The Fabrizio Tuscan Estate™

Join Fabrizio and his family at their estate, a beautiful farmhouse villa located in the heart of the Tuscan countryside. The Tuscan cooking classes, held in the villa’s private kitchen, feature traditional recipes from the region, including Florence with our Chef Cati He will lead you through making Tuscan antipasto, pasta, main course and dessert. Fabrizio’s energetic personality, along with Chef Cati’s talented cooking skills make 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 Summer 2022 – Click here to read more!

Cooking Lessons & Market Tour

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

Tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms and pepolino, wild thyme, artichokes and tomatoes stuffed with herbs and cheese, gnocchi with ragù, Chianti Etruscan sauce and beans all’uccelletto, Vin Santo & cantuccini, almond cookies, tiramisù, schiacciata con l’uva, Tuscan cake made with red grapes and rosemary, are just a sample of Fabrizio’s family  recipes that you will learn.  Recipes will vary depending on the seasons.

Each cooking class is hands-on and includes traditional Tuscan cuisine. The estate’s kitchen is located in the main villa in what used to be one of the family’s wine cellars.

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.  Tuscan meats are prized in this region and Florentine steak and porcino mushrooms are on the menu if you like.  semifreddo alle nocciole con cioccolato fondente, ice cream cake with dark chocolate and nuts. Following each cooking class, everyone enjoys the foods that were prepared together with wine from the estate.

Experience a visit to the vibrant marketplace as the scents of just baked bread, artisan cheese, and morning picked produce from the nearby rolling hills stir your senses.  Listen to the sounds of sellers calling out their daily catch, prime cuts and specials.  Shop along rows of passionate purveyors who have kept the old world way of protected food and wine.

Family Tradition

The family has operated its vineyards, specialising in Chianti wine since the 19th century. The superior wine, also award-winning, are the best in the Chianti region. Fabrizio carries on the knowledge and know-how of growing and producing superior Tuscans on this estate. Tradition and old family customs merge with modern winemaking technologies, which yield production totals of nearly 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 inclusion in the VIII edition of the Tuscan Wine Selection in 2008.

Tuscan Villa Accommodations

The private villa has recently been restored, respecting its old-world charm, while adding modern comforts. Set on a working vineyard, the property is surrounded by rolling green Tuscan hills in the heart of Chianti. The estate has endless fields of olive grove and an organic vegetable garden, which produces beautiful olives, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini and a bounty of seasonal produce. Guests are invited to pick the fruits and vegetables, which are then used in the cooking classes.

The villa offers large apartments and oversized superior rooms, traditionally furnished and newly renovated with modern conveniences including air-conditioning. Each room has a private ensuite bathroom, telephone, full kitchenette, refrigerator, satellite TV and wifi, and a private garden or spacious terrace.

Step outside your door and into a lush garden 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 grounds. Majestic Murgesi horses are bred on the premises. If you like to ride, let us know and we will arrange for horseback riding.

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, ham, artisan cheese, homemade jams, biscotti and cakes baked each morning. Traditional Tuscan lunch or dinner is also available; reservations must be made in advance.  Bikes are available at the property for peddling through the Tuscan countryside.

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

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Itinerary ~ 8 Days, 7 Nights

Day 1: Check In

• Check in, relax. Welcome aperitivo and introduction.
• In the evening,  a Welcome Dinner at the property, including a Chef’s Tasting Menu with Chianti wines produced by the property are included

Day 2: Cooking Class 1 & Vineyard and Cantina Tour with Wine Tasting

• Breakfast is served.
• In the morning meet our family-Fabrizio, along with our  Chefs. They will be your hosts for the week. You will have an introduction and overview of your cooking week.
• Join Fabrizio for a visit to the family vineyard, olive grove and cantina. Walk the hills of the Chianti grape vineyard with Signor Fabrizio, an award- winning wine maker. He will explain the importance of the pure soil, cultivating techniques and history of the Chianti prized grapes, biodynamic farming, harvesting and bottling. Next everyone will walk under olive trees as he will explain the seasons, harvest and history of the ancient fruit first brought to Italy by the Greeks. At the end of the tour, a wine and olive oil tasting is included with his award-winning wines in the cantina and olive oil from the farm.  Taste and enjoy limited edition wines and olive oils from the property.
• Last in your free time, visit the horse stable. Horseback riding is available on the estate, you can reserve with Cooking Vacations in advance. Relax by the pool or take a swim (weather permitting). Walk to the small town at the entrance of the villa property and explore the shops, sip a cappuccino at the local Italian caffé or have pizza at the pizzeria.
• In the afternoon, cooking class 1. This hands-on experience, led by our Chef, leads you the way sharing Fabrizio’s family recipes. A full Tuscan menu includes a first, second, contorno, side dish, and dessert.
• Dinner follows and includes the foods that were prepared in class. Wine is included.

