Tuscany Slow Cooking™

Join Fabrizio at his family estate for a week of cooking and touring in The Slow Cooking Tuscany 4 Day tour.  Check into the beautiful farmhouse villa located in the heart of the Tuscan countryside.  The Tuscan cooking classes are held in the villa’s private kitchen and feature traditional recipes from the region with our Chef Cati.  You will learn how to prepare Tuscan antipasti, pasta, main courses and desserts.

At the Villa, Fabrizio’s energetic personality, along with Chef Cati’s talented cooking skills, makes this cooking program our best-seller for Tuscany. The entire staff, along with Fabrizio and his family, welcome you for a fun-filled cooking experience in the heart of Chianti!

As featured in April 2011 – Click here to read more!

Tuscan Cooking Classes

Experience the delights of the traditional Tuscan lifestyle while attending fun-filled cooking classes and discovering Tuscan towns and villages. You will learn to prepare Tuscan antipasto, pizza and breads, hearty soups, homemade pastas and sauces, meats, fish, vegetables and desserts.

On the menu – antipasti includes bruschetta, toasted Tuscan bread garnished with farm-fresh tomatoes, or black olives and garden-picked squash flowers stuffed with fresh ricotta and flash-fried to a golden.  Fresh pasta is a must – think tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms and Florentine gnudi, hand-made gnocchi stuffed with spinach and ricotta.  Artichokes are delicious and are stuffed with herbs, bread and mozzarella.  Beans, farro and lentils are an important staple in Tuscan cuisine with recipes such as an Etruscan fagioli all’uccelletto, slow-cooked in white wine.  Desserts tempt with twice-baked cantucci, almond cookies, dipped in Vin Santo, blessed wine, tiramisù, and schiacciata con l’uva, Tuscan cake garnished with red grapes and rosemary.  This is a simple sample of Fabrizio’s family recipes.

You will learn the secrets of making gnocchetti verdi di patate con pomodorino fresco e basilico, green potato gnocchi with fresh tomatoes and basil, filetto d’orata al gratin di patate, fish with potato gratin or sea food risotto.  Chianina meat is a main staple in Tuscany, and if you like this one, we prepare it on the menu. Desserts are beautiful, and include semifreddo alle nocciole con cioccolato fondente, ice cream cake with dark chocolate and nuts, cantucci, and open-faced crostata, fruit pies made with the fruits from the garden.  Following each cooking class, everyone enjoys the foods that were prepared together with wine from the estate.  Each cooking class is hands-on and includes traditional Tuscan cuisine. The estate’s kitchen is located in the main villa, formerly the family’s wine cellars.

Experience a visit to the vibrant marketplace with our host as scents of just-baked bread, artisan cheese, and morning-picked produce from the nearby farms stir your senses.  Listen to the sounds of sellers calling out their daily catch – prime cuts and daily specials.  Shop along rows of passionate purveyors who have kept the Old World way of farm-to-table.

Family Tradition

Fabrizio and his family have a long history of wine-making and continue to pioneer their craft producing organic bio-dynamic wine at the property.  This superior wine is made in the Chianti region under the warm summer sun with a harvest in the fall leaving beautiful grapes to be pressed.  Tradition and modern approaches merge with wine-making technologies yielding production of 30,000 bottles a year. The award-winning wine boasts the Silver Label, awarded at the Tuscan Gastronomic Show in New York City 2005 and 2006, and in the VIII edition of the Tuscan Wine Selection in 2008.

Tuscan Villa Accommodations

The private Villa has recently been restored, respecting its Old Word charm  while adding modern comforts with traditional Tuscan furnishings.  Set on a working vineyard, the property is surrounded by rolling Tuscan hills in the heart of Chianti, set in fields of olive groves.  An organic vegetable garden produces beautiful tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini and a bounty of seasonal fruit.  Guests are invited to pick the fruits and vegetables, which are then used in the cooking classes.

The Villa offers large apartments and spacious superior rooms, traditionally furnished and newly renovated with modern conveniences including air-conditioning.  Each room has comfortable bedding, Tuscan linens and a private ensuite bathroom, telephone, full kitchenette, refrigerator, satellite TV and wifi.  Accommodations offer either a private garden or spacious terrace.

Step outside your door and into a lush garden set with a caffé-style terrace for dining, reading or painting. There is an outdoor wood-burning brick oven for our pizza making class, an over-sized swimming pool and terrace on the property. Majestic Murgesi horses are bred on the premises if you would like to ride with the horse trainer.

Breakfast is served daily in the farmhouse’s spacious dining room and outdoor terrace where you will enjoy your Tuscan breakfast featuring artisan breads, salumi, Prosciutto, artisan cheese, fruit, homemade jams, biscotti and cakes baked, and espresso, cappuccino and tea each morning.  Traditional Tuscan lunch or dinner is also available.  E-bikes are available at the property for peddling through the Tuscan countryside.

Family-style suites and apartments are also available upon request.

Click for Property Photo Gallery

Discover Florence and Certaldo

During your stay, discover Florence and Certaldo!!!  An excursion to the magical Tuscan town of Certaldo has you stepping along cobblestone paths lined with small coffee bars brewing up perfect espresso & cappuccino and fresh pasta shops displaying handmade pici, pappardelle and ravioli inside.  Open doors of ancient churches which welcome each guest in for ancient art, design and stained-glass windows.  Visit the  home of  great Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio who penned “The Decameron” and “On Famous Women.”  Then, a stop in Lucardo beckons for small shops showcasing vino, farro, spelt and all things Tuscan.

