Are you finding yourself dreaming of moving to Italy? (I am...) This episode brings you the inspiring journey of Ashley Bartner and her husband Jason, who traded their New York lives for an agriturismo in the enchanting La Marche region.

They’re living the dream—running a farm, hosting cooking classes, and sharing their experiences with those curious about relocating to Italy. You'll hear how they navigated the challenges of moving abroad, from securing visas to finding the perfect property and starting up La Tavola Marche.

Takeaways:

1. Ashley and Jason moved from New York to Italy and started their agriturismo, inspiring others to pursue their dreams of living abroad.
2. She shares their experience navigating the complexities of moving to another country, including visas, taxes, and local customs.
3. They offer workshops on how to successfully transition to life in Italy, helping people turn their dreams into reality, and addressing common challenges faced by expats.
4. We do a special Sip Spotlight on the unique local wine, Lacrima, and find a rare and exciting connection between Sonoma County and the La Marche region!

Episode Links and Resources:

Visit Ashley and Jason's Website to learn more about staying at the Inn, cooking classes and their Move to Italy Workshops!

Check out their podcast "The Podcast From Italy".

Follow them on Instagram

Find the local Lacrima

Contact Ramazzotti Family Vineyards in Sonoma County to try their Lacrima!

Other Links and Discount Codes:

Purchase my Sollevato Sangiovese 2022 and Sollevato "Fortunato" Red Blend (last call!)

(Use the code PODLISTENER for 10% off Nikki and Michael's Sollevato Wines!)

Follow me on Instagram to get the scoop on upcoming episodes and behind the scenes looks!

Enjoy some of MY FAVORITE THINGS from our Sponsors:

Use my VIP Friends and Family Link to sign up for Wine Spies! And use the coupon code NIKKI for $50 off your order of $200 or more!

You NEED some delicious California Olive Oil from our awesome sponsor American Olive Farmer. Use code SipWithNikki for $10 off your order!

Check out Sena Sea's website to get your hands on some beautiful wild-caught Alaskan fish shipped right to your door! Use code sipandsea for 10% off your order and sign up for their email list (great recipes!) and be entered to win a monthly $50 gift card drawing.

Questions, suggestions and guest requests? nikki@sipwithnikki.com

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We decided on LA Marque. Honestly, that was the only non romantic part of the story. It was purely doing research.

We didn't even come to La Marche on our honeymoon because it wasn't in.

You had been to that region. Naples, Sorrento, Amalfi, Rome, Venice, Milan.

We did, but no, we didn't end up here because Rick Steves didn't cover it. And we were like, I don't know what's over there. It's not in the blue book.

Stick to that. Hello and welcome back to Sip with Nikki.

I'm your host, Nikki Lamberti in Sonoma County, California, and I have a new best friend, or at least I hope so.

Her name is Ashley Bartner and she and her husband Jason are Americans who moved to the La Marche region in Italy, which is on the eastern side of the boot, and now run an organic agriturismo. So an inn, a farm, they teach cooking classes and they're basically living the dream.

I don't know about you, but multiple times in the last couple years, I have heard the words coming out of my mouth. I'm just gonna move to Italy or I'm gonna retire in Italy one day.

So if you have ever had that dream, whether it's Italy or anywhere else, these two people are doing it. Jason is a chef. Ashley had a hospitality background and they just Figured it out. Which, you know, is one of my favorite things to do in life.

Just figure it out. And they're not keeping it to themselves.

One of the things they do is they actually teach classes on how to do what they're doing, how to move to a fore country, how to navigate visas, taxes, real estate, health care, and actually be expats living in another place. So I'm so excited for you to hear our conversation.

We talked about not only the process of getting there, but what type of experience they offer for guests. The cooking classes that Jason is leading.

You know, they're in a small village in the Lamarque region, which by the way, if you are a regular listener, that region in Italy should sound familiar because Travis Ramazzatti, who was an interview last year, the Ramazotti family here in Sonoma county are our grape growers and their family is from that region. So like worlds were colliding. But it is a very small Italian village.

And so I was also just curious about what's the day to day living there and how are they received by the locals. And of course we do a very cool sip spotlight.

