Earth and Spirit Tour
Springtime in Southern Italy
April 4 - 15, 2013

Italy Tour 2013

Item# springinitaly

Product Description

Spring Tour to Southern Italy April 4 - 15, 2013
with Herbalist Gail Faith Edwards

Please note: Our 2013 Tour is full - we are now accepting reservations for 2014. The itinerary will be much the same and the dates will be within the first two weeks of April.

Our base camp during the 2013 Earth and Spirit Tour will be a newly renovated stone house in a remote and friendly medieval village at the base of our mother mountain, Mount Cervati, the largest mountain in the area.

Your home is comfortable, spacious and artfully designed with an eye toward maintaining traditional features. It has central heating in every room, fully modern bathrooms, a cozy fireplace, modernized classic Italian kitchen and a large comfortable balcony from which we can look over the hills and valley. Best of all, it's conveniently located right outside the door from our parking area and is right down the cobblestone passageway from my house. I can't wait for you to come and stay here with me in my beloved Italian village!

We're in the heart of the Cilento National Park, one of the largest intact wilderness areas of the world and our village is a World Heritage site. Our location puts us in very close proximity to the Grotto of Vallicelli, which was a thriving Bronze Age community, inhabited since the Paleolithic era, and home to some of the original inhabitants of this mountain area. Bring a head lamp or flashlight and I'll take you inside to see housing Italia style 50,000 years ago!

From time immemorial its unique geographical position has made this land a natural crossroads for the cultures that developed on the Adriatic, Ionic and Tyrrhenian coasts. The ancient culture of Villanova, Lucanian civilization and the later Greek colonization all met here. It is a most amazing and magnificent place!

Our valley was once the central location for Dianic worship in all of Southern Italia. This spiritual tone and sense of reverence for nature and all that she represents still permeates the hills and valleys as well as the lives of the people here. Life, and the sense of the divine, really hasn't changed all that much since ancient times.

"We all loved your village and especially the people. They were all so welcoming!" L. Brainerd

This pristine, magical, and centrally located place is in the region of Campania,(formerly Basilicata until the unification of Italy changed our borders.) and we'll be in the midst of one of the most incredible agricultural areas of the world with a legacy of growing and preparing foods that goes far back into ancient history.

We'll visit several of the world's best preserved archaeological sites and hilltop villages, make pilgrimages to ancient as well as modern shrines and meet many of the earliest Mediterranean Gods and Goddesses as they are still portrayed, though perhaps renamed, in their original locale. We'll have many opportunities to learn about the lineage of Great Mother, the plants and trees long associated with her, and to understand the depth of her roots in human culture. We'll pay homage to her in her many guises throughout these lands, including offering our prayers before an 11th century Byzantine Black Madonna.

All the while we will be surrounded by the local flora, the mountains will be awash with thousands of wild orchids and an amazing array of springtime color. The wonder and abundance of a great diversity of wild medicinal herbs, flowers and trees will be all around us and permeating all we do.

We'll visit the Certosa di San Lorenzo, the second oldest monastery in Italy which took over 400 years to build and holds an extraordinary collection of art and artifacts, many as old as 7,000 years and uncovered right here in our valley. These are world treasures that are virtually unknown and an absolute blessing to behold.

In a nearby village we'll enter an ancient Aslepian Healing and Dreaming temple, in use for many centuries before Christianity, transformed into a Catholic Church and now a remarkable museum.
Next to the Dreaming temple is the Museo d'Herbe which houses a collection of the rich botanical diversity of the region and explanations of their traditional uses. I'm excited to take you there! And we'll also pay a visit to the ancient Baptistery of St. Giovanni, long dedicated to Attis before the Christian era.
You will be awed by the natural wonders of the Amalfi coast, the inland mountains, the Cilento Parco Nationale, the villages that climb into the sky, the olive groves and gardens, as well as the proliferation of magnificent art and architecture everywhere we go. We'll visit and explore an ancient, prehistoric settlement,one of the oldest in the world, made entirely of ancient caves. The people of this area, descendants of the indigenous people of the Apennine mountains, are among the most generous, loving and hospitable people found anywhere in the world. You will have plenty of opportunities to associate with and learn from these inspiring people.

We'll visit a few of their well tended organic gardens, learn to make a variety of hand made pastas entirely from scratch and watch mozzarella cheese be formed before our eyes by artisans who have been doing this for generations.

Just as they have done for centuries, village women will be on hand to personally guide us through local shrines and share their history and meaning. Our village design and archetecture is outstanding. It was built in the 9th century, but human habitation here goes back at least 50,000 years.

