$3490 USD*
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Tuition is FREE for any group organizer of 10 people or more!
Bring your students or friends along for an inspiring week in the Italian countryside. Download our posters and itineraries to help promote your next workshop.
Bring your students or friends along for an inspiring week in the Italian countryside. Download our posters and itineraries to help promote your next workshop.
Day 1 - Santarcangelo ‘Pride of Romagna’Your home will be a lovely four-star hotel in the beautifully preserved medieval town of Santarcangelo di Romagna.
Surrounded by greenery, this charming villa is a quiet haven, yet just a few minutes from the cultural highlights and the many shops and cafés of the lively ‘old town’ city center. At 5:00 pm we’ll meet up for a formal introduction to the trip, then take a walk through town to familiarize you with what will quickly come to feel like ‘your town’. We might stop for a gelato, as we enjoy the evening passeggiata (the Italian leisurely evening stroll) with the locals. Then on to dinner at one of the best restaurants in the region. Here begins our love affair with Italian cuisine, accompanied by delicious wines produced by selected boutique wineries of the area. |
Day 2 - Cooking Together & Wine Lesson/TastingAfter breakfast at our hotel (in the garden, weather permitting), we’ll have a short ride up to a gorgeous home in the Romagna hills.
Here we’ll have our first cooking lesson, preparing what the Italians call il pranzo della domenica, that is, Sunday lunch—a lengthy relaxed meal to enjoy with family and friends. Roll up your sleeves—we’ll be making the entire four-course meal ourselves, under the guidance of Italian cooks. Our menu includes piadina with assorted cold cuts, tagliatelle pasta with ragù meat sauce, chicken baked in a casserole Romagna style, roast potatoes with rosemary, and a ricotta cake. And then, a tavola (to table/time to eat!), where we’ll enjoy the fruits of our labor, accompanied by delicious local wines. After lunch, you can relax and enjoy the garden around the pool. We then go on to visit a nearby renowned winery, where our sommelier will walk us through the wines and the history of this region, Romagna, with its delicious Sangiovese, Trebbiano, Pagadebit and Albana di Romagna wines, this last being the first white wine in Italy to be awarded the DOCG classification. A wine-tasting and a dinner featuring the best gastronomic specialties of the Emilia-Romagna region will follow. |
Day 3 - Renaissance Fortress of San Leo
Today we step back in time to the Middle Ages, with a morning visit to the medieval town and fortress of San Leo. Recognized as one of the ‘Borghi Più Belli d’Italia’ (Most Beautiful Villages of Italy), the town’s position on an craggy outcrop of rock is particularly scenic.
We begin in the evocative piazza Dante, where two churches (both over a thousand years old) and the surrounding civic architecture transport you back in time. Accompanied by a local guide we’ll learn the town’s history and explore the magnificent medieval fortress of Federico da Montefeltro, Lord of Urbino, from where he could keep an eye on his neighbor (and enemy), Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini. After lunch, we’ll return to Santarcangelo where you are free to explore the town on your own and dine in one of the many trattorie/restaurants in centro |
Day 4 - Cooking Day and Fossa Cheese
This morning we’ll transfer to the country villa in the Romagna hills where we’ll have our cooking lesson, preparing what the Italians call il pranzo della domenica, that is, Sunday lunch—a lengthy relaxed meal to enjoy with family and friends. Roll up your sleeves—we’ll be making the entire four-course meal ourselves, under the guidance of Italian cooks. We’ll prepare bruschette and a frittata with herbs, cappelletti in broth (the typical pasta of the area, a type of ring-shaped ravioli filled with soft cheeses), meatballs Romagna style, roast pork with vegetables, and a typical dessert called zuppa inglese, the Romagna version of trifle.
After a lovely relaxed lunch, we have a special treat. We’ll visit an area where a very unusual cheese is produced, the formaggio di fossa di Sogliano. This highly-prized cheese is aged in underground pits dug out of the tufo/volcanic tuff. An award-winning cheesemaker will host us, acquainting us with the procedure for making this cheese, followed by a tasting of his family’s specialties. We’ll return to Santarcangelo where you are free to explore the town on your own and dine in one of the many trattorie/restaurants in centro. |
Day 5 - The Real Pizza & Julius CaesarToday is market day in Santarcangelo, the weekly market for the town. You are free to browse and shop at your leisure in the market.
In the afternoon we’ll go to an important historical spot, the very place where in 49 BC Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon (river) with his troops, an act in defiance of the Roman Senate and one that triggered a five-year civil war. His declaration of ‘alea iacta est! ’ (the die is cast!), has come to mean ‘this is the point of no return’ ever since. Following this we walk to a pizzeria for today’s cooking lesson—making traditional Italian pizza. Under the guidance of a professional pizzaiolo (pizza chef) we’ll make our own pizzas and enjoy them in the company of the regular Italian customers. |
Day 6 - Olive Oil Tasting | Trip to FIAT 500To kick off the weekend we’ll attend a procession of the legendary Fiat 500 cars; this is the classic tiny Italian city car, developed in the post-war period as an economical car affordable by all.
We’ll take a ride to the medieval village of Longiano, and share a drink with the members of the Fiat 500 Club beside the impressive fortress. Together we’ll visit a well-known frantoio (olive mill) to learn about and taste the local extra-virgin olive oil, then we’re invited for lunch at the locanda (inn) next door. In the afternoon we’ll return to Santarcangelo for some free time. Late afternoon we move up the coast a couple of miles to the seaside town of Cesenatico, where we’ll enjoy a stroll along the port canal designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Here we’ll have our final aperitivo, toast our days together, and cap it off with a delicious seafood dinner. |
Day 7 - "Arrivederci"
This morning we say goodbye to our fellow travelers and our new Italian friends. Better, let’s just say arrivederci - Until we meet again!