I'm not going to give too much away, but we tasted the same super rare variety of wine, mine from Sonoma county and hers from La Marche. And it was a very cool tasting.

I'm gonna put all the links in the show notes to their website and how to learn more about booking a stay there cooking classes or even if you're interested in their workshops on how to do what they do, which they do remotely. So check out the links in the show notes. Here we go with Ashley of Le Tavola Marque.

Ashley, it's so nice to meet you and I know our schedules are crazy and you guys are so busy, so we finally made it happen and I'm just really excited for our listeners to hear your story because the little bit that I know, I was like a, not only do you need to be a podcast guest, but I think I told you in my first email with you, I was like, we need to be friends and I need to come see you and be a part of this world and take your classes and take your seminars. So selfishly, I'm just very excited. So thanks for being here today.

Absolutely, I'm excited.

So I know that you probably have told your story so many times about how you wound up in the La Marche region of Italy as an American, but I'm going to trouble you to go through it one more time because I think it's amazing and I Want to hear all the details? What happened and how did you get there?

So it's a kind of crazy, romantic story. We came to Italy on our honeymoon and we decided to have a small wedding and a rockin honeymoon was what Jason's suggestion was.

And that kind of changed our lives forever. We had a tiny wedding and then we came to Italy for almost a month.

And there was just something about the people, the pace of life, the food blew our minds, the connection to it, how the everything varied from region to region. It was so much to discover.

And all of a sudden it was like, oh, my God, for the price of a shack in California, you could actually get a property in Italy with a house and land and all of this. I would work out to watching Oprah. So I wasn't really even working out. I would just be on the pre core, like going through the mot.

Better than nothing.

It's true. I worked at the health club, so it's the least I could do. But it was her live your wildest dreams year.

And I just remember thinking, like, why not live your wildest dreams? And so Jason came home from work one day. He was a executive chef in New York, and I had been working in hospitality.

And I said, oprah says, live your wildest dreams. I think we should move to Italy. And he was like, first of all, if you want me to listen, do not start with Oprah says, but stop.

Like, Michael, sorry, Oprah, we love you. We followed you.

We sat and talked about it, and it was like, are we crazy? We don't come from any money. We just spent all of our money on a wedding that we had paid for. How are we going to do this?

Where are we going to find the money? What are we going to do?

And so we thought we'd stew on it for a week or so, and then we kind of regroup and said, if we're going to do it, let's do it. And so we shut off the tv, we started learning Italian. This was before there was like Netflix and things where you could watch Italian movies.

Exactly.

Okay.

So we started working on the business plan all the time, trying to find an investor if that's what we needed. And then we thought we were going to get a different property altogether. That's always the story in Italy, it's never.

I shouldn't say never, but it is rarely the property you think you're going to get that you end up with. And sure enough, we thought we were going to buy a 14th century mill just north of here. We decided on Lamarque.

Honestly, that was the only non romantic part of the story. It was purely doing research. We didn't even come to Lamar on our honeymoon. Because it wasn't.

You had been to that region? No, because people go there then, like Naples, Sento, Amalfi, Rome, Venice, Milan.

Right, we did all those. But no, we didn't end up here because Rick Steves didn't cover it. And we were like, I don't know what's over there. It's not in the blue book.

Stick to that.

Why? I haven't been there yet either.

So everyone was telling us, you know, Umbria is the next Tuscany.

But we had zero interest in that because we knew if we were moving to Italy, we wanted to learn from the Italians how to live this life and the recipes and all of it.

And so we started looking on a map and strategically where the market was seemed if we were going on a road trip and going from Rome to Venice and wanting to go through Bologna, that's an interesting way to do it. And so we had a big map out and I started to think of it like that, like, how far is it? It's only two and a half hours from Florence.

Okay, that's interesting. We knew that we were going to have to promote the region also along with our business when we were picking a lesser known region.

But also it meant there would be little to no compet it. We honed in on la marque and the prices were much more in our ballpark. And it was.