"Your people are so beautiful, and I just wish we had more time to spend with them. I definitely want to go back again" D. Zawalik

"I had such a great time! I especially loved the herb gathering and putting up herbal medicines. I am still enjoying my rosemary oil!" C. Perry

Cost of the entire 12 day tour is $4,900. Your tour consists of two days of international travel, and ten full days touring the sites in Southern Italy. The fee includes your airfare from Boston to Rome and return, your transportation from Rome to the village as well as all transportation while on tour and all lodging. The majority of your meals are also included in your tour fee.

You will be provided with the makings of traditional Mediterranean breakfast and will be on your own for a few lunches. All the rest of our meals, including every dinner while on tour, is included in your fee. Most of our dinners will be prepared and graciously served to you by my daughter, Rosa Jane and her husband and "sous - chef," Adam Rosario, using the freshest, local, and for the most part, organic ingredients. There are a few days when we will eat dinner out in a traditional Italian Trattoria. Our meals are guaranteed to be a highlight of every day.

Rosa and Adam are well known and highly regarded for their amazing food preparation, graciousness and hospitality skills! They will function as our support crew - doing our cooking, caring as well as our transporting.

It is a great joy for me to lead the Earth and Spirit Tour and introduce you to an area of the world that is stunning for its incredible, ever changing landscapes, diversity of nature, both flora and fauna and its wealth of ancient history and culture, and proudly maintains it's connection to both the land and it's rich spiritual heritage. The village that will host us is my maternal family's ancestral home. I am truly honored to introduce you to it's people and their way of life, which is beyond inspirational. It is simply and deeply soul nourishing.

Because we have ancestral roots here and know it so well, we can bring our guests to amazing places off the beaten tract. Many of the places we visit are virtually unknown to "outsiders." The small size of our group ensures you have a deep and intimate experience, well beyond the scope of a large travel tour.

Note: If you are already in Europe and would like to join us for the tour, we welcome you! Please email us regarding the possibilities and adjustment in tour fee.

We are also willing and able to host private tours for small groups of friends and/or family. Let us know your needs and we will try our best to cater to them.

"I had a wonderful time and congratulate you, Rosa and Adam for your hard work, long hours, and dedication. Everything you did was aimed at our pleasure and you sure hit the mark...this trip was exactly right and I treasure every minute of it." J. Cohen

"You have a magnetic personality and a very calming presence. Your village and its people are absolutely amazing and inspiring. I predict the Earth and Spirit Tour will blossom beautifully. It certainly deserves to! We all had a fabulous time." N. Lovelace

We'll no doubt be joined from time to time by our neighbors: Carmella will give us a tour of her amazing garden, our milk will be delivered fresh by Antoinette, whose brother's farm is up on the mountain and the fruit man will come by on a daily basis, tooting his horn from a truck laden with the freshest fruits and vegetables imaginable.

The Spring 2013 Earth and Spirit Tour is intended to be a secure space where we can come into meaningful contact with our common, ancient spiritual history, culture and inheritance. It is a time to immerse ourselves in and hopefully resonate with the language, art, artifacts and customs of our Old World ancestors, still vibrantly alive and actively celebrated in Southern Italian culture. As the people here are fond of saying, in their deeply generous way: "This is not just Italian culture, this is human culture and belongs to all of us."

Our tour is limited to seven participants per year. A $500 non-refundable deposit will hold your place for this once in a life time experience in southern Italia and is due by December 31, 2012. Full payment is due by March 1st. You'll find payment links at the bottom of this page.

Approximate Itinerary:

1 - Departure USA - Arrival Italia! You'll probably want to rest and recuperate after all your traveling. We'll feed you a wonderful welcome meal and help you get settled in and ready for bed.

2 – We'll spend most of our first full day getting acclimated to our most amazing Medieval village, walking the cobblestone passageways, meeting village people, visiting gardens and shrines, hiking to the lookout where we'll enjoy a picnic lunch, and then take a short drive to the Baptistery of St. Giovanni, an ancient sacred spring, for your welcome and baptism into our sacred lands. Rosary and mass at Sant Giacomo church for those who choose in the evening, dinner at home with Rosa and Adam.

3 - Paestum archeological site and museum where we'll see over 2,000 year old amazingly well preserved temples, walk the temple grounds and examine close up original Goddess images in stone and fresco. This is the home of Hera and Ceres. A visit to an ancient temple outside the Paestum walls, now an active Catholic Church. Dinner at home with Rosa and Adam.

