Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to the Z Michelson Travel Podcast, where every journey is a story waiting to be told. I'm your host, z Michelson, and I'm so excited to take you on a ride through the world's most incredible destinations, hidden gems and unforgettable experiences. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just starting to plan your next getaway, you're in the right place. Each episode, we'll be diving into everything from must-see landmarks to off-the-beaten-path treasures, speaking with locals and travel experts and sharing stories that will inspire your next adventure. So sit back, relax and let's wander the world together, one destination at a time. Are you ready? Let's get started. Hey, this is Zee Mifelson and you're not going to believe this, but I have Diana back with me from Celtic Tours.

Speaker 2: 0:58

And you know something, we're not going to talk Ireland, we are going to talk Italy. Yes, I'm so excited, italy, italy. Oh, I was so excited. Now, you just got back from Italy a little bit ago and you said it was seven nights that you were there. Yep, and it was more of a culinary delights type tour.

Speaker 3: 1:16

It was yeah we put together a seven nights culinary experience in Italy, with tours and all kinds of good stuff. We had two cooking classes, a pizza making class. We had a full dinner class. It was an amazing, amazing trip.

Speaker 2: 1:36

Great that sounds. It sounds like fun. So actually you went, you went over to Italy and you had a nice big group with you. How many people were there?

Speaker 3: 1:45

I had 27 people, including me. Wow, 27 people 27 people. Yeah, now, this was hosting.

Speaker 2: 1:52

This is a little bit different, though, than when you went to Ireland, because you actually stayed in one location and then took tours outside, but every night returned back to your hotel. Yes, we did so. Tell me about this hotel that you stayed in. Yes, we did.

Speaker 3: 2:04

So tell me about this hotel that you stayed in. Yeah, we actually stayed in a villa called Villa Casa Grande. It means big house.

Speaker 2: 2:13

Yeah, that does.

Speaker 3: 2:14

Yeah, was it it is. It's a very big house. They have about 59 rooms and then they have some private rooms also for the owner, so there's about 70 rooms total. So it's privately owned. It's privately owned.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Wow, it is so. Where exactly in Italy is this place?

Speaker 3: 2:31

It is actually located in a town called Figlin Valdano. It's a very, very little town. It's centrally located between Florence, arezzo and Siena and it was actually built back in the 14th century Wow, 1984, I believe it was, wow, yeah, very, very, very old. The residence when it was built was actually built for privileged people, and artists and philosophers used to stay there and artists and philosophers used to stay there, and then they met all of these emperors and kings.

Speaker 3: 3:10

And even a pope, a pope A pope, pope Leon X, I'll get it right there you go Pope Leon X, and he actually has a room that's still dedicated to him there. Wow, so you could do a tour of all of these rooms. And they have the old furniture from the 14th century there. Wow, so you could do a tour of all of these rooms, and they had the old furniture from the 14th century. There they have the Pope's bed, where he actually slept Wow, beautiful.

Speaker 2: 3:31

Beautiful. Now. Do you stay in any of these rooms, or is there a special location that you stay in? Well?

Speaker 3: 3:38

those rooms are special, so nobody gets to stay in those rooms anymore. They're just for the tour that they actually have. Museum pieces yeah it's kind of museum pieces Exactly, but the rooms are beautiful. They're more modern. You know, you have obviously hot water you know, and air conditioning and a heater.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Right, you didn't have to go and use the chamber pot Exactly exactly so.

Speaker 3: 4:00

They're beautiful. They're spacious. The rooms are very, very spacious. Showers are a little small. They remind me almost of a cruise ship shower. Okay, they were a little small, but the bathrooms were oversized which is very odd. It was just really top of the line.

Speaker 2: 4:16

The hotel amenities themselves are just beautiful beautiful, particularly when you say it was built in the 4200,. People have a tendency to say, okay, how old is old? You know, they want to make sure the hot and cold water is running. They want to make sure they have a toilet. You, know.

Speaker 3: 4:36

so it sounds like you had all of the luxuries of old. Oh yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was just very, very European style. I slummed my bedroom window open every night because the weather was so beautiful. It got down to about the 40s in the evening and about the 70s during the day, with a nice breeze. The weather was just absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 2: 4:51

It's very nice.