Day 3: Outdoor Market Visit & Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• Morning visit to the local Farmers’ Market. Fabrizio takes you to the local outdoor market, where producers and farmers display their vegetables, fruits, fish, artisan cheese, meat, fish, olive oil and artisan leather goods, linens, wooden cooking tools – to name a few. Piled high are baskets of the season’s freshest produce.  Select the ingredients that will be used in class while Fabrizio shares tips on how to pick out the freshest fruits and vegetables.
• Lunch on your own.
• Afternoon, cooking class 2. Dinner follows with everyone eating the foods prepared in class. Wine and dessert included.

Day 4: Cooking Class 3

• Breakfast is served.
• Take the morning to explore the family estate walking through the vineyard and olive grove.  Explore the land that is home to Chianti vineyards. You may also take a bicycle and go for a spin through the Tuscan countryside.  Fabrizio also raises prized horses on the property.  You can ride with the comfort of our resident horse trainer and professional rider.  Lunch on your own.
• Morning visit to the local Farmers’ Market. Fabrizio takes you to the local outdoor market, where producers and farmers display their vegetables, fruits, fish, artisan cheese, meat, fish, olive oil and artisan leather goods, linens, wooden cooking tools – to name a few. Piled high are baskets of the season’s freshest produce.  Select the ingredients that will be used in class while Fabrizio shares tips on how to pick out the freshest fruits and vegetables.
• Lunch on your own.
• Later afternoon, cooking class 2. Dinner follows with everyone eating the foods prepared in class. Wine and dessert included.

Day 5: Free Day ~ Suggestion: Tour Of Tuscany To Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa

• Breakfast is served.
• A private 7-hour excursion through the Tuscan Hills, visiting Chianti and “la strada di vini”, the street of wine country, touring through San Gimignano-Italy’s wine country, Siena – the Medieval City of Art & Romance and Pisa – The Leaning Tower Of Pisa, in a comfortable car with our driver. This excursion is optional, and is at extra cost.
• Evening free and dinner is on your own.

Day 6: Free Day ~ Visit Florence On Your Own

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, visit Florence, the Italy’s City of Art. Take the city bus into the center of town for a full day visit. Explore the city on foot, and we suggest the following sites not to be missed! *A private tour guide is available, upon request. Reservation required. *Private round trip transfer into Florence is available at a surcharge. Museum tickets not included in the program.
• The Accademia Museum, Florence’s most celebrated museum, home to Giovanni da Milano’s Pieta (fourteenth century), the Annunciation by Lorenzo Monaco (fifteenth century), the beautiful front called Adimari Cassone showing a sumptuous marriage procession (c. 1450) and the Madonna of the Sea attributed to Botticelli (1445-1510). A recent rearrangement and restoration of some 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 also on display, and Michelangelo’s David.
• The Uffizi Gallery, Florence’s first museum to open to the public, is 8.000 sq.m. and it displays one of the most important collections of art of all times, including classical sculpture and paintings on canvas and wood by 13th to 18th century Italian and foreign schools. The Uffizi Gallery is the oldest museum in the world.
• Duomo, the distinctive icon in Florence’s skyline is the dome of the cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. The building is located due north of the Piazza della Signoria, was begun by the sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296. Numerous local artists continued to work on it during the following century and a half. The painter Giotto designed its sturdy bell tower (campanile) in 1334. The Duomo’s octagonal cupola (1420-36) which dominates the city was the creation of Filippo Brunelleschi, master architect and sculptor.
• Opposite the cathedral stands the Baptistery; the building dates from the 11th century but is a Roman monument dating back to 1330; 1401-52. The third pair of these doors, by Lorenzo Ghiberti, were of such rare beauty that Michelangelo christened them the “Gates of Paradise.”  This cathedral was begun in the Gothic style by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296. But in 1366 the City of Florence, following the advice of certain painters and sculptors, decided that the Gothic should no longer be used and that all new work should follow Roman forms, including an octagonal dome 42 meters in span to be built at the east end of the nave. The dome was not built until the early 15th century, when Filippo Brunelleschi, a goldsmith and sculptor. In 1415 he prepared a design for the dome that he daringly proposed to build 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; the design was accepted and built under his supervision from 1420 to 1436.
• Brunelleschi was hailed as the man who “renewed Roman masonry work.” The dome was established as the paragon of built form.

Day 7: Cooking Class 4

• Breakfast served.
• Meet in the kitchen for your cooking class 4. Lunch follows with everyone eating the foods prepared in class. Wine included.
• Dinner follows with everyone enjoying the foods that were prepared in the cooking class. Chianti wine and dessert included.
• In the afternoon, relax by the pool, read a book or take a bike ride through the Tuscan countryside.
• Evening is free and dinner is on your own.

Day 8: Departure & Arrivederci!

• Breakfast is served. Ciao and a presto!