The travellers departed from Brisbane early in the morning, with the coach setting off at 6:30 am for the long journey to Stanthorpe, which lies at a distance of 250 kilometres from Queensland’s capital.

During the trip, a 40-minute break was made to allow the group to have morning tea, in a bar with sweets and coffee.

After the break, everyone climbed back on board and headed to the final destination: the International Club in Stanthorpe, where they met to dine with different groups of Italians from the Granite Region.

Having greeted everyone, the travellers took their places where they were immediately provided with bottles of exceptional local red and white wine by the bar, and plates of antipasto to begin the lunch.

A buffet of pasta, prosciutto cotto, chicken, potatoes and different vegetable dishes was served.

The fresh air of the countryside certainly helped increase the appetite of the group!

To lighten the mood, everyone was invited to dance, to a great musical duo composed of Fortunato and Frank, who played and sung many celebrated Italian songs, which were much appreciated by all.

It was the festive season, so Santa Claus made an appearance, wishing all a good season and giving gifts to the tourists from Brisbane.

After Santa’s departure they returned to dancing the tarantella, cha-cha-cha, mambo and more while remembering Christmases passed a long time ago and the dances from their youths in Italy.

Following this, the group went to their motel for a beautiful preparatory sleep, ready for the next day’s activities, but only once they had eaten fantastic pizza from the wood-fired oven at the International Club, accompanied by delicious local wines.

Early in the morning, the coach brought the travelers to one of the cherry orchards close to Stanthorpe, where they were able to collect and keep for themselves a bag of cherries to consume at their pleasure.

Everyone was amazed at the amount of fruit on the trees as well as the size and taste of the fresh cherries.

The Italian name ciliegia is derived directly from the Vulgar Latin word ceresia.

The fruit exists on two different botanical species: there’s the sweet cherry (Prunus avium), which produces the cherries which we usually consume as fresh fruit, or the sour cherry (Prunus cerasus), which is used to produce amarene, visciole or marasche, generically defined as sour cherries.

The cherry, which is normally spherical in shape and 0.7 – 2 centimetres in diameter, may also assume the shape of a heart or a slightly elongated sphere.

The colour, normally red, can deviate according the variety, from a light yellow to a red which is almost black.

The flesh can also assume diverse colouring and consistency depending on the variety, and ranges from white to darkish red in colour and soft to crunchy in texture.

After the cherries were picked, the coach took the group to one of the renowned wineries in the area, where they had the opportunity to taste some of the wines and purchase bottles of their favourite drops.

At midday, after boarding the bus, they were taken to a restaurant for lunch before departing for the return trip to Brisbane.

At the restaurant the travelers ate cannelloni, arancini, meat with different sides, salad and stuffed mushrooms, all accompanied by delicious local wine.

At the end of the meal a gelato cake was enjoyed with a strong coffee, before the group boarded the bus for the final time, and headed home.