Beyond the Yalla Dog

A brief out line about our events, classes and tours including costs. Please contact Penny for more information or follow our links.

Introduction to Italian lessons

I recommend you to a language school with a view – Centro Fiorenza - or alternatively spend half a day or more with a private teacher uncovering the secret of understanding Italian!    We often start with a menu – daring to go Beyond pizza and pasta!

Basic class costs £39/€45 per hour

Tuscan Cookery classes

Learn how to make it all yourself when you go home ! Take lessons with a local cookery teacher – as Mother-in Law made it! Go Beyond just eating Italian! Further information on cookery classes.

Class costs £70/€75 – includes your meal, wine and a free apron

Wine tasting

Tours can be arranged in the city centre or a why not visit the vineyards and see how it is nurtured and developed? – Go Beyond Pinot Grigio and into Chianti country!

Average all day tour price £70/€75 – lunch offered at one of the vineyards providing you with your own choice from the menu at your own expense

Painting classes – oil, watercolour, fresco or even Etruscan ceramic designs

Go Beyond looking at art and into learning how it is done!

Watercolour workshop with Glynis Barnes Mellish

- See photos of recent workshops with Glynis Barnes Mellish and Alfonso Tejada on Painting in Tuscany page and some of the artists work in Images inspired by Tuscany page.

See some of Glynis’s own work at www.barnesmellish.com

Glynis workshop costs including lunch

1 day £60/€70 – 5 days £240/€285

Landscape painting in oils with Alan Lawson

Classes held in the magnificent grounds of Hotel Villa de Rondini – with a view lovely Beyond belief!

May and June – course comprised 2 half-days – where we caught the early morning light.

Next course 23-25 October at Hotel Villa le Rondini

For more information on Alan and to see some of his work visit www.artofajlawson.blogspot.com

Alan workshop costs: – including lunch

9- 12.30 :- £85/€99

Garden Tours

Florence – as a City of Flowers – has always been famous for its gardens , many hidden behind the imposing frontages of the Palazzi in the city and others, equally secret, built to complement the beautiful villas in the surrounding hills. The first of our private tours of these gardens began May 1 2011 with a visit to La Foce to see the garden designed by Cecil Pinsent for author and garden specialist Iris Origo.

Next tour 5 days in May 2012 – and hopefully a second week in October

Costs will depend on numbers and gardens visited – the prestigious hotel Villa Le Rondini has offered my guests preferential rates as part of this tour.

Plate painting

Why buy a souvenir of Florence when you can paint your own? Your family will genuinely be delighted to receive such a professional looking gift – painted from original Etruscan templates – Beyond belief!

Costs 1/2 day:-  £40/€50

Introduction to Vivaldi

and other Italian composers.  - Go Beyond The Four Seasons with Federico!

www.modoantiquo.com

Fresco workshops

Find out for yourself what it is like to apply natural pigment to intonaco (fresh plaster) – Go Beyond Giotto gazing and recreate a masterwork!

cost for half day £64/€75 – for a souvenir to keep and treasure – next course January 2012

Marbled paper making

Learn how the much admired Florentine paper is made , design your own paper to take home and keep – or wrap up a special gift for a loved one with a touch of Italian style -

cost for watching £12/€10 – to make and keep your own €35

Next course in 21 December before the Christmas holiday period

Day trips

Take a tour to look around Fiesole, Siena, San Gimigniano, Lucca etc – Beyond Florence!

Costs for a day trip for six people £66/€79 per person

Dancing

Italians love to dance but sadly I am a wallflower as I seem to have two large left feet, but Antonio our young Italian dancing teacher is the business! – Go well Beyond watching Strictly on TV!

Shopping tours

I can either recommend shops or take you to them and we can barter together for the best prices – Get Below the marked price!

Themed walks through the City

Let’s go – Beyond “I guess that’s where we saw the Yalla dog!” *

*A Room with a View – E.M. Forster

Themed Trekking in the Tuscan Countryside

Take a stroll or a hike in Tuscany with one of our experienced guides – become part of the heart and soul of the region.

Mosaics

Florence is famous for Mosaics – for Byzantine artwork in Churches and for the delicate framed images of views of the City mentioned by Mark Twain in Innocents Abroad.

It is not an easy science to chop up small coloured stones and set them in place and it takes a little while to learn the skill but if you want to your own handmade souvenir home from Florence we can offer a four hour workshop from ‚€85 per person – this is more suitable for a two people than a large group.