Discover Florence, the city of Art is the crown jewel in Tuscany, with an English-speaking guide.  From the most famous gelato shops to museums, wine bars and shopping options, Florence steals everyone’s heart with something to do for everyone,

• The Uffizi Gallery: Florence’s first museum opened its doors to the public to showcase one of the most important collections of art including classical sculpture and paintings on canvas and wood by 13th to 18th century Italian and foreign schools.  Four centuries of history make the Uffizi Gallery the oldest and most important museum in the world.
  The Duomo:  The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore crowns the Florentine skyline.  The building is located north of the Piazza della Signoria and was first constructed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296.  Numerous local artists continued to work on it during the following century, and the painter Giotto designed its sturdy bell tower in 1334. The Duomo’s octagonal cupola (1420-36) built by Filippo Brunelleschi, master architect and sculptor, dominates.  Although the Cathedral was first constructed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296, Florentine painters and sculptors decided the Gothic style should no longer be used and they introduced a Roman style with an octagonal dome spanning 42 meters to be built at the east end of the nave.  Then, in 1415, Filippo Brunelleschi, a goldsmith and sculptor, prepared a design for the dome but the dome was not built until the early 15th century.  He daringly proposed to construct the dome without the aid of formwork, which had been absolutely necessary in all previous Roman and Gothic construction. He built a 1:12 model of the dome in brick to demonstrate his method, and the design was accepted then built under his supervision from 1420 to 1436. Brunelleschi was hailed as the man who “renewed Roman masonry work.”  The Duomo was established as the paragon of a new form.  Opposite the Cathedral stands the Baptistery and dates to the 11th century.  The third pair of the structure’s doors were made by Lorenzo Ghiberti, and were of such rare beauty that Michelangelo christened them the Gates of Paradise.
• The Accademia Museum:  The Accademia Museum is celebrated museum  and home to Giovanni da Milano’s Pieta (fourteenth century), the Annunciation by Lorenzo Monaco (fifteenth century), and the beautiful front, called Cassone Adimari, displays a sumptuous marriage procession (c. 1450) along with the Madonna of the Sea attributed to Botticelli (1445-1510). A recent re-arrangement and restoration of the rooms have given more space for the display of paintings from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, plaster models of Lorenzo Bartolini and Luigi Pampaloni, famous Italian sculptors of the nineteenth century are also on display along with Michelangelo’s David.
• Mercato di Sant Ambrogio:  Join our English-speaking guide for Landmark Food Lover’s Tour with tastings along the way.  Walk through the most important landmarks and artisan food producers and discover  the history of Florentine food with delicious tastings included along the way.  Visit the Mercato di Sant Ambrogio, Florence’s oldest market; an essential point of city life.  The market offers everything from farm-to-table fruit, vegetables, Tuscan meats, salumi, and artisan cheeses, fish and wine.  There are also covered restaurant and bakeries inside.

Itinerary: 4 Days, 3 Nights

Day 1: Arrival, Vineyard Tour and Wine Tasting with Chef’s Welcome Dinner

• Transfer from Florence Airport or Train Station to the Villa.
• Enjoy your Prosecco welcome and Cooking Vacations’ Welcome Bag.
• Following, enjoy your Vineyard tour and wine tasting.  Explore the vineyard, visit the cantina, and learn about biodynamic farming and the wine harvest with Fabrizio.  Wine tasting follows with the wine produced on the property.
• In the evening, enjoy your Chef’s Welcome Dinner featuring a full course dinner with Tuscan Fare, an antipasto, fresh pasta with sauce, main course and dessert with wine tasting.

Day 2: Cooking Class and Tuscan Lunch and Visit the Sleepy Tuscan Town of Certaldo

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet Chef Cati for your hands-on Cooking Class. Start preparing an antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce, main course and dessert with wine included.  Following the cooking class, everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in the cooking class.
• Following the cooking class, take a half-day tour to Certaldo.  Stroll ancient streets, enjoy lunch on Tuscan cuisine and explore a sleepy Tuscan town off the tourist path.
• Following your visit, return to the property.
• Dinner on your own. Suggestions provided upon request, or reserve in advance for dinner at the Villa.

Day 3: Landmark Walking Tour Of Florence, City Of Art

• Breakfast is served.
• Transfer to downtown Florence for a Landmark Walking Tour with local English-speaking guide.
• Stroll the Renaissance City and see the Duomo, the Baptistry, Santa Croce and more with your private tour guide to explain the history, the legends and little-known facts about the city, often called the City of Art.
• After your morning tour, take time to explore the city on your own, shop for leather at the Market of San Lorenzo or, gold and jewels along the Ponte Vecchio.
• Lunch on your own with suggestions provided.
• Return transfer to the Villa.

Day 4: Departure

• Breakfast is served.
• Check out and departure transfer to Florence Airport or Train Station.
• Arrivederci Firenze!

*Note: This schedule may vary due to inclement weather, saint days or festivals. All activities, in the event of rescheduling, are always included during the program.