Speaker 3: 4:52

Yeah, it was just amazing. Now tell me about the grounds on this facility. So it was actually back in 83, 1983, I believe it was a doctor who was a cosmetic surgeon. He actually bought the villa and he turned it into a surgery center.

Speaker 2: 5:09

Okay, he turned it into a surgery center. A surgery center.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Like a plastic surgeon surgery center.

Speaker 3: 5:14

Okay so then what he did is he took a lot of the rooms and actually turned them into a place where his patients can actually stay and heal, oh, and recuperate, yeah and recuperate. So he had a surgeon center there. He had a spa so they can rest and relax. Nice Kind of a high-end cosmetic surgeon place.

Speaker 2: 5:31

We would think a lot of the Hollywood starlets would have went there in their day. Yep, yep, yep for sure.

Speaker 3: 5:36

So then about the 90s he decided, you know, the rest of the family was kind of getting into the business. And then his daughter became the hotel manager and she renovated the entire place to what it is today, turned a lot of the rooms into additional hotel rooms and again, the location is just amazing. It's right by this little town. It's about 10 minutes from the train station, walking from the train station, so you can take the train anywhere within Tuscany or you can even take it to Rome if you wanted to. It's about two and a half hours. So it's very. It's very Tuscan, very, very Tuscan, very Tuscan style. It actually has some of the old crests, like a Medici crest from the Medicis, who are very, very popular for their fangame. So they have a Medici crest there because they were part of that back in the 14th century. They were all part of that.

Speaker 2: 6:32

So now everybody was converging to this hotel. What was the name of the hotel? Again, it's called Villa Casa Grande Villa.

Speaker 3: 6:39

Casa Grande. The grounds itself are beautiful, gorgeous bar, great place if you want to do yoga into yoga room there. It has huge grounds there. They have a place for weddings. Nice Outside seating area for like restaurants. They have, of course, two restaurants there and two restaurants in the villa.

Speaker 3: 7:04

They also have a winery. They have their own winery and a farm. Now everything is actually grown, probably about four or five kilometers from where the villa is Nice, but they actually serve their own wine. So when I got there, I found out that I can buy myself a bottle of organic Tuscan wine right there at the front desk. They'll pop it for me, give me two glasses and there you go Seven euros for one bottle of wine.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Wow.

Speaker 3: 7:35

Very good, and that is just, that's just the Chianti, that's just their Chianti Of course it goes up. They have a couple of reserve bottles and things like that. But that Chianti, I could have drank that all day long. Such a good bottle of wine. Of course you don't go to Tuscan without drinking you have to have at least one glass of wine.

Speaker 2: 7:54

So, now people were coming. You said you had 27 people that were coming on this tour.

Speaker 3: 7:58

Yeah. So what happened? A lot of us not all 27 of us, because a few people came prior so they went to stay in California a day before, or they went into Rome and then took a train in, but there were about 10 of us that actually met at the airport Nice and we had a shuttle transfer. So they met us there, shuttled us to Villa Casa Grande where, again, we all kind of met and converged. People went back to the rooms, got freshened up and I popped open some wine and everybody had some wine. We sat there just getting to know each other.

Speaker 3: 8:29

It was really nice, yeah very very relaxing before we actually went off and went to dinner. That evening all of us, we had a wonderful dinner there at the restaurant.

Speaker 2: 8:40

Now, did Celtic tours do all of this? Did they prepare you? Did they? You know, get your shuttles.

Speaker 3: 8:47

Yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 8:48

Everything was done.

Speaker 3: 8:49

Everything was put together by Celtic Tours Fabulous, from our shuttle to our arrangements at the villa, to all of the tours that I'm going to be telling you about, to every meal that we had as well, including the cooking classes, the pizza making classes. Everything was included. Sounds like fun. Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 9:07

And you went out, you know, because everybody's had a converging that day, getting off the planes or you know, coming in from wherever Everybody's meeting at the hotel and getting unpacked. Now that's something really nice about this particular tour you can unpack, you unpack. You do not have to live out of your suitcase for this particular tour.

