 Wailea Beach Villas: For Romance and Family Travel in the Hawiian Islands Planning a trip to Maui? Any Maui trip should be stacked with Maui adventures all made convenient and quite luxurious by a stay at the Wailea Beach Villas at Wailea Beach.
What makes a trip to Maui particularly poignant for families and romantic couples is the right location with the right kind of space at the right kind of resort – and at just the right price. Wailea Beach Villas offers luxury condos on the beach that blend desired residential convenience with the perfect balance of sumptuous splash.
Wailea Beach Villas are part of an intricate and fun upscale resort where children can play by pool or beach; couples sip Champagne on their lanai and watch migrations of whales swim by; guests can spa the day away under the hands of trained island healers, and visitors can dine en suite with their own home cooking choices or have a private chef whip up a celebrated oeuvre.
Wailea Beach Villas are part of the Kurtz-Ahlers exclusive collection of beach resorts because of the unusual confluence it offers blending pampered vacation luxury with lavish residential convenience.
As a Maui beach resort it has the to-die-for location on the Wailea-Makena coastline south of Lahaina and just 35 minutes from Kahului Airport (OGG). New flights from New York JFK soon to launch by Hawaiian Airlines in June will bring east coasters in for some fun in the sun with great promo rates.
The villas bring a generous helping of privacy to any trip to Maui with layouts ranging in size from 1,900 to 3,100 square feet in two- and three-bedroom configurations. And they bring a generous helping of help to families in frenzy with dedicated villa butlers at the ready and au pairs available for the asking.
 Take the sun at two pools or by the private villa plunge pool. Enjoy a mani-pedi on the beach, check email, order up a chocolate soufflé. Wailea Beach Villas leaves little to wanting.
Maui Adventures
But for your Maui adventure roster, consider these worthy and wonderful Maui adventure opportunities:
Molokini Crater
This extinct caldera offers stellar snorkeling just 2.5 miles off the South Maui coastline.
Honolua Bay
The bay is a Marine Life Conservation District adjacent to a world-famous surf break area.
Sunrise at Haleakala
Drive up, bike down or just sit and be. Maui’s highest peak (10,023 feet) offers a sunrise.
Road to Hana
The muddy, windy and very scenic road features the Seven Sacred Pools, a sensation of waterfalls and natural pools in Haleakala National Park.
Zip it Up
There are three zipline companies on Maui where you can ride treetops and ogle at the views.
Tee it up
Golf is king on this Hawaiian island and Maui, alone, offers up 14 fabulous courses
Great Maui Packages
A trip to Maui and a stay at Wailea Beach Villas includes compelling package offers as well.
An Escape to Maui package is the perfect seven-night antidote to daily life with stays in two- and three-bedroom amenity-packed villas by the beach for rates starting at $799 per night.
Wailea Beach Villas
3800 Wailea Alanui
Wailea Resort, Maui, HI 96753
Tel: (808) 891-6249
drhinfo@destinationhotels.com
www.waileabeachvillas.com
Playa Vik in the Uruguay resort town of José Ignacio
For romance travel there is nothing more seductive than a suite on the beach – but make that a Uruguay beach on a remote pampa, where celebrated wine from Chile pours, Uruguay art surrounds, heady conversations dangle and delicious foods await – and all within easy driving distance from Punte del Este and Montevideo.
Family travelers can consider the wow factor of a grand colonial manor on a hill overlooking the rugged rolling pampas shore line, with the occasional Uruguayan gaucho galloping by, flocks of sheep grazing and even a private polo.
Playa Vik and Estancia Vik José Ignacio, two separate luxury experiences on the southern tip of Uruguay, provide a tantalizing sense of destination, whether for couples in the throes of romance travel or family travelers seeking the romance of the exotic.
Each property provides something extraordinary that can best be described as vision. In this case, the vision belongs to owner Alex Vik, a Norwegian-born financier who chose the searing shore expanses, and along with the talents of co-owner Carrie Vik and the renowned design skills of Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott, produced two precious hotel properties that make heads turn.