They came up with this marketing slogan later, but they call it Italy in one region because you have the seaside, you have the apones, and it's only 45 minutes or so, maybe an hour drive between the aponies separating us from Umbria to Fano on the coast for the Adriatic. And so you get this mix of seafood and then the hillside and then the mountain side and the truffles and mushrooms and all of that.

So it seems like for food now and pork, grains supreme. So we were like, this could be kind of bountiful area. And so we thought we were going to get this other mill. It fell through at the last minute.

The bank literally just thought they knew the writing was on the wall for the financial crisis coming to America with the mortgages and they didn't want to do that kind of mortgage for two young Americans. We were 26, and to them, we should have been there with our parents. And they kept saying, we don't know you. We don't know your mama and your papa.

We don't know where he went to school. And so they could care less if we had an investor, if we had a business plan, or any of it.

And thankfully, we had a commercialista, which is a tax accountant, who was a young guy at the time. He was like 10 or so years older than us, and he just was in love with America and wanted to help us.

And at first, we didn't want to trust him because it was like, who the hell is this guy named Fabio? I don't know.

You know that's his name.

We love you.

Thank you.

Exactly. I don't think so. Now we joke. If we had a kid, his name would be Fabio.

I would.

But he stopped the bank meeting and said, why don't we take a break, A coffee break? And it was such a brilliant Italian maneuver and the best coffee break we ever had because it stopped the process of trying to buy this meal.

And he said, the bank will own you forever there. You want to change everything, Walk away.

And we had spent spent months on doing all the due diligence for this property and coming back to Italy to check it out again and spending tons of money on contracts with a angel investor, but you still have to spend money on an angel investor getting it all together. And so he said, walk away.

And it was one of those moments, too, where you're just like, oh, my God, we've just lost the last bit of money we had scrounged together to get it to this point. Like, what? And now we're starting back over. What are we doing?

And he said, why don't you look to rent a place instead of own, and everything will go much faster? And this was in September, and we were thinking we were moving in December. We had come out with our visa appointment ready to go.

All we needed to do is get this last document of the contract registered for the property, and then we could go to our visa appointment, which was scheduled for December. So we had one day left. We canceled the rest of that bank meeting.

And we said to the real estate agent, who was not happy because now she just lost out on a commission, we said, is there anyone willing to work with us? Is there someone who maybe would rent us a property? And she said, I know a guy, but he's crazy and he doesn't even show up to sell the house.

So I don't know if you'd really show up to rent the house. And we said, listen, we're going back to Rome the next day, so let's do it.

If he shows up and we get here and as we drive up, oh my gosh, we see how beautiful this all is. And this, the pool in the house.

And everything where you're sitting right now.

Exactly.

First time laying eyes on it. Okay.

And we said, why didn't you ever show us this to sell? And she said, it's way out of your price range. And like I said, he's crazy. So he said, okay. And we came down to talk to him.

And straight out of a movie, he immediately. He was chain smoking and on his cell phone under this big old cherry tree in the front yard.

And he immediately thought Jason reminded him of an old friend. And Italians really do. Especially if they're going to rent a property to you because they want.

You need to like, have the trust of them to maintain this property. But even sometimes to buy, but they need to feel something sometimes with you. And so he immediately was intrigued by us. He spoke zero English.

We barely spoke Italian. Blue tree, three words.

Tuesday, I don't know, like my Italian right now.

And we walked around the house and. And we said, could you leave all the furniture? And he was like dumbfounded and was like, of course, it belongs in this house.

What the hell would I do with it? We couldn't even go into our little place.

So we have the big main house, which is where we have the guest rooms and a big kitchen and dining room, which is part of where I'm sitting. And then we have a little cottage house just like 50ft or so from the front door. And so that was going to be where we live.

And we couldn't go in there because there was gigantic bees that had taken it over. And we were like, okay, sounds good. Well, that looks good. From the. We have no idea. Shutters closed, couldn't even look inside.

And bodies in there.

Totally. So we whispered to each other, I think this, we should do it. We sat at the kitchen table that we still have and hadn't made a handshake deal.

And we have, for one reason or another, continued to rent the property for nearly 20 years. We probably could have bought it by now, but we have a great relationship with him and have become like family. And I think he.

