Meet your host Jenny at the main Florence station, S-M.N., outside the Feltrinelli bookshop opposite platform 14 at 17.50. By train (Jenny has the tickets) to Montevarchi (40 mins), then by van (10 mins) to Rendola. After settling in, your welcoming dinner.

For riders a morning ride with Eraldo, your guide: for non-riders a stroll round vineyards and olive groves with Jenny, author of two books about the countryside. After lunch, a talk about that medieval marvel, ‘the cycle of the months’, and then a woodland walk. Dinner at home.

For riders, a morning ride with Eraldo. For non-riders on what is called ‘Pietro’s walk’: you will soon learn why! After lunch a short train journey to Arezzo to see a 2,500-year-old Etruscan statue, a Roman amphitheater and a 13C ‘cycle of the months’ in a beautiful medieval church. Then a drink in the picturesque main square where the Joust if the Saracen takes place. Back home for dinner.

Walk to the medieval tower of Galatrona, then have a drink at a local bar. Lunch in the medieval village of Loro Ciuffenna and then visit the medieval church of Gropina, the most interesting of its kind in Tuscany, with its rare 9th-century pulpit and animal carvings. Dinner at home.

For the horses – a free day! For humans, go by train to Florence for Jenny’s fun tour of the city center – unlike any other! Lunch at Jenny’s favorite restaurant, then up to the 11C church of San Miniato and a stroll round Piazzale Michelangelo for a panoramic view of the city. Alternatively, an unaccompanied visit to Assisi or Orvieto, both easily reached by train. Dinner at home.

For riders a morning ride, for non-riders a walk to have coffee with a neighbor. After lunch a walk and then a talk about the Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca and his world-famous frescoes in Arezzo about which Jenny is writing a book. Dinner at home.

By train to Arezzo to see Piero’s frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco, as well as other interesting artworks there, both medieval and modern. An opportunity to shop, then lunch in a trattoria, followed by a stroll up to the cathedral and ‘Il Prato’, the city park, with its Medici fortress and wonderful views. Back home for dinner.

After breakfast your departure by train, back to Florence or on to Rome (you can buy your own tickets at Montevarchi station).