Playa Vik
Playa Vik* opened in 2010 in the oceanfront resort town of José Ignacio. It’s a study in minimalism and modern art as much as it is a study in the aesthetics of ecology and earth-friendly design. Romantic travelers looking for where to stay in Latin America can indulge in a one of a kind moment here that is both art and life intertwined. Playa Vik takes the concept of art in hotels and makes it come alive in a way that lets guests become part of the canvas.
The hotel faces west over the southern Atlantic Ocean and the calm waters of Playa Mansa, with 19 suites on the beach that became palette and platform for an elite cadre of famed Uruguayan artists. But it is in this intellectual St. Tropez setting that artists and celebrities often gather for gourmet meals, creativity retreats and inspiration. Walls of manga silhouettes, poems and abstracts, and spirited spaces of minimal design meet cacophonous corners of riotous musings. Each suite, each space becomes its own artful movement within which couples can find new paths to connection.
Estancia Vik
Estancia Vik continues the modernist and minimalist themes but in the unlikely context of a palatial estancia or colonial ranch house on a hill with 12 suites overlooking 4,000 acres of rolling green coastline. The art spaces in this hotel showcase the work of some of Uruguay’s leading contemporary artists, including Pablo Atchugarry and Clever Lara. But guests are reminded this is not a museum but a place to go horseback riding across open pampas with gauchos, to explore nature in the rough, to mountain bike, hike, canoe and fish in the Arroyo de José Ignacio or the grand José Ignacio Lake. And for those who must practice their foreshots, the private polo field with Criollo riding horses at the ready, or the adjoining golf green for duffers and putters provide the generous foregrounds.
Both properties put as much emphasis on the art of the meal as they do on the art of structural design, highlighting Uruguay food and Uruguay traditions in the presentation.
Parillero, traditional barbeque of spicy meats grilled over an open fire pit, as well as fresh fish and seafood, locally grown fruits and vegetables and homemade breads and pastries all keep with local tradition in the preparations. But meals are served European style under flickering candelabras illuminating communal tables of hotel guests while Chilean wines pour (Vik is an owner of a vineyard in neighboring Chile, where he is readying to open his third hotel next year) and visitors engage in animated discourse.
It’s possible to stay at one Uruguay hotel or at both – they are less than 6 miles apart. Each offers a wowing swimming pool (don’t miss Playa Vik’s 75-foot-long, black granite pool alight in a celestial map of the southern hemisphere created by small optic light points within the pool floor), romantic fireplaces, a small spa, and unexpected art in forms and fancies that gently push the boundaries as far as the eye can see.
* Wallpaper named Playa Vik the 2012 Best New Hotel in the World
Estancia Vik José Ignacio
(+011) 598 94 60 5212
Email: info@estanciavik.com
Website: www.vikretreats.com
This just in: You’ve been planning this special day for a month, three months, a year. It’s the spot you have been designing in your head – to pop the question, make the question pop, make a heart pop. But when you get there, the only thing that pops is your temper. It’s a room without a view, a hotel on a highway, a cozy cottage blocks from the beach.
Romance travel is its own special category and best left for travel agents who can stand, heart and soul, by what they recommend. And often what they will recommend is a one-of-a kind romance experience as can be found through the Kurtz-Ahlers collection.
Kurtz-Ahlers & Associates has put together an elite collection of destination properties around the world, each of them a signature and an imprint on the collection. Each stunning venue offers privacy, purpose and a complete package of pampering. No hotels on the highway nor beach bungalows without the beach. Rather, it’s Valentine’s Day perfection for serious romantics.
Pack up and get ready fly.
Hawaii
 Wailea Beach Villas in Maui Catch the peak of the great whale migration from beachfront villas, clinking Champagne glasses to this choice for an excellent romantic escape. The hideaway? Wailea Beach Villas on the coast of Maui. The lovers’ lair is an amenity-packed villa with all residential conveniences, so couples need not step out during their stay … unless they want to. The resort offers two pools (including an adults only pool) and all the services and provisions one would expect to find at a top property – butler service and private chef at the ready, room service, concierge desk.
