meant it.
Because of plane delays, we arrived late to our destination.
Reliable Transportation to the hotel was waiting for us at 3:30 am at the Tbilisi airport.I was so glad to see our names on a sheet of paper.
When we were rebooking our delayed departure in Munich, the customer service rep asked us if we had arranged transportation to the hotel. Yes, we did.
Heidi texted us to make sure we arrived. Unfortunately, I turned off my phone on the plane.
I didn’t have to worry about who was picking me up. The driver was right there and walked us to her cab.
Our Georgian guide , Natia was spectacular. She seemed to know most of the people in the country. She provided some great insights into the country’s culture. I have never had a local guide supply our tour with local snacks. To me, I get to see more about what is going on in a country with a local guide especially when you don’t understand the language. Our driver, Giorgio, was skilled and went above and beyond in his helpfulness to accommodate our various needs.
I especially enjoyed the company of my fellow travelers. It seemed that we bonded quickly and got along extremely well as a group.
People arrived at the appointed time for excursions
We even spent time together during our free time.
I always felt that I was well taken care of. No details were too small and all questions were fully addressed. I liked using the detailed travel app, Trip Plans. It was extremely helpful to me in figuring out what was going to happen as were the timely nightly texts from Heidi explaining details of time and location. It was extremely helpful getting a text the night before about the schedule of the next day’s events.
I also appreciated the mixture of activities. I felt we did cultural activities like visiting and touring cities and churches. But we also visited wineries.
I was amazed at all the food we had at the wine tastings. Yes, this was a food and wine tour but the places we went to were absolutely amazing. Because we were vegetarian with some pescatarian selections, eating accommodations were made for us. Our Georgian tour guide made sure that we knew what foods we could and couldn’t eat because sometimes the dishes that had meat weren’t that obvious.
I would have to say that I wasn’t prepared for all the delicious vegetarian options that were presented to us. It was fabulous! Yes, the nation dish of is traditionally meat based type dumpling (khinkali ) but once again special khinkali were made for us which were mushroom and potato versions.
Visiting a farmer’s market always, makes me happy. There was an incredible one in Tbilisi. We also visited a park filled with artists. I also enjoyed all of our walking tours.
The hotel that we stayed in at Tbilisi was well appointed and modern. It was centrally located.
Out in the eastern side of the country in Kakheti, we stayed at a charming hotel where our lodging looked like a huge wine vat, the Qvevri cottage, with a spectacular view of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. It was idyllic location. I was mesmerized by the snow capped mountains. the property seemed to be a work in progress but our cottage was special as was the service.
We also appreciated that you could opt out of activities.
Suggestions for free time activities were given. As were restaurants.
Our tour guide knew were the ATMs were located. Both our guides helped with the ATM process. Thanks!
I really enjoyed my vacation and would highly recommend any Forktown Food Tour in the US and any foreign country.
We are planning to go again. The only problem is figuring out where to go next. After me finding flights, Heidi will take care of the rest.
Jo
By Jo F on 04 Jun, 2025