Siena! Hamlets & Brunello Vineyards™

Join Chef Rolando and Elena in hands-on cooking classes and wine tours in Siena and Brunello while discovering Tuscany!  Nestled in the heart of a Tuscan vineyard and olive grove, you’ll learn how to turn farm-to-table ingredients into delicious Tuscan fare.

Chef Rolando, Elena and her husband, are passionate winemakers and sommeliers, and experts on cooking classes in Siena. From the day you arrive, you will be welcomed like family and swept up into everyday Tuscan life.  Learn cooking techniques while you make hand-made pasta such as pappa al pomodoro, Chianti risotto, and delicious strawberry tiramisù.  Taste the estate’s naturally produced extra virgin first cold pressed olive oil, sip and swirl the organic wines, and enjoy a relaxing spa treatment.  Explore the nearby towns of San Gimignano or spend a day at a Brunello di Montalcino winery for an unforgettable Siena wine tour experience.

Siena Cooking Classes

Join Chef Rolando and Elena in her kitchen for a hands-on cooking adventure where you will learn to cook in Siena while touring and tasting Tuscan wine.  Start with a stroll in her vegetable garden, gather seasonal vegetables and herbs, then return to the kitchen and prepare Tuscan antipasti, fresh pasta with seasonal sauces, main courses, and desserts with farm-fresh ingredients.

Start with antipasti and learn how to prepare ribollita – a Tuscan vegetable and bread soup, and bruschette garnished with zucchini, chicken liver, or white bean and garlic puree.  Fresh pasta comes next with Siena gnocchi, and penne alla fiesolana made with penne pasta, olive oil, prosciutto crudo, onions, milk, flour, peas, and butter.  Main courses include Cinta Senese a local breed of pig that has been in Tuscan cuisine since ancient times, and Sienese scottiglia: a poor man’s recipe made with lamb, rabbit, chicken, and pork and slow-cooked in a casserole with red wine.  In addition, there is always Florentine steak!

Tuscan desserts never disappoint with berriquocoli, a traditional rustic cookie from Siena, made with sugar, flour, honey, candied fruits, walnuts, and spices and cantucci, a traditional twice-baked cookie with almonds.  There is always crostata, an open pie served with gelato, made with Nonna’s recipe.  Chef Elena’s cooking classes are informative and fun, and include a full-course three-recipe menu – you select your courses.  Following each cooking class, everyone enjoys the foods that were prepared in the class with Tuscan wine that’s produced on the estate.

Tuscan Menus:

Antipasto: Learn the secrets of making traditional crostini: Tuscan bread baked and toasted with farmer’s vegetables, chicken sausage, or chicken liver; Florentine crepes stuffed with ricotta and spinach; garden squash flowers stuffed with ricotta; grilled eggplant stuffed and rolled with herbs and cheese; and Tuscan pumpkin or bean soups.  

Fresh Pasta and Risotto: Also on the menu are gnudi, a pasta-potato dumpling in sauce, fresh and hand-made pici, strapponi, ravioli, tortelloni stuffed with cheese, seasonal mushrooms or pumpkin or herbs or truffles, when in season.  Also, learn how to prepare gnocchetti verdi di patate con pomodorino fresco e basilico, green potato gnocchi with fresh tomatoes and basil – a farmers’ favorite.

Main Course: There is pappa al pomodoro, a Tuscan bread tomato soup, peposo – a Tuscan pepper beef stew, filetto d’orata al gratin di patate, fish with potato gratin, staccato alla Fiorentina, a slow-cooked stew of onions, carrots, garlic, celery, tomatoes, sage, rosemary, red wine in a terracotta pot. Brasata al Montecucco, Tuscan sausage with turnips, Buglione d’agnello, cinghiale con fungi e polenta, lamb with mushroom, sedana ripeni alla pratese, la tegamata di Pitigliano, bistecche di maiale con cavolo nero, pork and the famous black cabbage, pollo grillettato con piselli, chicken with peas, cinghiale alla cacciatora con marinatura and wild boar country-style. 

Dolce: Tuscany is known for its simple and delicious desserts!  Summer’s harvest means baked peaches stuffed with amaretti, a fruit crostata, or a creamy liqueur laced with zuccotto.  In winter and fall, we will prepare: frittelle di castagne, chestnut-flour fritters, schiacciata con l’uva, grape cake and a warm budino di riso, rice pudding with lemon and cinnamon. And all year round, you’ll find biscotti di Prato, almond biscotti, brutti ma buoni, toasted almond biscuits, and cantucci, perfect for dunking into a glass of Vin Santo, blessed Tuscan sweet wine.

When you are on tour, experience the many Siena wine shops of Tuscany – made in Italy – where you can taste and purchase the most genuine wine which you can later pair with your newly learned recipes.