Wailea Winter Deals put Wailea Beach Villas on sale for 30% off any one-, two- and three-bedroom suite through the month of March. Rates start at $919 per night for a palatial two-bedroom penthouse.
Italy
If it’s a question of proposing, call in the angels. Il Salviatino, a refurbished Renaissance-era manor within earshot of the bells and spectacle of the great duomo of Florence, presents surroundings that verge on pure religion. Each room, each suite is its own masterpiece, often with original recovered frescoes on the walls and ceilings, authentic antiques and views of the Tuscan countryside to bring on the wows … and the vows. The property’s two-night Proposal Package is good through March and includes breakfast, a couples massage in the Deverana spa, a romantic dinner in the Italian Garden (excluding beverages), a private jewelry shopping excursion on the Ponte Vecchio and Via Tornabuoni … and a back-up plan: open-bar all night if proposal is rejected. Bonus: count on a free anniversary night for every year to come if the proposal works. Price: $2,215 (Taxes, Service and VAT included). A Romance Package at Il Salviatino is available for $1,824 per night for two and includes breakfast for two, two one-hour spa treatments, a candlelight dinner, romantic turndown with chocolates, a bottle of champagne and a farewell gift.
 The new Armani Hotel, Milan Further north, the Armani Hotel Milano just opened and if fashion can make hopes jump, this property, with its 95 rooms and suites designed by the eponymous doge of style, can win over any hesitant heart. Combine business, shopping, dining, delighting, pampering and indulging in this trendy urban hideaway located in the fashion center of Europe. And just in time for Saint Valentine’s Day season the Armani dresses up the holiday with a Romantic Experience that’s packed with style: Champagne, couples massage, romantic dinner and much more: $1,658.
Mexico
The Pacific Coast of Mexico beckons romantics with warm beaches and heart-warming suites, especially if the destination is Imanta, Punta de Mita. Find just 8 villas there, all decked out with private pools and sweeping views on 250 acres adjacent to a vast ecological reserve. The property’s signature Romantic Package is an all-inclusive, five-night perfect getaway. Rates start at $7,740 for two.
 Imanta at Punta de Mita, Mexico New Zealand
Whisk yourselves away to a land beyond time in the verdant islands of New Zealand. Romantic Hideaway packages present the Matakauri Lodge on South Island, a dazzling ode to sensuality and style hidden away in a glen beyond Queenstown and overlooking Lake Wakatipu. Or couples can choose Kauri Cliffs Lodge for sunset walks on the pink beaches of the Bay of Islands and private picnics on the cliffs overlooking the wild waves. Then times might call for nights of snuggling at Cape Kidnappers, a remote sheep farm of rolling glades along Hawkes Bay. Romantic Hideaway packages include a bottle of Champagne in room, romantic turn down services with rose petals, bath oil and candle. Also count on pre-dinner drinks and canapés, gourmet dinners, full breakfasts and a complimentary mini-bar (excluding liquor and wine). Priced from $1,500 per night for two.
 Kauri Cliffs Lodge, Bay of Islands, New Zealand
 Farm at Cape Kidnappers, North Island, New Zealand
 Matakauri Lodge in Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand
 Quiet Mornings at Ananda in the Himalayas Ahhh … to Spahhhh. Simply saying it is enough to make neck muscles to loosen and for breath to release in a deep, stress busting sigh.
Fortunately, wellness vacations come in all pocket sizes – as simple as a 20-minute meditation in a spot by the ocean and as elaborate as a weeks-long mind-body makeover. At Kurtz-Ahlers & Associates, with our collection of seven perfect settings for kick-starting that life-saving adjustment, wellness is more than a state of mind. It is a state of being, available to anyone ready to just say no – and then yes!