Speaker 3: 9:26

You just stay in one location and your tours are daily. You're still going to see a lot of Tuscany and you're going to do all of your tours. Some of the places that we're going to talk about is Siena and San Gignano, and, of course, we did a day in Florence, right, we. And of course, we did a day in florence right, we went to a castle and chianti, where we did a wine tasting so there's all kinds of good things, of course peace up.

Speaker 3: 9:50

We had to go to peace up and look up and it was all done by motor coach and we could just return that day healthy tours put all this together.

Speaker 2: 9:58

everything, everything, I love that, absolutely everything. So now, the first night you said you guys all got together, you were drinking a little wine, relaxing, getting to know each other, and then we went to dinner.

Speaker 3: 10:10

Yes, oh can't go to.

Speaker 2: 10:12

Italy without eating oh there's a lot to eat, a lot to eat, so tell me about dinner.

Speaker 3: 10:18

So dinner, the first course, of course, we had wine, we had some wine, and then they had the antipasta that they serve. And, of course, bread.

Speaker 2: 10:26

The bread is amazing over there, all freshly made.

Speaker 3: 10:29

Yes, all freshly made there. And then they started off with a pasta like a pasta appetizer, which was a very thick, all hand-prepared pasta in just a marinara sauce. Fresh homemade pasta. Fresh homemade pasta. Fresh homemade pasta Wow, and they serve you just a little small portion, right? Because it's like an appetizer, because you keep eating.

Speaker 2: 10:51

All the way through. You have many courses. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 3: 10:54

Then, after you're done, they actually came around with more pasta to see if people wanted more pasta. So there was some— Plenty to eat. You did pasta to see if people wanted more pasta. So there was some. You did not go hungry at all. So then after dinner we had an amazing dish and I couldn't tell you exactly what it was called, but it was like a potato puree, like almost like a mashed potatoes, but very, very creamy, Okay. And then they had like a roast, very, very slow cooked roast, with a brown sauce.

Speaker 2: 11:25

Now, I know Tuscan is known for grilling and roasting Right, so apparently that's right in there Slow roasted.

Speaker 3: 11:32

It was a slow, I mean it just pulled right apart and it was just so so wonderful.

Speaker 2: 11:36

It was a beef or a pork. It was a pork, it was pork, yeah it was so wonderful, it was just so good.

Speaker 3: 11:42

And you ate family style, I'm assuming. No, they actually served every person individually. Okay, yeah, it wasn't family style. Everybody was served Because we had we actually, because we're such a large group, we had about five different tables, so we were all sitting about six people at each table.

Speaker 2: 11:58

Did everybody have the same thing or were people ordering different things?

Speaker 3: 12:01

No, everybody had the same thing, with the exception of one person. This one person was a vegan you know, vegetarian, vegan, so they accommodated her.

Speaker 1: 12:10

They no problem accommodated her.

Speaker 3: 12:11

She had a salad and she also had a pasta. Yeah, she could do the pasta, because it was just a regular marinara with no meat sauce or anything like that.

Speaker 2: 12:21

So yeah, they were able to accommodate her Okay, and of course she told Celtic Tours that she was a vegan. She did, and Celtic Tours made sure that they relayed that information and made sure she had fun too. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:33

And the entire trip there was not one place that they did not accommodate her for the meal. Wonderful yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:48

So she never had any problems whatsoever. I know that's sometimes difficult if you are a vegan or if you have celiac disease, things like that. You have to make sure that people know this so you're not totally hungry. Yeah, right, right. And Celtic tours make sure of that, which is really nice. And again we're saying Celtic tours is in Italy. Yeah, it is, they are, they are.

Speaker 3: 13:01

And I have to tell you this is one of my bucket list things. My bucket list item to go to Tuscany and just stay in Tuscany and not have to worry about going from place to place to place. You know, and this was just an absolutely amazing, amazing location, centrally located, the little town that it's connected to you can walk, it's three blocks away in your town center and they were actually setting up for food courts that weekend. Oh, so they had food, not food courts, food trucks, food trucks, food trucks.

Speaker 3: 13:27

Yeah, food trucks. And then, of course, they had a lot of little cafes and restaurants. We sat in one of the little cafes and ordered some more wine, and they came and brought us some appetizers. Yeah, it was such a wonderful, wonderful experience. And that was just, you know, during the day.

