MICE CENTRAL ITALY

TOSCANA

Tuscany is without a doubt one of Italy's favored destinations with its timeless landscape of gentle hills, vineyards, olive groves and cypress trees dotted with ancient farmhouses and villas. Florence is the jewel of the Italian Renaissance, offering an amazing array of monuments, restaurants and shopping. It is awe-inspiring for its beauty, palaces and its setting on the Arno River gracefully running through its center. Along with Florence, the other cities and towns of this region such as Lucca, Siena, Pisa, San Gimignano and Arezzo -just to name a few- Tuscany offers innumerable opportunities for unforgettable incentive programs from car rallies to treasure hunts to tours of the Chianti region in vespa to wine and olive oil tastings to gala dinners in fantastic palaces.

Bread is the pillar of the Tuscan diet, giant loaves of salt-free pane toscano redolent of sourdough and woodsmoke. Thick slices are grilled, rubbed with garlic and doused with oil as fettunta or panunto. When firm, the bread is dampened and crumbled into a salad with tomatoes, onion and basil as panzanella or

spread with chicken liver paté or chopped tomatoes as crostini. It thickens soups called ribollita, pappa al pomodoro or simply zuppa di pane. Maybe the most famous of the wine producing regions, just a few of the choices from Tuscany include: Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Rosso di Montalcino, Rosso di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Vernaccia di San Gimignano. The region is serviced by two airports: Florence and Pisa.

MARCHE

A new destination for meetings and incentives, truly full of high level possibilities within a very reasonable budget. Whether you want to admire masterpieces of Renaissance art and architecture, trek across wild uncharted mountains or hunt out the best of the catch in a Mediterranean fishing port, Le Marche has enough to keep you busy for years. Possibilities for private cruises, exhilarating mountain biking, visit to wine producers, rides on scooters and much more.

Here the home cook rather than the professional chef rules and even the smartest restaurants seek to produce food just like nonna, or grandmother, used

to make. The use of fresh, top quality materials assembled with the minimum of fuss marks marchigiano food. But as dishes are strictly based on tradition and local produce, each local area has its distinctive cucina tipica. As with any rural diet, much use is made of food gathered from the wild; funghi, game, nuts, field herbs and -the area's greatest culinary treasure- truffles are an important feature in the Marche. Wines: The Marche's pride is Verdicchio made from the local grape with the same name. This green-tinged wine with a distinctive bitter finish goes well with the region's Adriatic fish. Marche produces 12 DOCs including Bianchello del Metauro, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, Rosso Cònero, Lacrima di Morro or Lacrima di Morro d'Alba, and Falerio dei Colli Ascolani among others. UMBRIA This region is a jewel for incentives and meetings. Less touristy than Tuscany, but similar in look and quality, the region can still offer top services at extremely competitive prices. Hotels in the region run from Medieval castles, to villas, to recently constructed four and five star properties. Fantastic venues for gala dinners. Activities would certainly include visits to the important artistic cities such as Perugia, Assisi, Gubbio, Todi, Spolet and also, visits to ceramic factories, the famous Perugina (Baci), car rallies, treasure hunts, visits of vineyards and wine tasting and much more. There are few secrets to Umbrian cooking, other than the native's insistence or obsession, really, on home-grown produce: fresh vegetables and fruit, dense green olive oil, roast meats, poultry and game, pecorino cheese and the herbs, greens and mushrooms that grow spontaneously on wooded hillsides. Umbria has long been renowned for white wine, thanks mainly to the historical prominence of Orvieto

ABRUZZO

Among the regions of Italy, Abruzzo is probably the one which is most loyal to its past. Also, in the characteristic products its safeguards to the utmost, the traditions, rituals, mysteries and magic of its culture. The region is strongly characterised by its mountains, which for centuries almost completely cut if off from the rest of Italy. This period of isolation is now over but the region's customs, heritage and culture - not to mention its cookery - are still intact; despite the onslaught of industrialisation and mass tourism. This means, for example, that local food products are of excellent quality. Here, loyalty to the past is expressed in a great gastronomic tradition. LAZIO

Lazio, the home of Italy's capital, Rome! Two thousand years of Dolce Vita have made Rome the favored destination in Italy. The ancient Romans bequeathed such famous monuments as the Colosseum, Forum, Circus Maximus, Pantheon, Baths of Caracalla and Catacombs. Rome is an ideal destination for incentives and meetings, offering new and unique possibilities even for those who have visited the city many times: innumerable cultural or themed visits, excellent team building possibilities, superb gala dinner venues and top notch hotels. The rest of Lazio also offers extremely valid possibilities: from Etruscan themed events, to the spa town of Fiuggi.

MOLISE

Molise is the youngest, second smallest and least crowded region in Italy. The pureness of this land alone deserves a visit. Molise offers an amazing variety of opportunities despite the dimension of its territory: it ranges from the beaches of Termoli to the ski resort of Campitello Matese, from the Natural Oasis in Guardiaregia to the medieval fortifications and villages, from the archaeological finds dating back to Samnite and Roman period straight to the Baroque. Molise became independent from Abruzzo in 1963, but the cuisine in both regions is very similar. Molise does have several unique dishes, though, including P'lenta d'iragn, a white polenta made with potatoes and wheat and served with a tomato sauce, and Calconi di ricotta rustica, ravioli stuffed with ricotta, provolone and prosciutto, then fried in oil. Unfortunately, the region is not very easily reached. The closest airport are Rome and Pescara.