Italy, Tuscany – Tuscan Cooking & Local Life

From $1669pp

Please note that prices are indicative only, subject to availability for your travel dates and the exchange rate. Special Tip: Prices per person decrease significantly if you increase your travel party. Why not invite friends or family to join you?

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Duration
5 Days
Travel Style
Cooking Classes Culinary Food & Wine Private Villa Stay
Product Code
ITFLRVLFT

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An authentic journey through the culture, traditions and flavours of Tuscany. You will get in touch with the daily life of the locals, living first hand unique and exciting experiences away from the usual tourist itineraries.

Discover the Tuscan territory of the Valdichiana Senese and its typical products, accompanied by our local travel experts. You will learn how to cook the main dishes of the Tuscan cookery, such as handmade pici, bruschetta, almond Cantucci, and many other typical Tuscan recipes, guided step by step by housewives and local chefs.

You will meet the artisans of taste directly in their companies, where you will closely observe their attention for quality, genuineness, and the Tuscan nature of their food and wine products. You will really learn to taste the local products and to enhance them thanks to the right combinations.

Welcome to Valdichiana Senese

Arrival at a holiday farm in the Tuscan countryside, with outdoor pool, garden and panoramic view.

4.00pm Gourmet Tour in the Historic Centre of Montepulciano:
A “delicious” walk through the alleys of Montepulciano accompanied by an expert guide, who will tell you about the history of the ancient medieval village. Among breath taking views and Renaissance palaces, you will have the opportunity to taste the most characteristic specialties of the area, stopping at a shop of typical products, a traditional restaurant, and an underground cellar.

Overnight Country Villa

Meals T (Local Produce)

Market, Workshops & Tuscan Cooking Class

10.00am Market & Workshop:
Taste the authentic flavours of the territory at the local market stalls and in the small village shops. An authentic experience, able to give you an idea of the daily life of the locals and the genuineness of the flavours. A guide will accompany you through the weekly market stalls, which are held every day in a different village in the Valdichiana Senese.
Here you will have the opportunity to get in touch with the culture of the place, buying organic zero-miles products and tasting the Tuscans’ most beloved foods, such as the porchetta sandwich, or the Pecorino cheese from Pienza sandwich. All products of short supply chain and excellent quality, habitually chosen by locals for their tables. After the market, the shopping will continue at a village shop for another tasteful tasting of zero-miles products.

5.00pm Countryside Tuscan Cooking Class:
A Tuscan cooking class, to learn how to make the famous handmade pici and other local typical recipes, based on seasonal ingredients.

7.30pm Dinner based on the dishes you have prepared during the cooking class.

Overnight Country Villa

Meals B, T (Market Visit), D (Cooking Class)

Pienza, Pecorino Cheese & Tuscan Pastry

10am Guided Tour of Pienza:
A guided tour of Pienza, a town, which is a UNESCO heritage site, including the Piccolomini Palace – historic mansion of Enea Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), with its panoramic garden.

1.00pm Pecorino Cheese Tour:
Meeting point at a dairy farm in Val d’Orcia for a guided visit and lunch, based on a tasting of Pecorino cheeses from Pienza and other local zero-miles products.

4.00pm Tuscan Pastry Class:
A course dedicated to the refined art of local pastry making. Guided by a pastry chef, you will learn how to prepare cantucci, i.e. typical Tuscan almond biscuits. Discover the secrets to prepare a soft and versatile short crust pastry for many sweet recipes, including the traditional coscia di monaca plum jam tart, i.e. a famous local variety of plum. Finally, you will learn the steps to prepare a fantastic tiramisu, which is a classic dessert of Italian pastry. At the end of the course, you will taste the desserts you have prepared, paired with tea, coffee or cappuccino.

Dinner at leisure

Overnight Country Villa

Meals B, T (Cheese), L

Tuscan Cooking Class & Olive Grove Walk

11.30am Chiana Tour Guided tour of a Chianina breeding farm, i.e. the cows from which the famous “Florentine T-bone steak” originates.

1.00pm Lunch at the farm, based on Chianina meat and other short supply chain products (beverages included).

3.00pm Olive Grove Walk:
Meeting with a guide in Castelmuzio, a small village in the Valdichiana Senese, for a walk through the olive groves towards the Monastery of Sant’Anna in Camprena. Return to Castelmuzio and tasting of bruschetta topped with extra virgin olive oil.

8.00pm Farewell Gourmet Dinner:
Celebrate the conclusion of your travel experience in Valdichiana Senese with a special surprise gourmet menu at an enchanting location.

Overnight Country Villa

Meals B, L, T (Bruschetta), D

Departure

Time to say farewell after breakfast this morning.

Meals B

Your consultant will be pleased to assist with transfers or train bookings to have you arrive/depart in Montepulciano for this package.