They didn't want to sell for a long time because they were hoping that younger generation, who is only like 10 years younger than us, would want to take it over, but they have zero interest in it. Small town. One wants to be a photographer, one wants to be a massage therapist, one is taking over the family business of meat and cheese.

So I get it. But we're lucky. So we love it. We have a great relationship with them and we've been here ever since.

Oh, my gosh. Which is coming up on 20 years.

Wow. I have so many questions. That's just you catching me up. First of all, thank you for walking me through that. So now current day agriturismo.

So people can stay there, they can dine there, they take cooking classes there. You do events, people can get married. So now you and Jason, the chef Jason, are running this business. Just the two of you or do you have a team?

Nope, it's just the two of us. It has always been, will always be. We have our adopted Italian papa who comes by and he likes to boss us around and he helps out in the garden and.

But that's about it. We have two ladies who sometimes come to help clean when we've got big flips going on. But it's just the two of us. And we used to do a lot more.

We have five apartments, but after Covid, it was also one of those things you reevaluate everything. And Instead of having 22, we realized we only wanted like 14 as a max. And really for the workshops, we now only do about 10 as the max.

We love the number 8, but. But like big groups for reunions and things like that or big birthday parties and stuff. 14 is usually then the max for that.

I'm starting because next year we'll talk and we might be coming to visit you.

That would be perfect. It would be so much fun.

When you said workshops, do you mean the cooking classes or do you mean the move to Italy workshops?

Oh, good question. Both. So we have the cooking class. Workshops are like the butchery courses, the sausage from scratch.

A wood fire pizza class.

Yes.

On your website. That's one of my favorites.

Yeah, we actually have a really cool one.

That's not just the pizza class, but we have a like a 3 and 41, that is with the wood oven that you use it at like four or five different temperatures. So that way when people have bought ones at home, it's not just for pizza. You always start it at the highest heat and then work your way down.

And we do everything from of course like roasted peppers and pizza to then breads that we do a roast. Jason does a chocolate cake in there. Then we do something like slow and overnight.

Whether it's like a huge shank of beef stewed in red wine or home feet, which is delicious. It's really fun. And just that it's not just for pizza.

Yeah, we've dabbled in that little bit. So during COVID we bought a Forno Venezia, which is a smaller but wood oven. And Michael has experimented.

It's so funny that you say Jason made a cake in there because I think the first time we made pizza and we so excited and we're like, what else can we put in here?

And it was the end of the night and he put like cookie dough in a cast iron skillet and made like a toll house pie that was all like smoky from the oven. And now we're doing chicken wings in there. But we're always loving to learn more. Okay, noted. That's on my list. Really?

Our listeners are just getting to listen into my 50th birthday vacation planning. That's really what this is. So there are half day classes, full day classes, and multi day cooking classes, is that right?

Absolutely. And then we do a few. We do a great behind the scenes market tour of. Actually, it's our landlord, Fushiani. It's the perfect dream team.

He has a artisanal meat and cheese warehouse that he sells mainly to restaurants. But we come in and he lets Jason take over.

And so Jason then explains how cheese is aged in our area and then how the pig is cured and breaking down all the pieces of the pig. And then we have a little brunch right there. Meat and cheese and wine, sample all the goods and then we go to the market for porchetta.

Okay, Will you add that to my itinerary that we're building active right now? We'd like to add that on there. People can sign up for your cooking classes regardless of if they're staying at the inn or not.

Of course we hope they're staying at the end, but there might be no room at the end. Right, so they can come for classes as well.

Just shoot us an email because it all depends on the schedule.

But yes, absolutely, we Ended up to have the space and so just to come for like a four or five hour class and come really finish with lunch or come in the afternoon and finish with dinner.

Okay.

And then of course, since this is wine centric too, then we've paired up with a good buddy since year one, Marco.

He has a site, Marco's Way, and he picks the guests up here at the farmhouse bright and early at 9 in the morning and they go out for a tasting at three different wineries and lunch and what Usually lunches at one of the wineries and normally back at the farmhouse at 7 or 8 is wild how long the day is. And guests always ask if I know which winery they're going to on any given day. It all depends on how the wind is blowing. This is Italy, baby.