For anyone in doubt of what a spa or wellness vacation can do, consider a recent study out of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration that found spa or wellness vacations often lead to:
* The ability to manage business affairs with more acumen, energy and creativity (verses results from non-spa vacations)
* The chance to return to work with significantly more energy — alert and “in the zone” with business matters
* An enhanced ability to make decisions and handle challenges
* A more focused and alert state of mind
The effects of regular and consistent meditation are also well known. But a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed people who meditate regularly have less activity in the brain’s default mode network – a place of drifting thoughts that wander onto negative subjects, creating more stress and anxiety. Activity in the default mode has also been linked to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.
A University of Pittsburgh study showed how men who did not take yearly vacations, never mind wellness vacations, had a 21% higher risk of death from all causes, and a 32% higher risk of death by heart attack.
Benefit studies aside, wellness travel is simply an easy and enjoyable way to spend time, get pampered, meet new people, eat well, rest, and get into shape.
Kurtz-Ahler’s Wellness Travel collection presents a convenient starting place for matching resorts and dreams with packages for all budgets…
Rancho La Puerta, Mexico
This boutique treasure just south of the border in Baja brings the clear and temperate weather,
 Morning walk at Ranch La Puerta the rolling vistas, the sacred spaces and the perfect ways to enjoy them through pampering programs, fitness boosts and healthy dining. Only 87 guest rooms here, all on ground level each with a colorful private patio. Classic 7-day visits ensure the proper recharge plus some of the best hiking to be found at any spa amid the resort’s 40 miles of trails.
Check out packages for a Gluten-Free week at Rancho La Puerta. Brides to be can tone up and slim down to fit their dream dress while preparing be their glowing best with Bridal Bootcamp weeks at the Ranch!
Tel: 858-764-5500
Email: reservations@rancholapuerta.com
Website: www.rancholapuerta.com
SHA Wellness Clinic, Spain
Healing happens quickly when you are perched on white bluffs over the Mediterranean coast of Spain. An 80-minute drive from Valencia or 40 minutes from Alicante, this newly opened spa resort (2009) showcases all the latest treatments in a setting of high design and macrobiotically focused cuisine. All foods served are organic and chosen for their immune-building properties, while beauty and fitness programs ensure rejuvenation inside and out. SHA’s menu of age-busting beauty treatments coupled with a generous list of medical aesthetics options mean guests can arrange for some life-altering programs that go well beyond the realm of pampering.
New Year, New Life Promotion. Check it out!
 SHA Spa Tel: (+011) 34 966 811 199
Email: info@shawellnessclinic.com
Website: www.shawellnessclinic.com
Ananda – In the Himalayas, India
It’s possible to live like a maharaja and maharani in this former palace set on 100 acres of virgin forest in the foothills of the Himalayas. The healing that happens here follows ancient principles of Ayurvedic traditions while the setting remains as authentic as it was in its colonial hey day, a place of light and beauty. Meditation, yoga, massage, mindful walks, harmonious foods – all is geared toward bringing the mind, body and spirit into perfect balance
 Ananda Yogic Packages pull you into peak performance through carefully planned regimens that infuse the wisdom of the ages. Find Ananda near New Delhi, easily accessed by train, road or air.
Yogic Detox Package at Ananda
Tel: (+011) 91 1378 227500
Email: sales@anandaspa.com
Website: www.anandaspa.com
Chiva Som, Thailand
 Tuning up and Tuning in at Chiva Som Guests have it all within this 57-suite retreat located on a beachfront stretch in Thailand’s royal resort town of Hua Hin. Within easy reach of Bangkok, Chiva Som provides a comprehensive, but relaxed immersion into Eastern philosophies and healing arts, offering choice at every turn. Weight loss programs, fitness regimens, meditation, cooking classes, yoga, t’ai chi – guests wrap themselves in a mélange of activities or simply sit back for generous pampering and care. Total relaxation is as assured as the gentle waves curling through the Gulf of Thailand and onto the palm-shaded sands of Hua Hin.
