What would you look for when thinking of a cooking holiday in Italy? An informal, friendly atmosphere, a little sight-seeing, wine tasting and of course, informative and fun lessons, all in an idyllic setting on a farmhouse in the country. I found all this and more when I experienced a short break with Flavours Holidays in Tuscany.
The entrance to the Varramista estate
Last weekend I flew into Pisa airport where I was met by my Flavours’ chauffeur. After a shirt drive, we turned into the Varramista estate to be greeted by the most wonderful view up the tree-lined avenue. Passing the main house standing proudly on a hilltop, we drove on up to one of a number of former estate workers’ houses which had been restored and were now comfortable holiday homes.
The 7-acre estate is home to deer, wild boar, rabbits and pheasants and is open to the public to walk and jog through. Varramista plays host to weddings and produces its own wine and olive oil. Our villa, Monsonaccio, by an orchard of poplar trees (that will be used for paper) made the perfect base for a holiday in Tuscany.
The lovely farmhouse and our home for the next few days
On arrival we are greeted by Franca, our hostess and the dashing, Alessio, our chef! With a pop of a cork we are soon sipping a welcome glass of cool Prosecco.
My bedroom was comfortable and cosy with en suite facilities
The lovely view through my bedroom window
Our first afternoon and our first lesson in this lovely country kitchen
There are just 8 of us on the course and before we know it we are starting our first lesson. Cooking together is a wonderful way to break the ice and soon we are all laughing like old friends while trying our hand at making fresh pasta. On the menu tonight – tagliatelle with sausage and truffles, pork ribs with olives and pine nuts and almond biscuits.
These wonderful traditional almond biscuits tasted superb dunked in sweet wine
The next day the risotto is the star of the show, the best I have ever tasted. Mind you the same can be said for the scrumptious tiramisu and so it continues throughout each wonderful lesson.
Wine tasting at Castlevecchio near Pisa.
Me with the charming Flavours’ chauffeurs
Discovering great tastes at Florence’s Mercato Centrale, Europe’s largest indoor food market
On our last full day we visit Florence and spend a couple of hours exploring the food market before having a short tour of the city’s main attractions. A superb lunch follows with a little time to wander off on our own before heading back to our villa and another cooking lesson.
We had time to explore the streets around the Duomo and visit Ponte Vecchio, Florence’s famous shop-lined bridge.
And so our last morning is here and we have the option to visit Pisa before catching our flight but I decide to stay a little longer to have an extra cooking lesson as I’m keen to learn all I can.
And for lunch before our flight, we tuck into aubergine bake, so good!
My fellow budding chefs were a mix of ages, made up of two small groups and a couple of solo travellers, just 8 in total, as is typical of a Flavours holiday. It’s hard to believe that we packed so much in. I really did learn a lot in just a few days and it was obvious that everyone had a fabulous time.
A great group of people. It was a pleasure to share this wonderful experience with them all
Tempted by a Flavours cooking weekend in Tuscany? Why not consider extending your stay and discover more of this stunning region. Check out this blog post from Suitcase and Wanderlust Best of beautiful Tuscany in 1 week – Tuscany itinerary.
Flavours, as well as cooking, also offer Pilates and painting holidays in a number of locations throughout Italy. It is particularly worth noting that they never charge a single’s supplement!
This 4 day / 3 night short break costs, £899 and includes £100 towards your flight plus all your meals, local wine (and lots of it!), transfers, lessons and excursions. The chef is always from the area you are in and an expert in local, traditional cuisine.
With everything included, if it hadn’t been for the visit to the food market, I wouldn’t have spent a single additional penny during my stay, making these holidays good value for money, especially for solo travellers.
Thank you to Flavours Holidays for inviting me on this culinary short break. As always I am free to write whatever I wish and will always give you my unbiased, honest opinion.
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Let’s be honest when you think about taking cooking classes or an overall experience in cuisine, there is only one country that springs to mind (or it should be on the tip of your lips at least) and that is Italy! They just know how to do things the right way and produce high quality cuisine options.
Heather is the cook in our household so I would probably benefit from taking one of these classes! What an awesome experience this must be.
That risotto looks delicious, Kat… I am told that with risotto, the secret is to keep on stirring and to stay with the dish throughout.
I’d love to learn more about cooking pasta too. I love fresh pasta (so much better than dried) and we have a pasta machine here, but it is such a faff (mostly the cleaning of the machine rather than the making although even that doesn’t seem easy). Would love to know how to do it all properly 🙂
I’m sure you and your family would really enjoy one of these holidays. I’ve made fresh pasta quite a few times now and no machines were involved, however, there is quite a lot of elbow grease needed with teh rolling!
Yummy, I’m tucking into that Aubergine bake and dipping my almond biscuits into the sweet wine
Kate, you should be a chef and open your own restaurant!! 🙂
What a lovely scenery outside! I wish I could stay there for a day and enjoy the view!
Looks delicious! I did a cookery class in Morocco recently and really enjoyed it so will definitely look at doing some more, it’s so nice to be able to recreate dishes that remind you of your travels when you get back home.
Great ! :-). Happy Easter!
Fabulous – will be looking out for them. Have a lovely Easter 🙂
You too 🙂
That looks fabulous! Will you be sharing any recipes? Please!!
Oh yes! And some general tips I picked up along the way plus our visit to Florence. In fact I’ve quite a bit more to share with you from Tusacany. I’m trying some out tomorrow for my family’s Easter Monday lunch including tiramisu, so easy and so very good!