My husband and I will be celebrating our 35th Anniversary for 2 weeks in Italy in September. Being very interested in food and wine, we want to attend a 3 or 4 day cooking school in Tuscany. Any suggestions?
Thanks!!

I have noticed quite a lot of positive comments on the Slow Travel website about Judy Witts Francini, who offers cooking classes in Florence. Her website is divinacucina.com.

Judy is a frequent contributor on the Slow Travel message board and graciously offers advice to those seeking information about Florence and the Chianti.

Definitely take along her restaurant recommendations for Tuscany which are listed on her website.

Judy is a delight and always a good idea to consider. Also on Slowtrav.com is a couple from Dallas that manage a cooking school in Montefollinco you can see at www.tuscanwomencook.com It may be a week school, but contact them to see the flexability.

Would you be interested in cooking with the owner of a Villa just outside Florence? I know nothing about the "cooking schools" but if it's learning to cook from an authentic Tuscan Italian, then why not ask a Villa owner if you could hire her to work with you? I know someone who might be interested in sharing her kitchen with you. Email me and I'll pass her name on to you.
Kathy

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In my neck of the woods, Umberto Menghi's "Villa Delia Hotel and Tuscany Cooking School" at http://www.umberto.com/delia.htm gets wonderful reviews.

Cheers,
Linda

I highly recommend Tutti a Tavola (www.tutti-a-tavola.com), which my wife and I and another couple enjoyed last year.
Rotating among several agritourisms in and around Castellina, the school is hosted by several woman, all long time friends. Take the course and you'll savor not only learning to cook Tuscan style but, especially, dining on the fruits of your labor.

Hi - we just got back from a 10-day excursion to the cooking school at Villa Delia. There aren't enough words to describe the experience. The school is run by Umberto who owns several restaurants in Canada. He is like the "Wolfgang Puck" of Canada. His sister and her husband run the villa. We actually had Umberto conduct the cooking classes. When he is not there his sister conducts them in Italian with an interpreter. Both Umberto and his sister were taught by their mother how to cook Tuscan food. (The villa is named after their mother, Delia). Cooking classes were held in the morning and then we went on excursions in the afternoon to both "touristy" and non touristy locations. It was great to be shown around Tuscany by a true Tuscan - getting to know little Tuscan towns was our favorite. All in all, the villa itself is gorgeous with beautiful surrounding scenery; the staff was SO GRACIOUS AND ACCOMODATING; and the food WAS SPECTACULAR! We have never eaten (or drank) so much before. We truly felt at home and actually had tears in our eyes when we left to go.

Hello, I just returned from my first visit to Italy and we went primarily to take cooking classes. We went to a villa run by a wonderful couple and we went on excursions, led by Paolo in the morning and had cooking classes with Pat in the evening. It was excellent. Their villa is spacious and very warm and hospitable. You can get more info at http://www.tastytuscany.com. We left feeling as if we got a taste of living in Italy, not just being tourists, going from city to city.

This article from The Times has a story on Italian cooking schools:

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/arti...825382,00.html

Take into consideration for a good cooking school in Tuscany http://www.tuscany-cooking.com
Both tuscan and ligurian style and excellent know-how about wine maters.

Found a useful directory for cooking classes in Tuscany: http://www.wine-tours.it/cooking_courses.htm

Capezzana, source of some of Tuscan'y best wines and my favorite Tuscan olive oil, has a culinary center not far from Florence where you can take a variety of classes. They also offer accommodations. Given their reputation I would imagine that this would be first class in every respect; I have not been there so cannot comment first hand; as you see on the site lilked below, they also offer wine tours:




http://www.capezzana.it/

bookmarking

Wow, these all sound great. MalibuLisa, can you give some idea of the cost for the 9 day course? It doesn't really say on the website.

Thank you.

yes would also be interested in the costs if anyone has ballpark figures?

and you mentioned a 9 day course, hopefully they would have one for 1-2 day stays?