Consult with a Chiva Som life specialist: Special Packages
Tel: (011) 66 32 536 536
Email: reservation@chivasom.com
Website: www.chivasom.com
Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa at Doral, Florida
 Pritikin for reducing and retuning It’s possible to disappear into this 650-acre paradise in Miami, FLA and come out nearly reborn: healthy, thin, relaxed and armed with a chest of new tools to make the changes last. The setting is the Doral Golf Resort, a vast layout of tropical gardens, swimming pools, tennis courts, a world-class spa, and championship golf courses. But there is much more. Guests can choose programs to fit their goals and get to work making the changes in their lives that will matter most toward a healthy heart, healthy weight and healthy lifestyle. It’s a working vacation where transformation is guaranteed within a prescribed comprehensive program full of classes, therapies and proper cuisine. Your day at Pritikin.
Tel: 305-935-7131
Email: info@pritikin.com
Website: www.pritikin.com
The Ranch at Live Oak in Malibu, California
Going to the Oscars and need to fit into that hourglass Valentino? This is your spot. In fact,
 Intense Wellness Weeks at the Ranch at Live Oak celeb spotting is not uncommon in this hidden and private 120-acre ranch in the mountains above Malibu, CA. It’s a take no prisoners camp for those who must become beautiful in a hurry. Couch potatoes need not read on. Programs are weeklong, 10 hours a day, strength gaining and invigorating. Cooking classes, low impact aerobics, hiking, yoga, massage, delicious and healthy eating come as daily inclusions leading to a new body at week’s end, a new level of can-do and a welcomed elevation of mental clarity. Check out the possibilities.
Tel: (310) 457-8700
Email: inquiry@theranchmalibu.com
Website: www.theranchmalibu.com
Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa, Florida
Canyon Ranch is the original name in trusted destination spa vacations, made famous by the flagship Canyon Ranch resort outside of Tucson, AZ.
 Taking time at Canyon Ranch In Miami, it’s a total luxury all-suite hotel dedicated to wellness and all on its own little piece of the coast near the Bay Harbor Islands. Guests embrace the Ranch’s total immersion philosophy with a cascading menu of classes and lectures, a fitness facility that includes Pilates, rock climbing and yoga, beach boot camp for those who want it or beach bicycling for those who don’t — and just the beach for others who want to settle into the setting. The 70,000 square foot spa is not just about the menu of treatments. The facility is a destination in itself with myriad water therapies, mineral rooms, saunas, reflexology chambers and thermal suites. Mix/match or manage a customized program here. Choice abounds, fun is guaranteed, relaxation happens. (package)
Tel: 305-514-7000
Email: kbarber@canyonranch.com
Website: www.canyonranchmiamibeach.com
Want to know more? Lot’s More? We’ll make it easy. Click here to receive updates on Wellness treatments, travel and terrific retreats — with booking incentives to make them all the sweeter.
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Life in the Land of the Long White Cloud is colorful indeed, especially when you consider New Zealand has more species of ferns, flightless birds and baying sheep per square mile than most cities have people. So it’s not surprising that many resorts on these north-south isles will encompass views that barely contain roads or cars, much less humans.
 Adventure in New Zealand starts at Matakauri Lodge in Queenstown Getting away from it all is what New Zealand offers, even if that means escapes to Middle Earth or the lands of Aslan. Some 15 hours of flight time from the U.S., arrival happens in what seems to be a parallel universe but the differences pop out amid colossal Kauri trees as old as the Bible and volcanic lakes that boil and blow – as if viewing the world from inside a time traveler’s mirror.
In real terms, a visitor can rent a car and self-drive to such places as 90-Mile Beach, Bay of Islands, Rotorua, the Remarkables and Franz Josef Glacier. New Zealand is roughly 1,550 miles north to south on two great swaths of land managed by an excellent road system and plenty of easy transport options that do not require the extra expense of a tour company or inbound assistance to arrange.
At Kurtz-Ahlers, we view New Zealand as nature at its purest. New Zealand is nature left to do what it does as humans stay on the sidelines and watch the marvels unfold. And we have chosen three places where luxurious accommodations, fine dining and pampering all play a part in perfecting the best ways to take in this unyielding performance at close range.