And what's going on. Different times of the year, the summer busier than others and whatnot.

But they're all family run and it's so nice sometimes they've had where you're gonna go to three wineries and you only end up going to one or two because then you just get sucked in with what's going on at the winery and everyone's hitting it off and it's so nice.

And don't leave, stay there.

Exactly.

Okay. Add Marco's tour to my itinerary as well. So today is a Monday in October. So I'm just curious of.

I know people's like wheels are turning as they're hearing about what you and Jason did and the dream and moving there and owning this inn and farm. So like today's Monday end of the day for you. What did your day look like today?

Today we didn't have guests guests here. So I'll give you a little bit actually of yesterday because guests checked out. So 5, 30ish, we're up. Make a cappuccino, let the dogs out, come back.

We always kind of review what's going on for the day since it was Sunday and guests are checking out. And then yesterday was great because it was the boar hunters kickoff lunch.

A little bit of this on your Instagram today. Yes, yes.

So the boar Hunters lunch, they do a polenta lunch and invite a bunch of the kind of neighbors in area where they go boar hunting to come and they put on this big feast and you get to hang out with all the oldies and the neighbors and it's really sweet and fun. And I was saying to Jason, we've traded pumpkin everything for autumn in Italy in our areas like Palenta, everything.

So you have truffles oh, for sure.

Truffles are all over the place. But it just seems like we're always going to like palenta festivals right now too.

And then in the afternoon, come back, back, have to take a little bit of a nap because you've eaten so much and had way too much red wine and come back, take a nap.

So usually the majority is Americans, that's for sure. Or I should say North Americans, then northern Europe. So I would say that was about. About 60%, 60 years.

So for 60, 70, then I would say we get a lot of northern Europeans that do speak English, a lot of Dutch families. This year we had a handful of Norwegians.

And this year, interestingly, we have had a handful of Israelis, which just even with all of everything going on in the world, I thought that is great. Come travel to Italy, get away from chaos.

Yes, we definitely saw a decrease in tourism this year in our area, throughout all of Italy and just Europe in general. Even talking to butcher and things like that. Small. From small scale restaurants to like bigger hotels and things.

I think it was people were unsure or just saving some money. And I get it when eggs are so expensive and eggs aren't as expensive here, but things like heat and energy is.

So you have your own chickens, right?

We do.

That's great. My last visit to Italy last summer is when the bug was really planted for me to think about.

I would like to move there and pursue citizenship from my lineage. A question that I have for you.

But I know that you guys have obviously identified that there is a need for this because you've created those move to Italy workshops that you offer both virtually in person.

And then there's like a three day where like Michael and I could just come and stay with you guys for a few days and you could help us figure it all out. So tell me about that and how did that come to be?

This came to be because we would always get so many questions about how we moved here, how we did it. I think it's one of those things, things that people talk about for years and years but never really commit to doing it.

And it's kind of like a dream.

Yeah. But not a plan for so many people. It's just abstract. How romantic would that be to move there?

We call it Dream Drop.

Yes, Dream Drunk.

And we realize just because you might be smart in business, in other Places, especially when it comes to hospitality, that people take it for granted. And a lot of times people say, well, I grew up in a family that loves to cook and it's. Or loves to eat. Yeah, most people did. Yeah.

But it doesn't mean you can then charge people for food and that experience. So anyway, between all the questions we had throughout the years, we realized maybe we do know something about doing this.

And so we started the workshops and we break it up into preparation because it's so much of it is the preparation transition and then the execution and assimilation.

So whether it's just, just moving to Italy or having a rental place where you want to have as a vacation or part time, or you've retired and you just want to live here, which is the best live here and not have to work at all and only have to deal with the bureaucracy when you're first moving here and then you're done. Or if you want to do the whole crazy gamut and run a business. So a lot of the times we are like good cop, bad cop.

Where I will be a forever dreamer and you're true leader and supporter. You can do it. Look, we came came to Italy on her honeymoon and moved here immediately after. I get it, it's a crazy thing to do.

But then Jason will be like, who's paying for this? How is this getting done? Where's the money coming from? So getting the work done.

So I am you and Jason is Michael. And that's good in every couple because to have that balance, right?

