Lucia's Villa In Lucca™

Nestled high within the Apennine Mountains lies the enchanting medieval town of Barga, home to Beatrice’s unique Tuscan cooking classes. Take a step back in time as you make your way down the Villa’s captivating and majestic garden path and through the century-old grand doorway. Beatrice and her team of chefs are waiting to take you on an unforgettable culinary adventure where you will learn the ancient secrets and methods of Italy’s most humble cuisine.

Lucca Cooking Classes

Tuscan cuisine, characterized generally as wholesome and authentic of Italian cooking styles, offers, a taste of authentic Italy. Beatrice and her local chefs, Emma and Anna, are dedicated to upholding the sacred culinary traditions of this distinct region.  You will learn how to master the art of true Tuscan food preparation, cooking and presentation.

During Beatrice’s one week Tuscan cooking experience, you”ll discover culture and culinary history as you learn new Tuscan recipes, tour the medieval town of Barga, and visit the local markets to purchase the fresh, organic ingredients. Using the farm-to-table ingredients your chefs will share their skills to create delicious antipasto, fresh pasta and sauces, main courses and desserts from ancient family recipes. Your chefs combine their knowledge and traditions with the fresh, locally grown ingredients to provide you with hands-on experience in authentic Tuscan cooking.

Each Tuscan cooking class is followed by lunch or dinner including the food that was prepared in the cooking class with a toast of Tuscan wine included.  Guests can select local wine such as Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, from the cellar, not included.  Lastly, enjoy Tuscan desserts served with Vin Santo and cantucci for dipping.

The Tuscan cooking classes are gauged for everyone from beginner to advance, and everyone will be able to recreate the recipes in their home kitchen.   

Lucca Accommodations

Check in to the exquisite Villa, located in the quaint and picturesque Tuscan town of Barga, high in the Apennine Mountains, close to the city of Lucca.  The family welcomes each guest like family while sharing traditions and culture.  The Villa was built in 1924 by the Castelvecchi family during the Art Nouveau period.  After years of working in Scotland, the family returned to Barga.

The Villa is set in Barga’s giardino, close to the historic center. Guests have views of both dramatic mountain scenery on one side of the Villa, and a direct view of the beautiful medieval old-town of Barga on the other – the perfect setting for an inspirational Tuscan cooking classes.

Rooms are furnished with antique furniture, mosaic floors, Murano glass lamps, hand-woven carpets from Florence, wrought iron banisters, and artwork by the Barga-born painter Bruno Cordati. The same style and sophistication that is in the hotel’s common areas is also found in the bright and spacious guest’s bedrooms.  Comfortable beds are dressed in Italian linens and each room has its private ensuite bath.  Wifi and TVs are offered in each room.  A daily buffet breakfast is included with Italian cakes and biscotti, crostata, fresh fruits, eggs, cereals, cheeses, ham and salumi, along with Cappuccino, espresso and tea.  After enjoying a traditional  breakfast, guests can relax in the reading room, unwind in the hotel bar, or sit back and enjoy an Italian coffee, aperitivo or Prosecco on the terrace overlooking the garden by the swimming pool.

A grand and scenic hydro-massage swimming pool is also available onsite tucked within the privacy of the Villa’s extensive gardens.  It offers the perfect opportunity for guests to unwind under the Tuscan Sun.  Just a short five-minute walk from the property, guests can enjoy Barga’s Old Town for shopping, exploring or dining.

Click for Property Photo Gallery

The Town Of Barga

Barga is home to a vast music, food, art and culture, and throughout the year hosts many events, shows, exhibitions and food and wine tastings such as La Sagra di Porchetta – Roast Pork Festival, and the Festa di Cioccolato – Chocolate festival in December.  From June through to September, enjoy any one of the exciting music festivals in Barga such as Opera Barga, Barga Jazz, and Festa di Centro Storico during which live music can almost always be heard and enjoyed in the town’s open piazzas.  A stunning antique market is also set up in Barga’s Old town on the first Sunday of each month.

Tuscan Seasons

Like most gastronomic traditions in Italy, Tuscan menu change seasonally which allows the delicious local menus to vary all throughout the year.  Our chef uses farm-to-table ingredients in her cooking classes such as garden tomatoes, squash and squash flowers to porcini mushrooms, chestnuts, olive oil, polenta, spelt, artisan cheese, and local wine.

Chestnuts and Mushrooms

Autumn in Tuscany translates to truffles, chestnuts, pumpkins and winter squash. The bright and deep greens turn to the warmer yellows and browns of falling leaves.  Autumn is still warm, and the daytime temperature is perfect for a walk in nature, especially if you head towards the chestnut woods. The beauty of these tall trees and the color of their fruits make for a splendid stroll. This is the chestnut season in Tuscany, which means you will be able to make and taste all kinds of chestnut specialties, such as chestnut-flour pasta and castagnaccio, chestnut cake.

Depending on the summer rainfall, this area’s mushroom season can begin as early as August through to October. Guests can go mushroom-picking in the forest to pick their own porcini, or simply await the arrival of the brimming baskets which local mushroom-pickers bring back daily to the kitchen.

The Garfagnana

Discover Garfagnana with is local market every Thursday morning. The Garfagnana’s own nature and wildlife park Orechiella is also a must see, and guests can spend the whole day there. You can dine in their charming restaurant or bring a Tuscan picnic lunch with you..

The zone of La Garfagnana is known for its mushrooms, including the rare prugnoli primaverili, chestnuts and spelt. Barga is known for its black and white truffles, and depending on what time of year you come, you may be able to hunt for white or black truffles.

