Featured Bicycle Tour - March 2010 

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Bicycle Tours in Italy

Cycling Assisi and the Best of S. Tuscany

ExperiencePlus! is premiering the Italian bicycling vacation you’ve been dreaming about in 2010. Our Cycling Assisi and the Best of Southern Tuscany Plus! Florence trip brings together the best of Italy – quiet, winding roads for picture perfect cycling days, authentic Tuscan cuisine, some of our favorite Tuscan and Chianti wines,  and vibrant historical towns. This bicycle trip offers you a perfect balance between famous and undiscovered places as it travels from Assisi, home to St. Francis of Assisi, west towards the better known cities of Siena and Florence while stopping in the smaller towns of Cortona, made famous by France Mayes, Pienza, Montalcino and Montepulciano.

We invite you to visit our Cycling Assisi and the Best of Southern Tuscany Plus! Florence photo gallery, or jump straight to the tour information for our 8 and  11 day tours below.

• Cycling Assisi and the Best of Southern Tuscany
• Cycling Assisi and the Best of Southern Tuscany Plus! Florence

Featured Article:

New Titanium Road Bikes in Europe

How does a custom made aerospace grade titanium frame with a combination of Shimano Ultegra and 105 components, a carbon fork, and titanium rails on the saddle sound? ExperiencePlus! now offers you the finest road touring bikes in the European bicycle touring business. 

• Read more about the new ExperiencePlus! Titanium road bikes.

Movie Review: Spaghetti Westerns

What do Clint Eastwood, Andalucia in southern Spain, the Italian island of Sardinia and Italian composer Ennio Morricone have in common?

• Read the rest of Monica's article on the history of Spaghetti Westerns to find out.
  

Customer Interview

An Interview With Customer Bill Hunter

Bill and his wife, Margie, joined ExperiencePlus! on the September 2009, Coast of Tuscany trip.

Describe your perfect day outdoors: Day 4 of the Cycling the Coast of Tuscany tour, biking to cool towns, enjoying them and biking on. The beauty of the road and surroundings, smelling the grapes being harvested, enjoying the sun while testing my stamina on some of the longer hills. 

• Read more from Bill Hunter.

Recipes - From Mamma Paola's Kitchen

Acquacotta (Tuscan Soup)

Every Italian region has its culinary specialties.  Tuscany, for example, is famous throughout Italy for its bread, its olive oil, and for a variety of soups, including bean soup, minestrone, the ancient Roman soup made from spelt (farro in Italian), lentil soup (shown in the photo) and others.  The recipe below for acquacotta is the Sienese version with the added exotic ingredients of porcini mushrooms and a bit of sausage (what Tuscan farmer doesn’t have mushrooms in late fall and fresh sausage from a newly butchered pig in early winter?)

Click through to read the rest of Paola's Acquacotta Recipe.

If you would like additional recipes, visit our online recipe archive. You'll find recipes for European and Latin American specialties like Panzanella: a Tuscan Salad, Tapenade, Gallo Pinto, and more