Speaker 2: 13:44

It almost seems like a more, even though you're going here and there. It seems more relaxed in some ways, very, very relaxed. Yeah, so now you were there, you were eating these nice dinners, you were having a nice dinner. What did you have for dessert?

Speaker 3: 13:58

So, believe it or not, we just had a limoncello, just a limoncello, just a limoncello, just a limoncello. That was it. That's all we did. We actually left. We didn't get any dessert there at the location. We actually left and we went to a restaurant right there in town and about 10 of us got a limoncello. We wanted a limoncello. So of course, you can't go to a place without a limoncello. So we went ahead and got the limoncello.

Speaker 2: 14:21

That's nice. And again, celtic Tours is allowing you some private time, some time to roam around on your own and experience the trip, which is really nice yeah yeah, and. I always tell people mix with the locals.

Speaker 3: 14:34

It's a lot of fun. Oh, it is so much fun, and they were so welcoming. They know that Villa Casa Grande brings in a lot of Americans. Oh and they were so welcoming and they really really just appreciate us being there.

Speaker 2: 14:49

And you said the grounds for Villa Casa Grande was beautiful, mm-hmm, did they have like like gardens and pathways.

Speaker 3: 14:57

Yeah, they have a beautiful garden area and that's kind of what I was referring to where you can actually do yoga. I had a client who was asking me about a place to do yoga and this would be an amazing location for them to do their yoga classes right First thing in the morning. Again, they have a beautiful spa with an indoor pool. You can book finchels, saages.

Speaker 2: 15:18

So it has a pool, it has a pool, it has a spa.

Speaker 3: 15:21

It's just top notch.

Speaker 2: 15:24

And a gym If you want to work out, if you want to exercise, I did not exercise, but if you want to exercise, Well, some people think they're eating all that food so they need to go and exercise. But I mean, it sounds like a gorgeous facility. I mean, you know, you say villa as opposed to hotel Casa Brande, which gives me the impression that it's fairly large. It is, yeah, and then give me an example of what you were looking out at. Were you looking at mountains? Were you looking at trees? Were you looking?

Speaker 3: 15:50

at my view, opened up into where I could overlook the gardens. I had beautiful trees and flowers, nice, and you can see the hills from far, far away. Everybody had a different view, because it doesn't face one direction, so everybody had a very, very different view. Yeah, so it was very nice. Yeah, and we actually had a family, a husband, a wife and a daughter who was a teenage daughter, oh, who just loved the trip. She had so much fun.

Speaker 3: 16:23

You know, teenagers run hard but boy, she just had so much fun. She really, really did yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:30

So your first day is kind of just getting there, relaxing, meeting the rest of the group and then enjoying a meal together, and then retiring for the evening and then retiring yep After our limoncello.

Speaker 3: 16:43

I have to say I was probably the first one to say goodnight because I'd been traveling all day. So I walked myself back to the villa, which was a very, very easy walk. It took me not even five minutes to get back to the villa and I went ahead and went to bed for the evening.

Speaker 2: 16:58

Now, where did you fly into? I flew into Florence.

Speaker 3: 17:01

You flew into Florence. Yep I flew out of Orlando, right, Because that's where I'm based out. Of. So I flew out of Orlando. It was a one flight and it was because you're flying into Florence. You're going to change planes.

Speaker 3: 17:11

Yeah, you're going to change at least three times. And it doesn't matter where you go out of it's pretty much, because you're going to have to fly to Europe and then you're going to have to fly to Florence, right? So, and there's, unless you can get something that's going to take you from Orlando to Europe and then Europe to Florence and you don't have to worry about it. But yeah, it was a long travel day and yeah, but you know it was good Long travel day relax.

Speaker 2: 17:32

at the end of the day had a nice couple of glasses of wine. Oh yes, nice meal. Nice meal A lot of pasta, and people were getting there and unpacking and enjoying it, and you said there was 59 hotel rooms.

Speaker 3: 17:49

There are 59 actual hotel rooms. I believe there's 70 rooms again all together, but some of them still belong to the owner Right Plus they have certain hotel rooms of them still belong to the owner, right Plus.

