Tero Parkkinen, Finnish Italy4golf ambassador and thirty years journalist specialized in golf, comes to Italy to test the quality of our Experiences first hand. A five-day FAM trip accompanied with great pleasure by the Italy4golf team between Lombardy and Tuscany, a tour to discover the best Italian golf courses and some selected local excellences.

An intense week that began for Tero Parkkinen with a comfortable stay on Sunday 11 October at Iseo Lago, a 4-star hotel full of services a few hundred meters from the historic centre of Iseo, preceded by a tasty dinner with Mario Taglietti, creator and co-founder of Italy4golf, based on baked Tench, a local speciality prepared in a masterly way in the beautiful and historic trattoria Al Porto di Clusane.

Monday 12th is a crisp and clear sunny day after a rainy weekend. At 10 am Tero and Alberto Genovesi of I4G are already at the starting tee on the first course, the Franciacorta Golf Club in Corte Franca, a historic GC open 365 days a year. Sunday you could only be stunned by the beauty of nature. A day in which the clarity of the air allowed you to sweep your eyes to see the peaks of the Pre-Alps follow one another behind the Lake Iseo as well as the colours of the leaves that already hinted at a very first change towards the colourful and warm autumn tones.

After 18 holes in tranquillity and joy with Alberto, Tero continues to be pleasantly surprised by the beauty and condition of the course. A brief interview with the director Diego Cancarini who explains to Tero the history but also the vision of the Club, and it is time for Tero and for the I4G trio of an essential premium activity for international golfers interested in playing in Franciacorta: a visit with tasting in a historic cellar of the Franciacorta Consortium.

For the occasion, we went to Bersi Serlini, a family-run winery where tradition and rigour meet young and modern management. Chiara takes us on a tour in which we discover the medieval origins of vine cultivation on these same lands, but also the fundamentals of the Classic Method and the evolution of “Franciacorta champagne” over the last century. An excellent tasting of the best Bersi Serlini productions and the company set to Chervò Golf Hotel and Resort San Vigilio in Pozzolengo, where Tero will stay for his second night and where the Italian Open has just been played.

Tuesday 13th, Tero is back on the field with Alberto in another beautiful Lombard club, which also hosted the Open just a couple of years ago: the Garda Golf & Country Club in Soiano. Another course that thanks to the proximity of the lake, this time that of Garda, can enjoy an optimal climate for playing golf in all seasons of the year. A course of Anglo-Italian conception with three 9-hole courses that, according to experts, is capable of enchanting for its great technical and landscape attractions.

At Gardagolf we meet the pros Matteo Manassero and Nino Bertasio completely by chance, in a full training session in anticipation of the 77th Italian Open. After a refreshing cold beer on the 19th hole, this is an opportunity to exchange a few words also with the director of this splendid golf club, Loris Vento. The day ends with an evening walk in the fairytale historic centre of Sirmione, the Roman pearl of Lake Garda by virtue of the characteristic peninsula that winds its way north into the lake.

Wednesday 14, before the transfer to Tuscany, there is time for a very welcome visit without golf at the Chervò Golf Hotel and Resort San Vigilio, in the midst of preparations for the 77th Italian Open scheduled for the following week, in which we are accompanied by its charismatic president Pietro Apicella, undoubtedly a farsighted Italian club president with an international approach whose work is having excellent results for the Chervò Golf Hotel and Resort San Vigilio.

The story of Tero Parkkinen’s FAM trip in Italy continues in the next article on this blog!