The Fabrizio Tuscan Estate™

Join Fabrizio and his family, along with Chef Cati, for a fun-filled Tuscan Kids & Family Cooking program designed exclusively for families at the farmhouse property. Kids love his country farmhouse, where they will learn to roll out pasta, make pizza, gelato and desserts and can go horseback riding too!!!  Experience the delights of this family hands-on cooking program, while visiting the Leaning Tour of Pisa, a Tuscan outdoor market and a famous gelateria, ice cream maker too!

As featured in Summer 2022 – Click here to read more!

Set on a working vineyard and olive orchard, the property is surrounded by the rolling green Tuscan hills and offers a gorgeous swimming pool and horseback riding area. The private villa has recently been restored, preserving its old-world charm while adding modern comforts such as air conditioning, and private bathrooms.  It’s a fun-filled authentic cooking experience designed for families and children that you will never forget!

The estate has a vast olive grove and an organic vegetable garden where guests can pick their own tomatoes, eggplant, squash flowers and a bounty of seasonal produce, and  in season, pick the olives and watch them be pressed into extra-virgin olive oil.  Families are invited to explore the gardens and pick the fruits and vegetables which are then used in the cooking classes. This is a great opportunity for kids of all ages to experience Mother nature and learn about the origins of homegrown produce in the heart of Tuscan.

Join Fabrizio for a Kids’ Cooking Program

Learn how to make pasta and pizza in hands-on cooking classes with Fabrizio, Chef Cati and family.  During the cooking classes, everyone will be mixing and rolling out the dough, making pizzas, pasta, and gnocchi, while learning about the healthy Mediterranean diet.  After you have chopped and diced sweet tomatoes or zucchini and porcini mushroom, you will be making delicious pasta sauces, like pesto, pumpkin, or mushroom – along with pizza toppings.  You will also prepare Tuscan desserts, fruit crostata, pie, cantucci, Tuscan cookies, and even gelato.  Gelato making is included at the villa with a delicious tasting to follow.  Following each cooking class, everyone enjoys the food prepared in class together at our table. A toast of local red or white wine for adults and soft drinks for children and water are included.

When you are not cooking, relax in the garden, take a bicycle ride through the Tuscan hills or go for a swim in the property swimming pool (weather permitting).  You may also take a ride or hire a car and visit Vinci, home of Leonardo da Vinci and the da Vinci museum.  This museum features the artist’s creations showcasing everything from his drawings on the human anatomy to mechanical clocks and flying machines.

Cooking Lessons & Market Tour

Experience the delights of the traditional Tuscan lifestyle, while attending fun-filled Kids & Family cooking classes and excursions with Fabrizio. You and your family will learn to prepare antipasto, homemade pasta, and pizza, a main course (meat, fish, or vegetarian), and dessert in each class – including a Tuscan market tour with tastings and a stop at a famous gematria with tastings.  Wine for adults and soft drinks for children are included.

The Kids & Family Cooking classes, held in the villa’s country-style kitchen feature traditional recipes showcasing Tuscan cuisine.  You will be making Tuscan classics such as tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms and pepolino, artichokes and tomatoes stuffed with herbs and cheese; gnocchi in ragù; Chianti Etruscan sauce and beans all’uccelletta.  Desserts are always fun to make and delicious including Tuscan cantucci, traditional almond cookies with Vin Santo for the adults, tiramisù, or schiacciata all’uva, a Tuscan cake with red grapes and rosemary – to name a few!!!

You will also learn the secrets of making pici, handmade Tuscan pasta, gnocchetti verdi di patate con pomodorino fresco e basilico, green potato gnocchi with fresh tomatoes and basil, and ravioli.  Learn how to prepare risotto with pumpkin and black truffles when in season or seafood risotto too!  Main courses range from filetto d’orata al gratin di patate, fish with potato gratin to Tuscan chicken stuffed with spinach and ricotta, and fish.  There’s also Tuscan steak served with farm-fresh vegetables and vegetable soufflés.  Desserts wow with semifreddo alle nocciole con cioccolato fondente, ice cream cake with dark chocolate, and hazelnuts. This is just a sample of Tuscan cuisine depending on the season.

Also included is a visit to the vibrant outdoor marketplace.  You will soak up the scent of just-baked bread, and artisan cheese while seeing the farm-to-table ingredients ingredients from the farmers.  Sellers call out their daily catch, prime cuts, and specials of the day.  Shop with the chef and learn how to select seasonal ingredients for cooking!  Following the market visit, enjoy a stop at our famous geleteria, ice cream maker, for a visit and tasting.  Tastings included.

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 twenty-five minutes outside of Florence.  The estate has a vast 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 accommodations are large apartments and oversized superior rooms, furnished and newly renovated with comfortable beds and Italian linens and all of the modern conveniences needed with air conditioning and wifi. Each room has a private bathroom, telephone, full kitchenette, refrigerator, satellite TV, and a private garden or spacious terrace.

The property offers a caffé terrace for dining, reading, or painting. There is an outdoor wood-burning brick oven for our pizza-making classes too, an oversized swimming pool, and a terrace on the property grounds. Horseback riding is available at the estate, as the owner raises Majestic Murgesi horses.  Please let us know if you may be interested in adding this experience.  E-bikes are available at the property for riding through the Tuscan countryside.

Breakfast is served daily in the dining room and outdoor terrace and includes delicious artisan bread, Tuscan ham, farmers’ cheeses, homemade jams, biscotti and cakes baked each morning by Chef Cati. Traditional Tuscan lunch or dinner is also available at the property – you can reserve directly onsite.

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

Click for Property Photo Gallery

Itinerary~ 4 Days, 3 Nights

Day 1: Check-in and Welcome

• Check in and relax. Welcome and enjoy your Prosecco for parents and soft drink children. introduction.  Explore the property, visit the horse stables, play a game of soccer, or swim in the beautiful swimming pool.
• Welcome Dinner featuring a full course Chef’s Tasting Menu with antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce, main course, dessert and the property’s wine and soft drinks for children.

Day 2: Market Visit and Cooking Class 1 with Gelato Making Tasting Party

• 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, and wooden cooking tools – to name a few – for sale. 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.
• Following the market tour, return to the property for your hands-on cooking class 1 and gelato-making class with a tasting party to follow. Tie on your apron preparing a full course menu with an antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce, main course, and gelato.
• In this cooking class, you will also mix, blend add your favorite fruit, to make Italian gelato.  Lunch follows and includes the food that was prepared in the cooking class with wine and soft drinks for children.
• Later in the day, you are free to relax at the property, swim in the pool, walk through the vineyards or add on horseback riding.  You may also add on a visit to Vinci, a nearby Tuscan village home to Leonardo Da Vinci with a museum dedicated to his work.

Day 3: Excursion to Pisa & Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• After breakfast, your driver will pick you up for a private half-day excursion through the Tuscan Hills to Pisa, home of the historical Leaning Tower. Everyone will love the climb to the top to admire the bird’s eye view of the town and the beautiful Italian countryside. Lunch on your own. Suggestions are provided.
• Following your tour to Pisa, return to the property for your cooking class 2.  Tie on your apron for slicing and dicing in your hands-on cooking class Tie on your apron preparing a full course menu featuring antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce, a main course, and dessert with wine included by lunch with the property’s wine and soft drinks for children included.

Day 4: Departure

• Breakfast is served.
• Check out and transfer to Florence Airport or Train Station.
• Arrivederci!