Speaker 2: 17:56

They have certain hotel rooms like the Pope's room.

Speaker 3: 17:58

Correct, they have suites also. If you're interested in a suite, you can do a suite.

Speaker 2: 18:03

So if somebody is going with husband, wife and maybe two children, they have suites available.

Speaker 3: 18:07

They do they have suites Now. The standard rooms are typically either like a queen-size bed or two twin beds. It's kind of again like a European you're very European style. The twin beds can push together and they actually make a queen-size bed. And those are standard rooms. Now. The superior rooms are a little bit larger and they come with a sofa.

Speaker 2: 18:28

So if someone is, you know, contacting Celtic Tours and say they want to go to this facility, celtic Tours will say what kind of accommodations are you looking for? Are you looking for this? Are you looking for a suite? So there's only to request. You tell them what they want. Oh, of course.

Speaker 3: 18:43

Yeah, yeah, I mean, if you're interested in a standard room. Again, standard rooms to me weren't standard rooms, Beautiful rooms. They were still again, very, very nice Right Now. I did share a room, so it was still plenty of room, plenty of space For both of us.

Speaker 2: 18:59

Yes, yeah, and you had a window.

Speaker 3: 19:03

I had a beautiful window that.

Speaker 1: 19:04

I slept on, you know again opened it every night.

Speaker 3: 19:07

It was just beautiful.

Speaker 2: 19:09

Now, I'm not assuming there was no screens.

Speaker 3: 19:11

No, no screens. Right, no screens. But they do have curtains that you can close where you're still going to get the fresh air and it won't let any bugs in or anything like that, but really aren't too many. It's not like you have to worry, and I was again. I was on second floor so I didn't have to worry about something like jumping in or anything. Well, that's good.

Speaker 2: 19:28

Yeah, so that's. That was basically day one. Yeah, it was day one. Yeah, so that's day one. Everybody kind of arriving and getting to know each other and enjoying a good meal and relaxing a little with a good bottle of wine and now, or two, or three or two or three.

Speaker 3: 19:45

We'll deserve that.

Speaker 2: 19:47

So now we're going to talk again on day two. So that's going to be your next podcast. It is Give us a teaser. So that's going to be your next podcast. It is Give us a teaser. Where are we?

Speaker 3: 19:57

going Siena and San Damiano.

Speaker 2: 20:01

Oh, so two locations. And again, you're not staying there, you're just going there. It's going to be by motor coach. Yep, and the motor coaches are beautiful, air conditioned? Yes, they are. Yes, do they have Wi-Fi?

Speaker 3: 20:12

They do not have Wi-Fi on the motorcoaches. It's very difficult because in Italy it's so hilly, oh, okay, so it's very, very difficult to keep.

Speaker 2: 20:21

Wi-Fi Okay, but they're air-conditioned. Plenty of room on the coaches, air-conditioned, lots of room, lots of space. And how long did it take to get to these locations from where?

Speaker 3: 20:30

Do you want to know now or do we want to talk about it on the teaser?

Speaker 2: 20:35

Okay, so, again, thank you for sharing with us. And yes, Celtic Tours does go to Italy. Yes, we do. People only think, oh, celtic Tours, it's only Celtic. No, it's more than just Celtic, it's Italy as well. Absolutely, diana, again thank you for joining me today. I'm going to learn all about this lovely place and Villa Casa Grande, and I'm not even going to take a stamp at the location and trying to say that name, but we'll go next time.

Speaker 3: 21:07

I had to learn, I had to learn. I don't know if I'm saying it right, still All right.

Speaker 2: 21:13

Thank you for joining me. Thank you, Alrighty. Thank you for joining me. Buongiorno, thank you.

Speaker 1: 21:19

Well, that's it for today's episode of the Z Michelson Travel Podcast. I hope you enjoyed our journey and found some new inspiration for your next adventure. Remember, the world is full of stories and sometimes all it takes is a plane ticket to start your own adventure. If you loved today's episode, be sure to tune in every week and don't forget to share your favorite travel moments with me on social media. I'd really love to hear about where you're headed to next. So, until next time, keep exploring, keep discovering and, as always, keep traveling with your heart wide open. I'm Zee Michelson and I'll see you on the next adventure.