A hundred percent.

Okay, all right. So you guys come at it from those aspects. And I know that you cover things like healthcare, taxes, owning and renting a property.

My question is, are you still on visas? Are you citizens now?

We got our citizenship finally, thank God. I felt like Jason born having two passport. So that was huge because we had a self employed visa.

And as an American you need to have lived here for 10 years to apply. These rules are starting to change. And we just had some votes that then kept it this way, but they're looking at changing some of this.

But when we did it, it was 10 years. You had to live here as a resident and then you could apply and ask. And at that point it was two years to reply by the government. But Covid happened.

So then it changed to nearly five years, which is now what the rule is. So really it takes 15 years as an American to get your citizenship.

And the exhausting part is just as a self employed, you have to fill out all for anyone. Actually you have to fill out all of these documents every one, two or five years, depending on what kind of of way you renewed your visa.

And as self employed, you just get frustrated because you almost feel like, I just take my tax return, everything else is the same. And then you'll see I'm still working and doing this. But no, that's not the Italian way. But you just learn to live with it, grin and bear it.

And it's the hard that makes it great. If it was easy to move to Italy, everyone would be here and it wouldn't be that great.

So because you have worked through that hard and that struggle, gosh, what a great resource you can be to help people navigate that. And of course everyone's situation's gonna be different. But I just.

When I was learning more about what you guys are doing, even beyond the hospitality piece, and I saw that you're doing these workshops, I was like, this is brilliant. Because there are so many of us that talk about it.

I've been following some of the changes in the law because I was getting ready to start the process to pursue citizenship through my dad's side of the family, because it's my great grandparents that were from there. And for the longest time you could do it.

But then I'm sure, you know, they've been talking about bringing it back down to only two generations, but now maybe it's not. And it's fluid. So they're like, start the process now and see what happens. So is this kind of what you are familiar with on your end as well?

Yes, and it's even further than that where even if you have your Italian citizenship, but you haven't been a resident in Italy for X amount of years, they want to start seeing you coming back and reinvesting in Italy in one way or another, which does make sense because their thought is it's just you're abusing the past passport if you're not even here now. I know no one that we're talking to doesn't want to be in Italy.

That's the whole point. But that makes sense. And they want you contributing to the economy, whether you're a business owner or just supporting businesses living there.

And then there's all these incentives that you see of this little town in Italy is paying people $23,000 to come and relocate and try to bring people back. So I know that there's a lot of that in certain areas too. Just trying to get the younger generation in.

And a huge part of that too, in those, a lot those areas are where not to be at Debbie Downer, but where there have been earthquakes and that so much structural damage has been done. And then there's no other infrastructure, literally. Not just literally of, like, buildings, but other shops and services, I should say.

So it's really difficult. I know you got to try to just start somewhere. So you need some crazy people.

Yeah.

To jump in and do it too. But it is hard. It's slow.

That makes sense. Sense why they're encouraging people to come. So now we're going to go into our Sip Spotlight. Sip Spotlight.

And I was so excited when you said alecrima, which, of course is a native grape to the region where you are. You can't find it anywhere else. But there is one family here in Sonoma county, the Ramazati family, who are our growers for the wine that we make.

Because this is a tower that's actually on their family's property.

Oh, my gosh. But that is just so beautiful. And what a small world. That is unbelievable.

And I was texting with Travis Ramazani this morning, letting him know about this and just fact checking. And he said, yeah, to his knowledge, they're the only domestic producer in the US of this grape.

I'm not going to get into how they got the vines here. So I'm going to taste the California expression of this grape, and you're going to taste the local La Marche expression of this grape.

How crazy is that?

This is by a winemaker named Juy, and he is one of our most favorite winemakers here in La Marque. He's what you want your winemaker to look like. He's like a lion of a man with sausage, thick fingers, but stained red.

And he named his white wine after his wife and did a dedication to.

Her on the back.

And the lacrima is Luigino was his father. And this one is dedicated to his father that taught him the wine making process.

Process.

And it is just such a small, teeny, tiny town in all of Italy that this one grape is grown that they say predates the Romans. And it's this orange and peppery flavor. So it's very unique, and it is so special.

