Accommodation
The main structure of Villa Lucia dates back to the year 500, while later additions and beautiful frescoes reflect the artistic period of the 18th century. Recently featured in a book of elegant Lucchesi villas and formal Italianate gardens, the walled garden of the Villa Lucia estate will delight you with its extensive grapevine pergola, ancient grottos and fountains, swimming pools and tennis court.
All three villas have their own luxury kitchens, reception rooms and private terraces. Each villa is individually decorated to the highest standards. All bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms and king-size top quality beds. The tasteful renovation includes wonderful antique furniture and the curtains and bedspreads are of specially selected designer fabrics.
Our Italian cooking school courses are held in either the Casa Cameron limonaia, which has been converted to create a magnificent open-plan demonstration kitchen and dining-room or in the superbly restored basement kitchen in Villa Lucia with its fabulous circular granite workstation and listed ancient stone prep area and bread oven.
Villa Lucia will serve as your “home base” for exploring one of the most beautiful regions of Italy. The wooded foothills and meadows are carpeted with wild flowers in the spring and filled with magnificent colour and fungi in the autumn. Pisa and Florence are less than an hour away.
Our Italian cooking vacations include interesting cultural excursions. Explore Lucca’s maze of pedestrian streets within its walls, stopping in unique shops selling food, trinkets and clothing, interspersed among the churches and other medieval buildings with their striped marble Romanesque façades. Visit Florence, where the displays of cheeses, salamis, vegetables, and fruit are works of art in of themselves. You will discover Vinci with a visit to the Home of Leonardo and a private tour of the Taccini Brothers’ studio, well-recognized ceramic artists, as featured in Bon Appetit.
Meals
Full board
Other Information
Your Day
Your day will begin with a breakfast of fruit, pastries, cereal, juice and coffee and depending on your mood you can either dine inside or outside in our beautiful garden. Each day will be a balanced mix of hands on Italian cooking classes, cultural excursions and time to relax and enjoy the beautiful property and surrounding countryside. Each cooking class is followed by lunch or dinner.
Introduction to Wine Tasting in Tuscany
The leisurely and relaxed meals are served to you either “al fresco” in the courtyard or by candlelight in the villa’s elegant dining room. The meals are paired with a proper wine, including some of Tuscany’s most noteworthy. Your dinners will be complemented with Chianti Classicos, Brunellos and other succulent wines from the region of Tuscany.
Your introduction to wine tasting in Tuscany will include some of the revolutionary Super Tuscans, such as Sassicaia, Tignanello, Castello dei Rampolia and Ornellaia. During the wine tasting you will hear the story of the Gallo Nero, which defines the Chianti region. You will learn of the different varieties that create this region, including sangiovese which has survived the Super Tuscan revolution of the late 1970s when a small group of Tuscan wine makers began to experiment with the new French grape varieties and new methods. The wine makers replaced their massive old casks with new barriques of French oak, while planting trendy international varieties alongside sangiovese, the ancestral source of Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. ‘Super Tuscans’ have reached heights of prestige, as affirmed by triumphant recent tastings in New York and London. – The New York Times
Your Italian Cooking Classes
The Italian cooking classes are set up in an intimate, hands-on manner, so that complete novices can sit along side professional chefs, yet both be educated and amused. Our chef Fabio Guelfi will patiently teach you the skills and techniques required to prepare beautiful Italian cuisine in a relaxed and enjoyable environment. Fabio's warm personality will make you feel comfortable and fully capable of producing some of Italy's most famous dishes. Click here for more information on Fabio.
He will help you unravel the mystery of selecting the finest, freshest ingredients available. You will learn to differentiate between various olive oils and balsamic vinegars and use them appropriately. With this knowledge of ingredients, you will make full Italian meals: antipasti, soups, assorted primi piatti of pasta, risotto, pizza, secondi piatti of meat, poultry, and fish, various vegetable contorni, and many delicious dolci including Tiramisu and biscotti. You will recreate the flavours and aromas of traditional Tuscan cuisine with pizzas, breads and roasted meats cooked in our wood-burning oven. New “traditional” techniques adapt these recipes for the modern home kitchen and barbecues.
As well as some of the more complicated dishes there are several simple and delicious recipes all complied in the recipe manual each student receives at the beginning of the week. The manual also contains a wealth of information such as a glossary of Italian cooking terms, conversion tables and a list of the Italian recipes you will prepare, cook and eat during your week of cooking classes.
Operator Remarks
Our staff all speak English and will make sure you are entertained or completely relaxed depending on your mood. They have a genuine interest in making this a special experience for you. They understand that this is first and foremost a holiday. The theme is Italian cuisine, and it’s offered in abundance, but never at the expense of enjoyment.
At the end of the week you'll receive your very own Rhode School of Cuisine Certificate, certifying your participation and completion of one of our Italian cooking classes.
