A Week-long Touring and Cooking Vacation in Umbria and Tuscany
Classic Culinary Vacation Tours
Combine vacation time with active hands – on cooking classes in a way like no other vacation. In the beautiful historical backdrop of Italy, you will delve into a food culture that will help you understand how craftsmanship with local products, whether cheese, grains, meats, fish, balsamic vinegar's, olive oil and wines contributes flavor and intensity in its purest form.
A Cucina della Terra cooking vacation is like no other vacation on earth. Experience a one-of-a-kind trip to Umbria and Tuscany, seeing the sights by day and enjoying cooking classes by night. Not only can you take in the beauty of Italy, but you can also learn how to cook like an Italian.
When you embark on a culinary vacation to Italy, you will explore the local food culture and discover how the craftsmanship of local products like cheese, grains, meats, fish, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and wine contribute to the intense and flavorful dishes of the region. You will learn regional home cooking, and you can take the recipes home with you to recreate them in your own kitchen. Not only do you get to enjoy a fabulous week-long vacation, but you also learn valuable skills so that you can create authentic Italian cuisine for your friends and family once you return.
In addition to cooking classes and sightseeing, some of our culinary vacations in Tuscany and Umbria also include olive harvests, wine tasting tours, and truffle hunting. This will be the experience of a lifetime, and you will want to return again and again.
Take the trip of a lifetime when you contact us to plan your culinary vacation to Tuscany and Umbria.
Our kitchen in Umbria, Italy
"I have never added a review on trip advisor but I could not let this opportunity pass. My five star review shares everything in common with the reviews you may have already read. My trip was also one of the greatest experiences of my travel life. The views of the Italian landscape from my villa, the food we cooked and the towns we visited made me wish that I too had a little house in this countryside. What can I add that may help your decision?
I am a solo traveler. I look for experiences that allow me to explore what interests me and at the same time, creates an ease to flow in and out of the group experience. You are never eating alone, you can buddy up with others while in town and at the end of the day you are cooking and sharing wine and laughs about your day.
I won't leave you with paragraphs to read but I will close with this. Gerri and Jack are two hosts and chefs that create a friends and family experience. They ensure that you meander through the towns as if you are a local. You run into them over and over while they ensure you have found what you came looking for, the church, the shopping, the castle, and the gelato :) This is my fourth trip to Italy, I left this trip feeling as if I was immersed in the local culture and they set me up so I could take my experience back home with me to share.
Case in point, I left with lentils, a local Italian bean, olive oil, balsamic, olive pine wood cutting boards, a board to make my home made gnocchi recipe, and ok, yes I brought home many more scarves to add to my collection and oh God yes, another poncho that will forever remind me of that little Italian storefront on the cobblestone street of that beautiful town.
Please know that I was one of nine on our trip. Six were returning from a trip last year. I will continue this tradition . Jack and Gerri, you made me feel like a family member "a piu tardi" - "see you later". You have not seen the last of me yet : )"
- sbogorman4
We had an outstanding experience during our week at Cucina Della Terra. The program was the centerpiece of our Italy vacation, following our time in Venice and Florence, and preceding Rome. It was the perfect combination of cultural immersion (touring several architecturally beautiful cities in Tuscany and Umbria; exploring the olive harvest, wine and cheese making, and truffle hunting) and learning new cooking skills, techniques and recipes. Chefs Gerri and Jack were most generous, sharing not only their exquisite cooking kitchen with us, but also their time, experience, love of cooking, fine wines, and knowledge of and love for Italy with us. Every meal we ate was excellent, rich in flavor, varied in content, pushing us beyond what we knew and with which we were comfortable, to new culinary heights. It was the experience of a lifetime.
- Wanda & Anthony
"…my whole experience with Cucina was truly wonderful…This was not my first trip to Italy, but if it had been, I would have been lucky.travelling itinerary combined with the cooking time was incredible. We were driven to small hill towns and cities usually in the morning after breakfast to either sightsee, shop or attend a cheese making facility or winery that would include tours, etc and lunch. Then that evening we would cook incredible meals and all eat together.I didn’ t want to return home…I gained terrific memories along with much more honed cooking skills and new recipes. My family is enjoying those.”
- Anne K, New York
"I was asked several times during my second and third trips to Cucina della Terra, “Why did you come back?”. Those are my reasons, in the best way that I can articulate them. I am like other people who love to travel – I have my bucket list and I am working on it. But I am always reminded of what a travel agent said to me many years ago “When you have found your paradise, why wouldn’t you go back?”.
- Greg Ricks