The Farm at Cape Kidnappers
 Cape Kidnappers: A New Zealand Sheep Ranch Stay by Relais & Chateaux The Farm at Cape Kidnappers on the North Island, an easy six-hour drive from Auckland (although private flights and heli-transfers are at the ready), overlooks Hawkes Bay with 180-degree views of the roiling South Pacific. It’s all about the land here, 6,000 undulating acres of it on a working New Zealand sheep farm that supports an award-winning wine cellar along with gourmet dining, spa (ever had a jade and crystal facial?) and golf (par 71 and considered #27 on Golf Magazine’s “Best” list) on a seemingly endless spread. But this farm is a Relais & Chateaux presentation that combines the rustic and the modern, the craggy and the comfortable, the wide spaces and the 22 cozy cottages along rocky cliffs overlooking relentless waves. Check out the four-bedroom Owner’s Cottage, a world unto itself.
Tel: +011 64 6 875 1900
Email: reservations@capekidnappers.com
Website: www.capekidnappers.com
Lodge at Kauri Cliffs
Sister property at the Bay of Islands, less than four hours drive from Auckland with air options cutting that time down to one hour, the Lodge at Kauri Cliffs presents a lush setting with astounding pans of the Pacific and its islands off the coast. Find more than
 Kauri Cliffs Lodge in New Zealand overlooking the Bay of Islands 6,000 acres of prime New Zealand landscapes to wander within an environment that easily compares to Bali. Another property by Relais & Chateaux, a stay at Kauri Cliffs can be an active experience of biking, bushwalking, beach combing, golf and tennis. Day tours to nature reserves near and far come as options on a daily activities menu, as do swimming in the ocean, sunning by the pool and having old-fashioned picnics amid a wonderland of magical scenery.
Find 22 guest suites (plus the two-bedroom Owner’s Suite), each with its own private porch, bedroom with sitting area and open fireplace, abutting a native forest and overlooking the golf course and the Pacific.
Tel: +011 64 9 407 0010
Email: reservations@kauricliffs.com
Website: www.kauricliffs.com
Matakauri Lodge
Ah, but sweet stays here come in “threes.” Rounding this triple play is Matakauri Lodge on New Zealand’s south island just minutes from downtown Queenstown on stunning Lake Wakatipu. While this area along the Remarkables and Walter and Cecil Peaks is considered the New Zealand capital of adventure travel with its abundance of bungee jump-off spots, hiking trails, mountain biking tours, jet boating, paragliding, and river runs, the Lodge lasers in on the scenery as a modern oasis of calm.
Unlike its more traditional sisters, Matakauri’s design and layout makes a statement. The Lodge is an art piece carefully crafted by celebrated New Zealand Designer Virginia Fisher. Lines are clean, light is given a stage and each of the Lodge’s eleven cottage suites is a testament to the blending of high style with comfort, convenience and the complete agreement between the elements — inside and out. The scenery is the star here and the riveting interiors only serve to give natural New Zealand her close-up.
Dining means fine New Zealand wines and menus that change daily with the weather and the word about what’s fresh. Unlike other parts of the country, town and what comes with civilization is an easy walk away. And getting away from it all is just as simple, whether that means water, peaks or a forest of virgin pines.
Tel: +011 64 3 441 1008
Email: reservations@matakaurilodge.com
Website: www.matakaurilodge.com
The Ultimate New Zealand Package
What’s the Ultimate New Zealand Deal? A nine-night package that includes three nights at each resort: The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs, The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, and Matakauri Lodge. Three fabulous lodges, three spectacular settings, and nine glorious nights adding up to a savings of roughly NZ$1,695 (around $1,300 USD) per couple.
We, at Kurtz-Ahlers, wanted to introduce our first blog with some warm thoughts about winter – in Tuscany. There’s much that can be written about life under the Tuscan sun. A stay in a hotel in Florence could be as cozy as a writer’s lair over narrow alleyways, a spread in a grand palazzo or a private Italian villa shared with good friends. But we reserve a special place in our hearts for a golden autumn sojourn with the breath of winter right behind and a stay at the hilltop Florentine hideaway that is Il Salviatino.
