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A Taste of Cooking & Brunello Wines Tour In Southern Tuscany
Experience cooking Tuscan specialties with a charming restaurant owner/chef in a small mountain hamlet and an artisan olive oil producer who shows you his exotic, organic gardens and how he makes olive oil with a traditional granite wheel. Learn about Brunello in a private tasting at a medieval castle wine shop. Discover Vino Nobile di Montepulciano with a winery owner in his 14th century wine cellars. A Tuscan buffet for your senses and soul!
Read about the “Italians you will meet” on this Italy cooking school tour.
Includes:
- 4 nights at the hotel, with private bath and breakfast
- 2 cooking classes with full menu meals
- 1 dinner & 3 multi-course lunches
- excursions in the Italy cooking school tour itinerary
- private transport with a driver and a guide (2 staff)
- pick up and drop off at Chiusi train station
Not included:
- 3 dinners
- wine with meals so you can choose the wines you’d like
4 Night Italy Cooking School Tour Itinerary
Day 1
Private transport from Chiusi train station with our driver to your beautiful, historic hotel in Pienza. Get settled, perhaps take a walk along the medieval walls or relax in the garden.
Pienza, a medieval jewel walled town, is famous for its many kinds of pecorino cheese. Taste cheeses, browse in shops, walk along the top of the medieval walls to admire lovely views of the Val d’Orcia. If you wish, you can take a magnificent walk along a country road along a ridge with 360 degree views of farms and hills.
Enjoy a welcome dinner in a great local restaurant with your guide and get to know your group of fellow food and wine lovers.
Day 2
Drive to an organic farm, abundant with exotic trees and plants where the smiling and proud owner, Alberto still makes olive oil like others before him using the granite wheel. You’ll be enraptured as he tells how they made olive oil in the old days and why he sustains those practices today.
He’s a fabulous cook too! In your cooking class in his cozy farmhouse kitchen, he’ll share how he has resurrected the art of cooking traditional Tuscan dishes—with the farm’s olive oil—that were vanishing from the local cuisine. You’ll dine on your delicious creations around a wood table in his cozy olive oil production room.
On your way back, stop at a winery in the country owned by a friendly local family to learn about Brunello wine, tour the cellars and taste their Brunello di Montalcino and Rosso di Montalcino as you discuss the wines with them.
Drive 9 km to Montalcino, famous for its Brunello wine and enjoy a stroll with your guide, visit the shops or simply hang out and watch local life go by. In the wine shop in the medieval fortress, learn more about Brunello wines and taste some with a knowledgeable staff member.
Drive back home to Pienza. Dinner on your own. After your multi course lunch, you’ll want to eat light!
Day 3
This morning enjoy a stroll in walled hill town, Montepulciano with your guide to marvel at the splendid panoramas, taste its famous Vino Nobile di Montepulciano in wine shops that welcome you, and browse in the many shops for tablecloths, housewares, leather, art and more.
Savour your multi-course lunch in Montepulciano at a fabulous Tuscan restaurant where the chef adds creative touches to local ingredients.
On your way home, stop in the little hill town of Montefollonico for a wine tasting in the 14th century cellars of a welcoming winery owner to taste his great Vino Nobile, Rosso di Montepulciano and Vin Santo. If fine weather, enjoy your tasting out on his terrace garden with incredible views of the valley and Montepulciano.
Back in Pienza, relax, explore, enjoy cafes or wine bars, take country walks. Dinner on your own in Pienza.
Day 4
Today we take a scenic drive for about an hour up into the hills of Monte Amiata to a tiny hamlet with lots of chestnut trees to a restaurant well known for its outstanding cuisine, especially its mushroom dishes, praised in many guidebooks.
You’ll cook beside chef and owner Roberto, our most popular chef. He is the epitome of warm hospitality, an excellent cooking teacher and a charming man passionate about food and wine.
Dine on your creations with wines specially chosen by Roberto.
If you like, drive a few minutes to visit a sculpture park with fun, modern sculptures in gardens.
On your way back, visit Sant’Antimo, an amazing 1000 year old Romanesque church. Set in an absolutely idyllic valley, you’ll stand in awe, admiring a quintessential Tuscan view of cypresses zigzagging up hills, olive trees, vineyards and fields.
Back in Pienza, sit back and relax. Dinner on your own in Pienza.
Day 5
Checkout after breakfast and return to the Chiusi train station, marking the end of this unforgettable food, wine and cultural immersion, sparkling with tales of good times you shared with wonderful local people.
After four days in this special region, you’ll take with you a host of new cooking skills, an appreciation for garden-grown fresh produce, herbs and some of Italy ‘s top red wines and the joy of life under the Tuscan sun.
Note: The Italy cooking school tour itinerary is subject to minor changes. We will do our best to keep them to a minimum.
