8 Day Intriguing Horse Riding Holiday Tuscany, Province of Grosseto
Breathtaking Horse Riding Holiday Italy
This listing has one of the 10 most popular offers available in Italy
Experience the special adventurous trail holiday in the heart of Monte Penna, Italy! This holiday is particularly good for those who are becoming acquainted with horseback riding. During this week, you will be able to enjoy riding out in the splendid valleys that surround the farm, enjoying streams and woods in rustic Tuscany. This holiday is the best way to appreciate the serenity and unspoiled nature of Tuscany in a totally relaxing atmosphere with good food, nature, and horses.
Key Information
- Rider weight limit: 100 kg
- Tack Type: Western
Meet the instructors
Highlights
- 6 days of horse riding
- Riding out in the splendid valleys
- Approximate daily riding time: 2 hours
- Farmhouse with a homely atmosphere
- Meals on a full board basis
- 7 nights' lodging
Skill level
- Beginner
Styles
Ciampino–G. B. Pastine International Airport (US$ 303 per person)
Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport (US$ 303 per person)
Accommodation
Facilities
- Bar
- Café
- Fireplace
- Garden
- Multilingual staff
- Restaurant
- Special menu request
- Free Wi-Fi
- Meeting room
Il Cornacchino is an organic farm and is composed of six buildings, horse stables, and several outbuildings, all surrounded by 110 hectares of terrain (57 of their own and about 55 managed as rental property). The agricultural activity here includes horse breeding and training.
The accommodation has 13 guest rooms, some with private bathroom, some with bathroom to be shared (one bathroom for two rooms), three dining halls and bar which can also be used for conventions and meetings. There is also a camping area of 5,000 square meters. The accommodation is equipped with two public spaces for relaxing that can be used for meetings and also public space with a fireplace that contains an internet point for guest use. The bathrooms at Il Cornacchino are equipped with facilities for the physically challenged. The additional buildings, united by a garden and outdoor staircase, form a quaint village completely immersed in nature.
Th facilities at Il Cornacchino include reception, bar, fireplace room, living room with sofas and tables for games and entertainment, meeting room, projection and lesson room, veranda, garden, office, photocopier and fax, and internet and Wi-Fi.
Program
Program includes a ride, normally in the morning (it is possible to switch it with the afternoon ride). The time depends on the season / weather. At the beginning of the season is from 10.00 until 12.00, when it is warm in Summer from 9.30 until 11.30.
The week normally start with a lesson on the first day. Starting from the second day we ride-out in the woods and hills.
Instructors
Benedetta
An environmental equestrian guide, Benedetta has worked many seasons as an operator in WWF summer camps at Cornacchino, becoming in 2007 "horse woman" for those camps. From 2007, she works full-time at the Cornacchino as a guide. She has become mother in December 2008 and works with Il Cornacchino now part-time. She speaks Italian, English, and Spanish.
Doris
Doris has worked with Il Cornacchino on and off since 1991. An environmental equestrian guide and FITEEC-ANTE, Brain Gym, and Cavalgiocare operator, she is involved with lessons, with activities involving both Italian and German speaking children and trail rides. She speaks German, Italian, and English.
Flavia
Flavia is an equestrian guide graduated in "tutela e benessera animale" (safeguard and animal wellbeing). After being a guest for many years (her first time at Cornacchino was in 2007), she now works as a guide and helps Giulio and Alessio with the trails.
Fabio Tascone
Fabio has been working with horses and equestrian vacations since 1980. He speaks Italian and English. He is a certified FITEEC-ANTE guide, environmental equestrian, DWA, and farrier. He provides and oversees horse care, lessons, training, horse-shoeing, promotion, and general management of the establishment.
Giulio Costi
Giulio has been working with horses since 1986. He speaks Italian and English. He is a certified FITEEC-ANTE guide and an environmental equestrian. He works with the horses with trekking excursions and helps to manage the establishment.
Location
The Cornacchino is nestled in a secluded valley in the natural park of Monte Penna. The pasture is surrounded by vast forests of chestnut, oak, beech, and pine trees where you can meet roe, wild boar, porcupines, badgers, and sometimes even deer. On the surrounding hills are grazing sheep, Chianina cows, and a herd of wild horses. On clear days, you can see the sea, the Giglio Island, the Apennines Mountain, Lake Bolsena, and sometimes the Montecristo island.