4 - Day of rest – This is your free day to do some exploring on your own. You may choose to wander the village, photographing the amazing art, architecture, gardens and people, take a day hike up the mountain, just stay in bed or hangout on the balcony if you desire! Rosa will be spending the day in the kitchen preparing a traditional pasta dinner. You are welcome to join her for a day of learning to make fresh pasta and a traditional tomato sauce, Italian Rustica style. We’ll all enjoy the feast together in the evening.

5 – Drive along the Amalfi Coast where we will enjoy the most incredible vistas imaginable and visit Vietri Sul Mare, a village known the world over for its beautiful ceramics - walk the cobblestone passageways of Positano, a haven for artists and intellectuals for thousands of years and where the shops are bursting with the very latest fashions, most of them hand made. It is here that we will visit and make offerings to the Black Madonna in the evening. We'll have the opportunity to browse the shops and we’ll eat a fresh and fabulous dinner here too.

6 – We’ll visit Padula and the Certosa Monastery & Museum, which holds an outstanding collection of 5-7th century BCE artifacts uncovered from our immediate area. We’ll then go over to Teggiano to visit both the ancient Aslepian Dream Temple with its incredible collection of frescos and sculptures as well as the Museo d'Herbe which holds a complete ethnobotanical collection and is laid out as a medieval apothecary. Here we’ll learn about traditional Italian folk medicine and the common uses of herbs in the home as well as for magic. Teggiano is called The City of Art and was founded in approximately 600 B.C. It has an incredibly rich history and was once the center of Dianic worship for all of Southern Italy. Dinner at home with Rosa and Adam.

7 - A visit to the world famous Gardens of Minerva, Europe's first medicinal herb garden, the one from which all others sprang. These historic gardens are located in Salerno, and were originally created as part of the first medical school in all of Europe. There are hundreds of medicinal plants growing here in the terraces that reach high up above the beautiful Gulf of Salerno. We'll have plenty of time to visit and learn about their traditional uses. This will be an amazing adventure for the plant lovers among us! Dinner at home with Rosa and Adam.

8 – We’ll be staying close to home today, traveling up our mother mountain, Mont Cervati. The vistas will be awe inspiring, as will be all the gardens! We’ll do a bit of wildgathering & visit the ancient Grotto de Vallicelli (our local cave with several rooms, including a half round, hand carved seating arrangement the ancients used for councils, carbon dated to at least 60,000 years of habitation.) There are all kinds of carvings on the walls in here, and the better your imagination and background in ancient art, the more you’ll see. We'll stop at our friend Giuseppe's farm and watch his brother creating marvelous cheeses from their fresh raw milk. You'll have the option of buying a ball of caccio cavallo, a cheese our entire valley is famous for, it is that delicious! Medicine making and dinner at home with Rosa and Adam in the evening.

9 - A visit to the Sassi, a prehistoric village in Matera. The Sassi is believed to be one of the world's earliest human settlements, reaching far back into Paleolithic times, continued into the Neolithic and had been in continuous habitation until the 1950's. The entire village is carved out of rock and is most incredible to see! We'll explore the many incredible levels, go inside a traditionally furnished Neolithic cave and view ancient, pre-Christian murals. Tonight we'll have a traditional Italian dinner out at the Rizzo!

10 - Today is our beach day! We'll take a trip to Marina de Camerota, and Palinuro, two of the most beautiful and classic ancient landmarks. Both known for their pristine beauty. Virgil wrote about the protected Gulf of Palinuro, and its incredible arc. We'll gather wild rosemary from the edge of the shore line where it has grown since ancient times among the scrub pines and cedars. Dinner at home with Rosa and Adam.

11 – Our last in the village. You’ll have the entire day to take care of any last minute shopping you want to do, say your good-byes and get yourself together for your departure tomorrow morning. Dinner all together with Rosa and Adam in the evening. We'll most likely be joined by the friends we have made here and our farewell dinner will be somewhat bittersweet. You won’t want to leave this magical land!

12 - Traveling home day. You'll be back in the USA by tonight.

"I had the most incredible, magical, life-altering trip. Thank you!" C. Perry

Here's a link to a photo album of people, places and plants from the village and surrounding areas:

Earth and Spirit Italia photos

Here's a link to description of Paestum and its archaeological treasures, including some photos.

www.paestum.de/en/paestum.html

Visit small villages in Southern Italia via this website created by my friend Claudia Cardello in the village.

www.visitandoilmondo.it

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