 Il Salviatino, Florence hideaway in the hills of Fiesole At Il Salviatino, find a spot so convenient to Florence, yet apart in the foothills of Fiesole, that it is truly possible to be in two places, in two centuries at once. As a hotel in Florence there are 45 rooms and suites here – but unlike other hotels in Florence or villas in Tuscany, each room and suite is given its own time from previous eras of the manor: the rustic 14th century cottage turned 15th century palazzo, adorned in frescos and paintings of the Renaissance. The most recent redo that transformed this sprawling Italian villa, with its vast gardens and precious glass greenhouses, into a luxury hotel was executed by MPG. The Italian development company spent $60 million restoring the property and making each guestroom into its own masterpiece.
What more can be said about having, Italy from the art-laden lair of a Tuscan villa with a view of the Duomo of Florence enjoyed from an immense bed all cocooned in a billowy duvet and soft Italian linens?
We choose Il Salviatino as our hotel in Florence as much for the 15th century palace surroundings as for the taste of Tuscany that comes boldly and unabashedly into our day as precious as any painting beheld in the Uffizi.
 Il Salviatino: Taste of Tuscany Dining is casual here: slow coffees surrounded by a rambling 11-acre garden at La Terrazza. Or it can be a memorable event given the white gloved touch at Le Serra. Both spots present a culinary vision called Grappolo – literally a bunch of grapes or sweet fruits that generate from a single root. That is the Tuscan way of life. At Il Salviatino the fruits of the tradition combine chef Saverio Sbaragli’s modern interpretations of family recipes into such molecular deconstructions as Tuscan bread salad panzanella, or a steamy, slow-braised dish of veal cheek, followed by the traditional cantucci di Prato with Vin Santo — an almond biscotti doused in cream that is infused with dessert wine with a dappling of pecorino cheese.
But guests often go into Florence, just 3 km away by complimentary shuttle, for more. Cooking classes abound in Florence, and every chef has his or her own grandmother’s secrets to add to the pan. Il Salviatino conducts its own classes from time to time; or it can assist guests with reserving cooking sessions ranging from a few hours to an intensive week of Tuscan culinary immersion at kitchens around the area.
What characterizes the Tuscan culinary tradition is the poverty – the paysan equation that made use of regional ingredients in these eucalyptus- and cypress–shadowed hills, and turned them into winter season stews and soups sopped to the last drop with artisan breads. Or pastas that serve as much as a staple under sauce as they do fried and sugared for a festive dessert called “rags.” It’s all complemented by the surrounding fertile wine country specializing in chiantis, and local cheese making traditions sampled tasting rooms in and around Florence.
A Night at the Villa in Tuscany
 Carefully restored surroundings from 14th-century Italy Of course, this Italian villa has the deals to offer that deliver these delectibles on a platter. At Il Salviatino, perhaps the most economical of these packages is the chance to book a room or junior suite for 400 Euros and get a boost from a “best room/suite available” upgrade. Guests also get a full breakfast each day and complimentary transfers into Florence and back, plus the use of a 24-hour “Service Ambassador,” otherwise known as a butler, who can research cooking class options, help with translations, even tell you the bests spots for chocolate tastings (through Dec. 20 and again from Jan. 2-March 31). Click here
Similarly, the hotel offers a “Stay 3 for the Price of 2″ promo with all the inclusions. A smattering of romance packages here will set any heart on fire, especially if the room selected is the Tegliacci Suite, with sizzling oversized hearth and amazing views of the hills of Fiesole. Click here
Contact:
Il Salviatino
Via del Salviatino 21
Firenze 50137
Italy
Tel: +39 055 9041111
Email: info@salviatino.com
Website: www.salviatino.com
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Take the sun at two pools or by the private villa plunge pool. Enjoy a mani-pedi on the beach, check email, order up a chocolate soufflé. Wailea Beach Villas leaves little to wanting.
