A week-long adventure in cooking, sightseeing & real Italian culture...
...the Experience of a Lifetime

It’s all about fun, laughter, friends… and food, of course.  This is the core of Italian culture, so it is the core of every vacation we organize.   Our week-long cooking vacations are extremely unique, as they are designed not only to teach you to cook fantastic Italian meals, but to fully immerse you in Italian culture.  You will savor the meals you prepare while you soak up the culture behind them.  You will make new friends that are as interested in learning about you and your culture as you are about theirs.  It is as much about the food as it is about the experience. 
Whether you are a beginner, or a gourmet, you will not only have the time of your life, but you will leave with amazing new skills and appreciation for the delicate balance of ingredients that makes the best Italian food.

Click here to view a video of our 2007 tours.

Classes for the Real World

Our classes, which are held in the family kitchen of our country villa, focus on traditional Tuscan and Umbrian dishes with a few truly special dishes from other regions. We take great care to make sure these are recipes you will be able to make at home, and are sure to impress.  When you leave, you will bring home a recipe book that includes everything we made during the week, with metric to imperial conversions, as well as shopping lists for each recipe based on products you will find at home.

It’s like visiting family in Italy

Before you even arrive in Italy, you are family.  We will have spoken many times and gotten to know one another.  We will know your likes and your dislikes.  There is a simple reason for this:  Unlike cookie-cutter tour operators and cooking schools, we structure what we do so that we can fine-tune your vacation for you. 
Our groups are extremely small and intimate, rarely exceeding 8 people.  This gives us tremendous freedom to shape the week on the fly based on your desires.  The itinerary is not set in stone, and it is not fixed week to week.  So if we can stay somewhere longer if we like, or we can add stops to our day trips… whatever we want as a group.   In other words, we treat you the way we treat visiting family.  We don’t want to structure your vacation on our terms, we want to do it on your terms.

When we're not cooking, we're exploring

If we have a dinner class today, we will have an excurion in the morning. If we have lunch class, we will have an excurion in the afternoon/evening. That gives us at least six excursions during the week. Of course, if you feel like resting or going out on your own, you are free to, but if you want to explore with us, it is part of our all-inclusive policy. Our excurions change with every group, because we select them with the group! We can explore Ancient Etruscan Ruins, or visit Assisi for the day. We can spend a day in Rome, or head off to the beach. We can spend the day at the ruins of the Ancient Roman port of Ostia, or climb down the underground caverns of Grotte di Frasassi. We can tour Tuscan hilltowns, or the Marmore falls (The tallest man-made waterfall in the world, created by the Ancient Romans). There are seemingly endless options based on what kind of excurions attract you.

Experience it like a local

When we shop for our classes, we will shop in the local stores, where you will get to know the people behind the counters.  Before you know it, you will be on a first name basis with the butcher.  The grocer will welcome you in recognition as you get shop.  The fruit and vegetable stands will be genuinely proud to share the product of their farms with you.

On the occasions that we eat out, we will be sampling true local cuisine in trattorias and cafes where the locals eat.  After a few days, you will see people at other tables that you have encountered in town at one time or another.  Many of our guests tell us that after a few days, they feel a sense of ‘home’ here… that they belong… they can’t believe that in such a short amount of time, they made so many connections and felt themselves such a part of the town.   It is really an amazing feeling to be a world away, yet feel such a strong connection.

Even on the sightseeing tours, you won’t be among crowds of tourists.  Instead, you will be seeing the amazing Italy few people know exists, and you will see it more like a local would.

A typical all-inclusive cooking vacation includes:

• 7 nights accommodation in a beautiful medieval village home or B&B
• 3 or 4 hands-on cooking classes (as per itinerary)
• Lunch and Dinner out or catered when we are not eating the results of our class.
• Daily day trips and excursions
• 7 Traditional Italian Breakfasts (Cappuccino& Pastries)
• Wine with all meals, plus after dinner drink.
• All transportation (Including Rome Airport, Train Station or Cruise Terminal Transfers )
• All entry fees for tours
• English speaking guide throughout the week
• 1 cell phone per party.

Cost:

$2,695 per person, based on double occupancy.
$300 single supplement
$2,395 per person that does not participate in classes.
$2,495 for a 3rd or 4th person in same room

Custom vs. Scheduled Weeks

If you choose to book a cooking vacation on a week that we have not already scheduled one, you have the opportunity to create a custom itinerary. The limitation to this is that there must be at least four people in your party. If there are fewer than eight people in your party, your week will be added as a scheduled tour that others can join, based on your custom itinerary. If there are fewer than eight people in your party, andyou would like to keep your tour completely private, we can arrange to close your tour to others for a suppliment, depending on the number of people in your group.

Minimums and Maximums

There is a minimum of 4 people per week, and a soft maximum of 8 people. A soft maximum means that we will not book a week with more than 8 people unless the other guests for that week agree to it. We do this so that our guests can be assured that the group will be small and intimate, while also allowing room for groups of more than 8 people for private tours. For private tours, we can accomodate up to 50 people.

All-Inclusive Policy

Everything mentioned above is included in the price quoted.  These prices do not include: Airfare , Tips (welcomed but not required), food or drink between meals (except during classes). Personal expenses, excess baggage charges, or anything not indicated in the ‘includes’ section above.