Lucca, Pisa, and the Cinque Terre

Lucca, Pisa, Florence and the Cinque Terre are all easy to reach by train and car. We can help with self-guided visits to any of these regions or with hiking, horseback riding, golf, tennis.  The onsite team is also always available to help with any add on drivers.

Lucca & The Finest Italian Olive Oils

Lucca was the home of Giacomo Puccini and Leonardo da Vinci, so for the art and opera lovers this walled medieval town is worth a visit. There are regular Puccini Opera Concerts (sometimes with no entrance fees), grand piazzas to explore, restaurants to try, and tourists can rent bikes and ride through the beautiful cobblestone city or around the city’s impressive walls which date back to the 16th Century.

Since ancient time, growing olives is a main farming activity.  In the mid-15th century olive oil was defined as “necessary for man’s well-being.”  Lucca’s olive oil is so famous throughout the world that the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it as “Lucca Oil,”  calling it on a par with Cognac and Champagne.

Itinerary ~ 8 days 7 nights

Day 1: Benevento & Welcome

1. Check in to your luxurious room, relax and meet your hosts.
2. Enjoy your Cooking Vacations’ Welcome Bag with chef’s apron and Prosecco.
3. Welcome Dinner including a Chef’s Tasting Menu with traditional Tuscan fare.  Wine included is included.
4. After dinner, enjoy Vin Santo as you discuss the itinerary of the week.

Day 2:  Shop With The Chef & Cooking Class 1

• Breakfast is served.
• 1 hour Tour of Barga with guide and coffee stop at one of the old town’s artisan cafés.
• Shop With The Chef market visit to learn about fruits and vegetables in season and pick fresh produce for the day’s lesson.
• Return to the Villa for your Introduction and brief history of Italian and local cuisine.
• Cooking Class 1 begins! You will prepare two dishes: an antipasto and primo (first course), and learn typical garnishes for each plate.
• Lunch in the villa or on the villa’s spacious terrace of the foods prepared in class with local wine included.
• The rest of the afternoon is free with suggestions provided.

Day 3: Tuscan Wine Tasting Tour!

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet your driver for a visit to one of Lucca’s most interesting wine makers.  Visit the vineyard, cantina and wine shop.  Our English-speaking host shares the secrets of growing, bottling and aging using organic farming.  Following the wine tour, enjoy a tasting with Tuscan cheese, prosciutto, salumi and bread with wine included.
• Following the tour, return to the property with the driver.
• Evening is free and dinner is on your own.

Day 4: Shop with the Chef at the Tuscan Market & Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• In the morning, Shop With Chef at Barga’s local produce market to buy fresh ingredients for the afternoon’s cooking class.
• Lunch time is free, and hotel staff are happy to book tables at local restaurants so you can taste some different varieties of the area’s main dishes
• Aprons on at 2pm for Cooking Class 2 where you will prepare two dishes: a secondo, main dish and contorno, side dish, whether it be meat, fish or vegetarian.
• Dinner follows and includes the food prepared in the cooking class with local wine.

Day 5: Cooking Class 3 – Desserts!

• Breakfast is served.
• Morning Cooking Class 3: Dolci!  Learn how to prepare delicious Tuscan desserts in your third hands-on cooking class.  Tuscan crostate, open-faced seasonal fruit tarts, cantucci, twice-baked biscotti, and almond cake, to name a few.  Everyone enjoys the desserts baked in the cooking class with coffee, tea or Vin Santo.
• Afternoon is free to relax or visit the area on your own. Suggestions provided.

Day 6: Free Day ~ Visit Lucca Or Barga

• Breakfast is served
• Discover Lucca and opt to take in a Puccini Opera Concert, or add on a driver and visit the Grotta del Vento or Forte dei Marmi beach.  You can also opt to unplug at the Villa’s swimming pool, or walk to Barga just a short walk away.

Day 7: Cooking Class 4 ~ Pizza Or Polenta Party!

• Breakfast is served.
• Morning free and lunch on your own.
• In the afternoon, tie on your aprons for a Polenta or Pizza Party.  You can learn how to prepare authentic Tuscan polenta prepared with either tomatoes, vegetables or meant sauce or Tuscan pizza.  Everyone enjoys the food prepared in the cooking class to follow with local wine included.

Day 8: Arrivederci!

• Breakfast is served.
• Check Out, goodbyes and Bea’s Goodbye Gift!
• Arrivederci and have a safe journey!

 

Special Cooking Courses:

Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter Menus

Leading up to everyone’s favorite time of year, Christmas, where most people like to live by the philosophy of ‘eat, drink and be merry’, the Villa offers special cooking courses of either 4 days or a week, which focus on how to cook a traditional Italian Christmas Menu so you can spice up your season’s festivities at home.

Christmas Menu Sample

• Antipasto, bruschetta, crostini alla Toscana, prosciutto.
• Tortellini in Brodo, stuffed pasta in homemade broth, or Lasagne.
• Bollito & Salsa Verde, Beef with green sauce.
• Arista, Tuscan roasted meat assortment served with salad.
• Sformato, Insalata, Patate Arroste, cheese custard served with salad & roasted potatoes.
• Panforte or Panettone, Traditonal Tuscan cake baked with candied orange and lemon.
• Vin Santo.
  

We also provide cooking classes to celebrate San Valentino, Valentine’s Day. Couples tie on their aprons to learn to a special Valentine’s menu in the land of love. Enjoy a romantic lunch or dinner following, just for the two of you.

Easter Menu classes are also offered: this is the time of year for the Garfagnana’s celebrated dessert Pasimata, a type of sweetbread made with aniseed and currants.