Siena Vacations

Set among the olive groves and vineyards of Chianti, Siena is one of the most popular towns in Tuscany. Its ancient history, traditions, and cuisine have not changed over time.  Make sure to visit the unique shell-shaped central piazza, Piazza del Campo, now regarded as one of the most beautiful town squares in Europe. Famous for its annual historic horse race, the Palio, which takes place in the central piazza, Siena has much to offer visitors. The Duomo is a striking example of Italian Romanesque architecture and was originally intended to be the grandest cathedral in existence and Palazzo Pubblico houses Ambrogio Lorenzetti frescoes.  Narrow, winding streets – where only pedestrians are allowed – lead visitors to artisan leather-makers, wine bars, and trattorias.

Siena Accommodations

The charming country property and resort is set on a green estate within the Chianti landscape and offers breathtaking views over Siena and the Chianti Valley. Apartments and suites have all been carefully restored – all are unique and each one decorated in Tuscan country house style: terracotta floors, wood-beamed ceilings, and stone walls, others with walls of sage, blush, saffron, sky blue, and ochre yellow. Furnishings are stylish and include stylish furniture, glass cabinets, and accents of glass art and ceramics. Breakfast is served on the terrace daily and includes delicious homemade cakes and tarts, bruschette, cheeses, and cold meats, along with coffee, tea, and juices.  The gardens and fields that surround the property are a calming escape for any visitor who stays here.  Take a dip in the swimming pool, relax in the garden or you can visit the small village and town nearby.   Siena is close by.  Cook, tour and relax in the heart of Tuscany.

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Itinerary: 6 Days, 5 Nights

Check-in and start your program on any day of the week.

Day 1: Arrival, Check-In and Welcome Dinner

• Arrive at Siena train station and transfer to the property.
• Check in, relax and enjoy your Cooking Vacations’ Welcome Bag with Prosecco, a copy of Lauren’s cookbook, It’s A Dream Place – Stories & Recipes of Food, Love and the Amalfi Coast.
• Later in the evening, enjoy your Welcome Dinner featuring a full course Chef’s Tasting menu with wine included.

Day 2: Cooking Class 1, Monteriggioni & San Gimignano & Siena Wine Tour and Tasting in Chianti

• Breakfast is served.
• After breakfast, meet your driver and visit the Tuscan towns of Monteriggioni and San Gimignano.  Stroll, visit the sights, or enjoy a wine in the piazza.
• Following the tour and with your driver, continue to visit a Chianti Classico Winery.  Visit, and tour the vineyard and cantina with a wine tasting to follow with excellent wines with a light lunch included.  You can opt to add on a guide.
• Following the wine tour, continue to the heart of Chianti.
• After the tour, return to the property and relax before your cooking class.
• Later in the afternoon, tie on your aprons for an authentic hands-on Tuscan Cooking Classpreparing a full-course Tuscan menu.  Dinner follows and everyone enjoys the foods prepared in class together.  Local wine is included.

Day 3: Brunello – Siena Wine Tour, Tasting & Lunch

• Breakfast is served.
• After breakfast, meet your driver for a full-day tour of a Montalcino winemaker.  Visit a vineyard, cantina, and wine maker with wine tasting and lunch included.
• Following, your driver continues to the beautiful Abbey di Sant’Antimo.  Here you will be able to enjoy the monks’ unique Gregorian Chants.  Following, you will have free time to stroll and shop and visit Montalcino.
• Following the tour, return to the property.
• Later in the evening, enjoy a full-course Tuscan dinner at the property with wine included.

Day 4: Cooking Class 2 and Afternoon Free

• Breakfast is served.
• After breakfast, tie on your aprons for an authentic hands-on Tuscan Cooking Class  preparing a full-course Tuscan menu.  Lunch follows and everyone enjoys the foods prepared in class together.  Local wine is included.
• Afternoon free to relax in the garden, walk through the fields, and breathe in the Tuscan air.
• Later in the evening, enjoy a full-course Tuscan dinner at the property with wine included.

Day 5: Cooking Class 3, Spa Treatment & Farewell Dinner

• Breakfast is served.
• After breakfast, tie on your aprons for an authentic hands-on Tuscan Cooking Class preparing a full-course Tuscan menu.  Lunch follows and everyone enjoys the foods prepared in class together.  Local wine is included.
• In the afternoon, enjoy and unplug with a natural spa treatment. Choose between a Shiatsu, Relax or Ayurvedic massage that will leave you feeling rejuvenated and refreshed. Massages are carried out by expert licensed professionals.
• Later in the evening, enjoy a full-course Tuscan dinner at the property with wine included.

Day 6: Check Out & Arrivederci!

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, check out and transfer to Siena station.
• Arrivederci!