I can't wait to find out more about your winery, because I could tell our guests when they go home. Here's a place you can actually get some.

Yes. Cheers. Oh, it smells great. So the color for me is richer than I thought it would be.

Cause one of the things that I read about the name meaning tear, I read two different stories about why it's called that. One is that the grapes actually form themselves almost a teardrop shape.

The second one that I read is that the skin can split and cry the juice out of it, which is also where maybe the name comes from. Do either of those ring true for you?

It's a little bit of both. Exactly. So they wait to pick it until it's so heavy it's almost weeping. They will say in that beautiful Italian poetic.

And what I know that this grape is known for, just in general, and obviously this is probably more true of the Italian expression of it, because there really is not a lot of reference for a California expression of this grape.

But it is known for having medium tannin, medium body, floral notes like lavender, roses, violets on top of stewed strawberry, which was something that I read. And overall, it's just known for being very distinctly scented.

And when I smell it, if this was a blind tasting, obviously I don't think I'd be able to say what it is, but I'd be able to say what it's not. And I'd be like, I don't know what that is, but that's not Pinot Noir. That's not Sangiovese. That's not Cabernet Sauvignon.

It has its own distinct smell, at least the one that I've got here.

Absolutely. Very frightening.

Not vegetarian sweet or anything like that. And I am sensitive to more tanniny wines. And this one stays cleaner on my tongue, if you will.

What vintage is what you're drinking?

Okay, cool. And we'll put the links to both of these in the show notes.

Do you know if the lion of the winemaker who makes what you are tasting right now, does he even export. Do you know if something could be found in the wine?

He does.

Okay, good.

He's excellent. He does export his wine. He doesn't make much like you. One great version of the lacrima is if you find a. Or a Rosato version.

Getting to know it on the nose. It's so unique. Yeah. It's like its own thing. It's not like Anything else that I can equate it to mine is medium weight or body.

There's some tannin there, but it's not peeling the enamel off my teeth, so I'd say medium tannin. And I know one of the other things I read about this grape is that it's generally best to drink young.

Now, I want some of the shanks and the stewed meats and the things that you talked about doing as the pizza oven is cooling down 100%.

This is such a good one for some of the shanks. Exactly. It has that pepperiness to the wine and imparts in those kind of floral hints as well.

Do you serve your wine that you're drinking there, your local lacrima? Do you and Jason ever serve it on the menu there to your guests?

Oh, 100%. So all the wine behind us is for the guests. Everything that you drink from our farmhouse is between our house and the coast.

And so it's all very close. And we know the winemakers well after all these years. So it's all. Yeah, everything is super hyper local in that sense.

I love that. That's amazing. I know that your farm is considered organic farm to table, so you have your chickens and all of your produce and all that.

But then I love that you're sourcing wines that are literally, like you said, how many miles just between you and the coast. So uber local, which is amazing.

Exactly.

As is this for me, with the Ramazani's property probably being about 15 miles from where we're sitting. It's beautiful as it opens up. It's fruity, but mild. And then there's definitely that pepperiness.

It doesn't quite go towards, like, Nebbiolo, which I love. They talk about tar and roses, right? Where you have, like, that juxtaposition of this floral note, but literally with tar underneath.

This does not quite go to that for me, but there is that pretty, kind of perfumey floral note and then just nice rich fruit. On Sunday, we typically either do pizza here or yesterday to honor my dad, Dominic, who recently passed away.

I was doing his favorite thing on a Sunday, which is a big pot of red Sunday sauce.

So yesterday I made sauce and I made a lasagna and then I also made a homemade manicotti because I couldn't decide which one to make, so I just made them both. And so now Mike and I are just two people in this house. So now we have a ton of leftovers. Leftovers.

This is gonna be so delicious tonight when we hit the leftover sausage lasagna and the spinach menegotte.

It's going to be perfect.

I'll try not to drink it throughout my work day. Between now and then.

It is. It's perfect. It's meant to be my friend.

Cheers.

Cheers. Chin chin.

Drink this with you in person when we come to visit, which is hopefully next year. All right, here's my question. You and Jason spend a ton of time together. It is just you and the team running the business. You are married.

