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Claudia Harris' touring business takes small groups on culinary and wine-tasting tours through northern Italy. The trips cater to travelers who want cultural immersion. |
LAUDIA HARRIS discovered northern Italy during a semester abroad in college nearly 20 years ago.
Today, the Stafford County resident returns several times a year to introduce travelers to the unique culture and cuisine with which she fell in love.
Through her tour company, La Forchetta, Harris takes small groups to a picturesque corner of Italy along the Adriatic Sea that fuses Latin, Germanic and Slavic customs.
"The area is magical," Harris said. "The cuisine is very different from the typical middle European fare."
Next week, she'll guide travelers on a seven-day excursion to Trieste, the capital of the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region in northeastern Italy.
Harris became familiar with the region during a semester abroad in Venice while she was a student at Wake Forest University.
"I had the best meals of my life there, sipped heavenly wine, stumbled onto unforgettable sites and made friends for life."
She returned to the U.S. and got her law degree, then practiced law in New York City. While with the law firm, she spent time in Finland, Budapest and London as well as Italy.
She and her husband, Noel, were married in Italy and lived in the Friuli region for five years while he was stationed in Italy with the Air Force reserves.
"We spent all our weekends finding new restaurants and undiscovered towns and small wineries," Harris said. "I thought other people would enjoy sharing our experience."
During the tour next week, guests will stay in a family-operated hotel, hike along a dramatic trail overlooking the Adriatic Sea, and dine on favorite seafood delicacies prepared by a Croatian-born chef.
Another day, they'll join a local chef in her Friuli-style kitchen and learn to prepare local specialities such as porcini mushroom crêpes or an appetizer mousse with prosciutto and grated horseradish. They'll sip wine at the vineyard of a renowned Friulian winemaker. He makes it as the Romans did thousands of years ago by aging wine in simple clay urns.
The following week, she'll meet another group in Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera. The name is given to five picturesque fishing villages perched above the sea. They are accessible only by train or on foot. The region is isolated from the rest of Italy by mountains.
The group will hike to Portovenere, a Mediterranean village that inspired the poets Byron and Shelly.
The area also is known for its basil- and olive oil-based pesto, an oddly shaped pasta called trenette, and the salted bread known as focaccia.
Harris will conduct similar trips this fall.
Both regions have landscapes reminiscent of California, with dramatic cliffs that drop into the sea, Harris said. They're within about an hour's drive of Venice.
Those who take her tours are generally well-traveled people who want to steer clear of the typical Italian triangle of Rome, Florence and Venice, Harris said. They want to immerse themselves in the food, wine and customs of a particular region.
The trips are by no means inexpensive--about $3,000 per person for seven or eight days. That doesn't include air fare.
"It's the kind of experience for people who have fallen in love with Italy who want to linger for a week," she said.
Harris started her tour business in 1999 and continued after her return to the United States in 2002.
Terri and Ted Waller, who live in Boone, N.C., have made two trips with Harris and plan another one this fall.
"Claudia's extensive knowledge of Italy, its people and her fluency in Italian combine to give one a journey into the true Italy where locals gather, not 100 other tourists," Terri Waller said. "Her genuine love for what she does and relaxed manner puts everyone at ease."
Harris and her family are moving to St. Louis, where her husband has been transferred. She plans to continue to share her love of northwestern Italy, its food and its people, no matter where she lives.
Claudia Harris can be reached on the Internet at forketta@earth link.net or by telephoning 314/534-1826.
To reach MARTY MORRISON: 540/374-5423 mmorrison@freelancestar.com