The Cornacchino farm lies three kilometers from the town of Castell'Azzara and partially inside the Monte Penna Natural Reserve, at an altitude of 825 meters above the sea level. Situated at the intersection of the provinces of Grosseto, Siena, and Viterbo, the farm is in a strategic zone winrespect to natural, archaeological, thermal, and landscape interests.
In the heart of the Monte Penna Reserve, Castell'Azzara dominates a vast horizon; at its feet stands Villa Sforzesca by the architect del Fontana. In the deep valley of the Fiora river, on the other side of the mountain, rises the Rocca Silvana, a powerful and complex medieval war machine which is recommended to be visited. A group of mounds on the Southeast foothills of Amiata makes up the reserve. The main ones are Poggio della Vecchia (1,086 meters) and Mount Civitella (107 meters). This protected area makes the northern border with the Pigelleto Reserve of the county of Piancastagnaio (Siena). The protected territory is over 1,000 hectares. From a geological standpoint, it is an area rich with caves (populated by bats) near the volcanic mountain of Mount Amiata. In the watersheds, there are woods of ash, beech, oak, and chestnut.
For a nature enthusiast, there’s the Font wood on the Poggio Vecchia, made up of various species of maple trees. The reserve is almost completely woodsy with the exception of small areas that surround small farmhouses. Near Selvena, you can find chestnut trees of extraordinary sizes. In the reserve, there are bird populations of falcons and owls. The wildlife also includes mammals such as the fox, the porcupine, the wild boar, the roe deer, the deer, the weasel, the skunk, and the marten.
Close by, you find gorgeous Etruscan villages (Sorano, Sovana, and Pitigliano) telling their tales of forgotten times and medieval settlements with castles and ruins. To be seen is the town of Abbadia S. Salvatore with its nice historical town center and its famous abbey. Worth a visit is also its mining museum where you will discover the mine's world that was very important for this region. Driving towards Viterbo, you will find Bolsena and Bolsena's lake, a nice small village where you may eat great fishes. Not far from Bolsena, there is Civita di Bagnoregio, called "the dying town".
Driving up north, you will reach the Val d' Orcia with its extensive arid areas, rolling hills and fields, famous clay outcrops known locally as "calanche", and avenues of cypress trees and ancient hamlets. You surely have heard from Pienza, Montepulciano, and Montalcino and you will find them all here in this area. The nearest citieare Grosseto (1 hour and a half), Siena (1 hour and aalf), Orvieto (1 and 15 minutes hour), and Viterbo (1 hour and 15 minutes).
Distances
- Abbadia San Salvatore, 24 kilometers
- Arcidosso, 21 kilometers
- Bagni San Filippo Thermal Bath, 30 kilometers - 35 minutes
- Bagno Vignoni Thermal Bath, 43 kilometers - 50 minutes
- Beach of Gradoli, 41 kilometers - 50 minutes
- Bolsena Lake, 41 kilometers - 50 minutes
- Bolsena, 46 kilometers
- Capodimonte, 48 kilometers
- Castel del Piano, 24 kilometers
- Castiglione d'Orcia, 37 kilometers
- Gradoli, 34 kilometers
- Manciano, 45 kilometers
- Montemerano, 38 kilometers
- Piancastagnaio, 20 kilometers
- Pitigliano, 27 kilometers
- Radicofani, 29 kilometers
- Roccalbegna, 25 kilometers
- Rocchette di Fazio, 20 kilometers
- San Casciano dei Bagni Thermal Bath, 27 kilometers - 35 minutes
- Santa Fiora, 19 kilometers
- Saturnia Thermal Bath, 36 kilometers - 55 minutes
- Saturnia, 33 kilometers
- Seggiano, 32 kilometers
- Semproniano, 18 kilometers
- Sorano Thermal Bath, 30 kilometers - 30 minutes
- Sorano, 18 kilometers
- Sovana, 22 kilometers
- Triana, 20 kilometers
- Vivo d'Orcia, 25 kilometers
Features
Activities
- Horse riding
General
- Bar
- Café
- Fireplace
- Garden
- Multilingual staff
- Restaurant
- Special menu request
Services
- Free Wi-Fi
- Internet access
- Meeting room
Food
Il Cornacchino is an organic farm born in respect of the environment and for love of the region or land. Il Cornacchino philosophy tells the chefs to use vegetables directly from the farm’s garden and high-quality Tuscan products produced in the region. The chefs are also encouraged to use “KM 0 products” as many as possible.