You have a podcast together. How is that going? And how do you guys keep a healthy relationship when you're spending 247 together?

We call it TT together time all the time. You have to have a sense of humor. Luckily, we were friends before we started dating, so that, I think, helps.

We were dating well and lived together for. For seven, eight years before we got married.

Okay.

So that helps. Also, I've worked in hospitality, and I understand the dynamic of a chef and what that world can be in the kitchen.

And then you have to realize how remote we live. So it just kind of really likes each other. Yeah, you have to really like each other. You have to have a sense of humor.

You have to also have a sense of responsibility. And we're not just out here having fun, the two of us.

It's holding each other accountable for the business, which can be hard and frustrating at times. We're able to laugh and joke now. I've been fired many times from him or kicked out of the kitchen many times.

Wait, have you fired him?

I've never fired him, but he's driven me crazy, and he knows it. But it was like you just these different years. We ran so hard and so exhausted and just physically, how much your body works.

From being in our mid-20s to now mid-40s, you start realizing the how much you need, like, to be smart on how you work as well and not just heave ho and go at it, but we are. We're really lucky that there's been certainly tough times throughout these years.

Obviously, this is difficult, and you try to figure it out, but you just have to be thankful for what we've done together and then go, all right, let's see what we can do next. And I don't know. We're really lucky. Can we. Do we still laugh all the time and you can hear it on our podcast, but we do.

We still have a good time together. He keeps feeding me, making him laugh.

Amen. All right, so final question then. Would you do it again every time?

Yes. A thousand times?

Yes.

Wouldn't change anything because like we said, the episode would be. It's the heart that makes it great. So you got to have these struggles and frustrations and. And not know how to talk to a plumber.

And the house is frozen and claw your way up and be hungry for the success and to make it work, I think sometimes.

But if you put your mind to it and your heart and your soul and your full determination, you too can live in Italy and have a make your dreams come true.

You guys are an inspiration not only for me, but I know for so many people that are going to be listening to this. And I hope one day that we are drinking water, wine under the same roof.

And we say that was the moment where the seed was planted for Nikki and Michael. And now they're making wine in Italy. And I'm manifesting a little bit. Thank you.

You got to put it out there. You got to put it out into the universe.

I am. And I know so many people are going to benefit from your workshops.

So just tell our listeners where to go, how to find you and what they should be following.

Absolutely.

Visit our website@latavalamarque.com which is l A T a V O L a M A r c h e.com and from there you can find all of our workshops, the virtual and in person move to Italy workshops, to the cooking classes and those workshops, or to book out the farmhouse. You can follow us on Instagram.

I'm always on there, either for myself, Ashley Bartner, or at Latava Lamarque, both Instagram, Facebook and our podcast.

And I'll put the links to all of those things in the show notes so people can find and click very easily. But thank you for the that this was wonderful. I appreciate you and your time. I know you're so busy.

Go enjoy the rest of your beautiful wine and hopefully I will see you real soon. Thank you.

Thank you, Nikki. A la prosima. Until next time.

Thank you.

Ciao.

Ciao. Are you ready to do it?

Are you ready to follow your dream like they did and live in an Italian village and farmhouse and oh my gosh, gosh, I'm just so enamored with what they're doing. I'm inspired by what they're doing and I hope that you are too.

And I love that they are making their tips available to everyone so that if you are feeling this dream on your heart of being somewhere else, whether it's now or in retirement, they can help you figure out how to do it. So make sure to check out the links in the show notes if you are traveling to Italy and want to book a stay.

If you're interested in signing up for their seminars and definitely follow them on their Instagram La Tavolamarque that's T a V o L a Tavola is Italian and then Marche M a r C H e I want to thank Ashley for taking an hour out of her day to spend time with me because as you hear they are a two person show running it all and I truly hope one day that I get to meet Ashley and Jason. If it happens, you know I'll be recording the podcast on location there.

If you're interested in trying the Superwear Lacrima, visit the Ramazotti website and you might be able to get your hands on some.

That and whatever you do between now and next week, I hope that you sip well.

That Sam.