Agriturismo Cascina Papaveri 'The Poppy Farmhouse' offers guests the possibility of taking both Pilates and Italian cooking courses in a unique double activity vacation. Golf, cycling and skiing (two days per week in season) can also be arranged and guests can elect daily to take any of the activities, or skip sessions and just chill out and enjoy the great facilities.

The Agriturismo has been remodeled around an old Piemontese farmhouse set within it's own organic vineyard and kitchen gardens in the most stunning 'eagles nest' location overlooking hilltop villages and vineyard covered hills and valleys in Southern Piemonte, North West Italy, the food and wine capital of Italy.

We aim to provide our guests with an unforgettable rural Italian experience. All our staff, including our Chef Gino Minacapilli live within 5 km, with the exception of our visiting Pilates teachers. The success of the village, and with it the Italian rural way of life, is very important so we strive to maximise use of the village community. We actively seek out local suppliers of goods and services and use small producers for more specialised items. We are founder members of a newly formed consortium of farmers and producers in the village, and we will create a small display featuring members wines, preserves etc. that guests can purchase. A typical stay with us would involve local market visits where guests can choose a food item to feature in a buffet lunch, encouraging interaction with the locals. We visit local restaurants and take a wine tasting tour of small family vineyards. We also suggest local walks, church services, etc.

In redeveloping the property natural cork insulation was used extensively thought out the walls and ceilings etc for both heat and sound insulation. 80% of our total lighting is LED based, giving us dramatic energy reductions over normal lighting systems. We have 2 high efficiency stoves that provide heating. We also have plans to use solar photovoltaic produced energy.

We have special shower heads, which use 30% less water than conventional showers. All water taps in public areas are infra red to reduce water flow if inadvertently left on. All waste water is treated on site in our biological treatment works. This, and collected rainwater are used for both the toilets and to irrigate the vineyard and vegetable gardens in periods of low rainfall. The indoor swimming pool uses an oxygen system for water treatment, thereby minimising the use of chlorine. Being organic, we compost as much as possible and reuse on the land. We have very little packaging as virtually all of our additional food items are sourced fresh and locally without point of sale packaging. In addition all non compost waste is taken by us to a central recycling depot in the village.

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