Your Italian cooking holiday in sunny and unspoilt Sabina, just north of Rome and near Umbria.
Your accommodation will be in the Sabina region, were we have selected a small number of restored historic terraced homes with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. They all have beautiful gardens or piazzas outside their front door, and sunny double bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms. You will be staying in Farfa Sabina or Toffia, two picturesque and unspoilt hilltop medieval villages. The cooking lessons are in Toffia, one of the best preserved medieval hilltop villages in the Sabina region.
Step into authentic Italy from your first evening.
After a beautiful sunset in Sabina, we’ll welcome you over dinner, a feast of wonderful local food and wines. During this relaxed evening, Sally will discuss the programme of events for your Italian cooking holiday.
Breakfast is served at the local cafe where you can enjoy a perfect cappuccino and fresh croissants, while sitting on their patio.
More than just a cooking holiday.
Our Italian cooking holidays also include a guided tour of an olive grove, and wine tasting sessions. Part of our Italian cooking weekly holiday programme is a day trip to Rome with a guided tour of the main sites in the Eternal City. This includes Campo dei Fiori, the oldest and most famous fresh food market in Rome.
Fun and creative cooking lessons and lunches.
Week mornings will be dedicated to cooking wonderful traditional lunches, using the most popular recipes from Cucina Romana and Toscana, with an eye for contemporary presentation: all very easy to replicate at home. We only use the most flavoursome seasonal fresh ingredients sourced from local farmers. During lunch, there are more opportunities to sample the unique wines from central Italy.
Afternoons at your leisure.
In the afternoons, you can simply relax and do nothing, or perhaps you can try a shiatsu therapy massage. Tours of nearby villages and monasteries and horse riding activities are available. In the evening, we are also available to take you to one of the many local restaurants or to participate in one of the local food and cultural festivals when they are on.
Toffia, Farfa and Monteleone, amongst other hilltop villages in the area, hold interesting cultural and food festivals all year. Toffia’s remarkable ‘festa del centro storico’ lasts for a week and includes live jazz, blues and traditional Italian music, theatre and of course plenty of food and wine. The olive oil harvest is celebrated during ‘andare per olio’ week. Moreover, there are plenty of festivals (’sagre’) dedicated to local types of food and wine, as well as fruit when they are being picked.
An Italian Cooking Holiday for fun!
Our Italian cooking holidays are designed to be just that - a real holiday. So apart from cooking, relaxing over freshly prepared meals and sampling local wines, there's plenty of time to yourself. For example, you can explore the Sabina area and its ancient castles and villages, such as Toffia, Fara Sabina and Monteleone, travelling back in time to the middle ages. Or you can just unwind while you have a drink in our sunny gardens overlooking olive groves, waiting for the sunset. Sunsets in Sabina often display incredible shades of red, purple and orange.
Non-cooking companions will have plenty to do while you cook and are welcomed at all our events. For your accommodation, we have carefully selected a small number of restored medieval or renaissance homes and apartments with plenty of character and comfort.
Italian cooking holidays
