Northern Tuscany & Emilia

Most people who love Tuscany have never set foot in Lucca, which is one of the reasons we're starting there. It's a city of narrow streets enclosed behind Renaissance walls, with a unique food culture all of its own. We'll eat our way through the town with people who know it best, then head into the countryside to visit the grand villas the Lucchese nobility built in the 1700s, and meet families making olive oil and wine on land they've farmed for generations.

From there we cross the Apennines into Emilia, stopping in a small town that has been forging knives by hand since the Middle Ages to meet one of the artisans still making them. On the other side, a rare privilege: three nights at Casa Maria Luigia, the 18th-century country house Massimo Bottura and his wife Lara Gilmore turned into a twelve-room home away from home, filled with their own collection of contemporary art. We'll spend our days with the producers behind Emilia's greatest products, from the cheesemakers and balsamic vinegar families to the winemakers in the hills.

And then, on our last night, dinner at Francescana at Maria Luigia served in the house’s former stables around an open kitchen. It's a tasting menu of Bottua’s most iconic dishes from Osteria Francescana, the three-Michelin-star restaurant twice named the best in the world.

I have been dreaming about this one for a long time. Spaces are very limited.