Experiencing Italian Business Excellence: Week 3

The week began with a field trip to Piacenza for our SME and Industrial Clusters class. It was a fantastic day.  

First we visited a small family run winery, La Tosa. Stefano, one of the brothers who initially founded the winery as a hobby which has now turned into a full time job, took us on a tour. He was a character and he talked the whole time...without even stopping for a breath! The passion for his work really came out in the way he described his wines, describing the flavours as if he was talking about a person. He gave each variety a personality.  

During the tour we were taken through the wine museum (currently a work in progress), followed by the cellars.

Stefano explaining the intricacies of wine making at La Tosa

He was even nice enough to allow us to have a tasting. 

 Following a short drive through the countryside (which was beautiful!), we stopped for lunch at a family run restaurant and farm.

Here we met Sophie the Ostrich, along with a few geese, goats, donkeys and a cow.

Following lunch it was off to yet another winery, Catina Di Vicobarone. This is a larger scale winery and here we were shown the bottling process and cellars.
 

 Followed by some more tasting.

 That Tuesday night we were lucky enough to get tickets to the Opera, Don Pasquale at La Scala. A fantastic occasion to get dressed up!

The theatre was very elaborate, and we had quite good seats.

The show was in Italian, but were little screens on the chairs with subtitles so we were able to follow the storyline. It was a fantastic show and the performers were amazing. I had a really nice night, and would definitely like to go back again.

Friday was yet another field trip. This time to Gucci headquarters in Florence. Getting up at 5am for the 4 hour bus trip was tough, but once there it was worth it. Here we saw the complete production for creating just one bag, which takes around 2 days as everything is made by hand. 

A few of us decided to stay the night in Florence. Most of our time in Florence was spent walking through the city just enjoying the scenery, and a fair bit of shopping. I really enjoyed my time in Florence, it's a beautiful city, I wish I had more time to spend there.

Emma.

Emma Paine is participating on our July 2012 Experiencing Italian Business Program in Milan. Emma is currently in her 2nd year of a Bachelor of Business Administration at University of Canberra