Just like starting over

After 17 years of Bicycling /Food /Wine Courses in Puglia, we've changed.... everything

Like wine itself, our old bicycle/food/ wine courses were based on geography and the lay of the land. We used to host them at the castle, which was just off of the Adriatic (‘Adriatic on the right you’re heading north, on the left, heading south’).

It’s a beautiful part of Italy- and of the Mediterranean- but a part that simply doesn’t produce wine. We drank a lot of it during the courses but we couldn’t really see the grapes growing. Nor meet those that made it.

We’ve now moved the course to the new school Lecce*, which is very close to some of the best vineyards in Italy.

How close?

You might say ‘a bike ride away’.

Puglia produces a lot of wine, more than all of Australia. And a disproportionate number of the DOCs are near Lecce, North, South and West of the city (go East and we’re back at the Adriatic).

*New school in Lecce

Our new course departs from our new Lecce school.

We still cook in the evenings but the day time we eBike to a different vineyard each day to do a tour, a tasting, have lunch in the winery and learn about some different aspect of Italian wine. That evening we match the day’s wines with the dishes we prepare. Then we go to bed, get up, drink espresso and do it all again.

Bicycles in the countryside move at the perfect pace: we always stop and talk with all of those working the land to hear their stories and ask what they are having for lunch. Here a sunflower farmer talks about his produce. ‘I don’t know. Whatever my sister cooks’, he said. ‘She’s very talented in the kitchen’.

We are partnering with a new bicycle shop just around the corner from the new school (the top-of-the-line eBikes cost more than my first three cars).

To learn more

To our site

To our calendar

We’re offering this course 4 times in 2026 and 2 of them are already full.

We’d love to have you with us.

Silvestro

Lecce