The restaurant perfectly represents Il Cornacchino philosophy of life: good, natural, and for everyone. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the tables are prepared for guests. People stopping in and you will have lunch together with Cornacchino’s staff, sharing experiences and memories of the day. Using the natural ingredients combined with the passion for traditional cooking, Il Cornacchino's chefs bring to the table a healthy and delicious meal.
The flavors of rural traditions of Tuscany, Umbria, and Latsio are melded with the personal tastes of the cooks. There is no fix daily menu. Every day, you will eat based on seasonal availability or following the guests‘ taste. This is where passion integrates with the chef’s cuisine. The menu is composed by a series of hors d'oeuvre, first course, second course and side dishes, Thus, it's easy to fulfill your special wishes - vegetarians or not. The only ingredients are enthusiasm and the loving care of the cooks in every dish.
The summer lunch menu includes crostone with onions, crostone with pork sausage, pennette with a cream of capsicum, orecchiette-pasta with broccoli and potatoes, meatballs with a sauce of tomato and leek, lentils, green beans with basil, and spinach with parmesan cheese.
The autumn dinner menu includes dressed ricotta-cheese with apples, figs with raw ham, grated gnocchi of semolina, soup of legume, lamb in white-wine, zucchini grated with cheese, grated potato with mushrooms, mixed salad, and ricotta cake.
Dinner with polenta includes sheep cheese with pears, mixed crostini, polenta of sweetcorn (traditionally served on a wooden board), mushroom soup, wild boar with sauce, sausages with sauce, meat sauce, fresh ricotta cheese, pecorino cheese, fresh tomato sauce, salad with white beans, and crostata cake.
Summer buffet menu includes primo sale (fresh sheep cheese) with cucumber and bruschetta dressed white cabbage with hot salami, pici-pasta with tomato-garlic sauce, ribbon-macaroni with artichokes and ricotta-cheese, Ribollita (soup of vegetables and bread), roast pork with mushrooms, rissole of spinach and parmesan, salad of potato and capsicum, grilled eggplant, green salad, grilled beet, tomato with oregano, and watermelon.
Wine is genuine, always present (non included in the price). Special menus for vegetarians, vegans, celiac, and different intolerances are available upon request.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
The following drinks are included:
- Water
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Regular (typically includes meat and fish)
- Lactose Free
- Other dietary requirements on request
Things to do (optional)
- Ebike for rental
- Massage on request
- Yoga lessons
Spa treatments
There is no spa in the country houses, but several hot springs and spa in the area.
What's included
- Daily 2 hours of riding (6 sessions)
- Daily meals on a full board basis
- 7 nights' accommodation
What's not included
- Pick-up service from / to Rome airports and from / to Chiusi-Chianciano Terme railways station
How to get there
Recommended Airports
Ciampino–G. B. Pastine International Airport
131 km
Transfer available for additional US$ 303 per person
Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport
116 km
Transfer available for additional US$ 303 per person
Driving directions from Cassia
Follow Cassia Road SS 2.
At kilometer 146.5, exit for Castell'Azzara.
From Castell'Azzara, follow the road signs "Cornacchino" (around 3 kilometers).
For those using the GPS the best thing to do is to enter as final destination via Francesco Petrarca (or via Marconi) in Castell'Azzara and from there follow the Cornacchino's signs. Otherwise if you put Cornacchino as final destination sometimes the GPS show the shortest way, which is definetely not the best way here (the last bit may be driven just with a land rover / 4x4 off roads car).
Arrival by airplane
Please book your flight to arrive at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (FCO). The airport is located 170 kilometers from Cornacchino. Alternatively, you can also arrive at Ciampino-G. B. Pastine International Airport (CIA) which is located 200 kilometers from Cornacchino%The collective transfer is on Saturday from / to Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (FCO) and Cornacchino or Ciampino-G. B. Pastine International Airport (CIA) with the cost of EUR 140 per person one way and EUR 260 for roundtrip. For couple / family, a family discount is applicable:
- For a booking of two people: 220 EUR per person return
- For a booking of three people: 180 EUR per person return
- For a booking of four people: 150 EUR per person return
Arrival by train
The nearby train station is Chiusi-Chianciano (along the route Firenze-Roma). Transfers of groups will be organized on Saturdays with the cost of 40 EUR per person return. Alternative transfer is possible on request with the cost of 60 EUR per person per way. You can also use the taxi from the station which will cost around 100 EUR.
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 40% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
- The rest of the payment should be paid on departure.
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