Italian Cooking School with Rome!

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TRIP DATES	AVAILABILITY	PRICE	SPOTS LEFT
August 28, 2024 - September 7, 2024	Guaranteed	$3,778 USD	12 Available

Embark on a gastronomic and cultural adventure in Italy with us! Explore Rome’s iconic landmarks for 2.5 days before journeying across the Abruzzo mountains to Carunchio. Indulge in a 6-day, all-inclusive cooking school at Palazzo Tour d’Eau, featuring deluxe accommodations, guided tours, and hands-on Italian cuisine classes. Stay at the historic Pantheon Inn, tour the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Vatican, among others. Discover the heart of Italian culinary traditions with professional chefs. Join us on this unforgettable escapade into the heart of Italian culinary excellence and cultural richness!

Overview

Itinerary

Map

Accommodations

Places You'll See

Reviews

Meet Your Trip Leader

Overview

Join us as we immerse ourselves in Italian cuisine and culture.

We will start our journey with 2.5 days of exploring Rome and all it’s glory before driving across the Abruzzo mountains east towards the Adriatic to arrive in Carunchio, the home of Abruzzo Cibus for our 6-day, all-inclusive, cooking school at the Palazzo Tour d’Eau.

Our days in Rome include a 3-night stay at the Pantheon Inn, a palace built towards the end of the seventeenth century, and tours of the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Circus Maximus, Catacombs, Apian Way, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and the Vatican, plus so much more.

The Abruzzo Cibus Cooking School features 6-nights of deluxe accommodations, all meals, tours, and traditional Italian cuisine cooking classes held by professional chefs. The details of these wonderful experiences can be found in our Itinerary.

Highlights

3 hour tour of The Colosseum and Roman Forum
Clergyman tour of the Catacombs
Circus Maximus and the Appian Way
Private guided tour of Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica
Visits to the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, the Pantheon
Four cooking classes at Abruzzo Cibus
Day trips to olive press, cheese making, bell foundry, fishing village and more!

Day 1 :

Depart for Rome

We depart from home late afternoon for an overnight flight, arriving in Rome the following morning.

Day 2 :

Arrive in Rome

Late morning we arrive in this ancient capital city, and take a private transfer to our palace hotel, Pantheon Inn, just steps from the Pantheon. After some time to unpack and relax, the rest of the day is yours to explore on your own. We’ll reconvene at 6:30 for a welcome reception followed by a welcome dinner.

Dinner

Day 3 :

Rome

After breakfast, we’ll meet our English-speaking local guide for a full-day tour of this ancient city. We will have a 3 hour tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum, lunch at a cafe, and an afternoon tour of the Circus Maximus, Catacombs, and the Appian Way. We will even find time for a refreshing gelato! The tour should end around 4, after which you’ll have time to shop or explore on your own or in a group. That evening we will enjoy a feast of local delicacies at a local restaurants.

Breakfast, Dinner

Day 4 :

Rome

Today, our guide will pick us up after breakfast for guided tours of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. We will enjoy lunch at a local cafe then continue with an afternoon of taking in more of this ancient city with stops at the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon. Our afternoon should wrap about 3:00 to leave us some time to relax or continue exploring at your leisure. We will meet for dinner together at a local restaurant to toast to our final evening in Rome.

Breakfast, Dinner

Day 5 :

Rome to Carunchio

After a leisurely breakfast, we will depart to meet our driver at the Rome airport to journey across the Abruzzo mountains towards the Palazzo Tour d’Eau in Carunchio, a hilltop village listed among the “100 Most Beautiful Villages in Italy”. After we are settled in, we’ll meet for a cocktail and a briefing on the tour. A welcome dinner will follow, with a multi-course meal.

Breakfast, Dinner

Day 6 :

Old Town Carunchio

After a short morning walk around the old-town, we get started on our first class with professional chefs. We’ll explore the basic ingredients of traditional Abruzzo cuisine and make some flavorful sauces for pasta dishes. The theme for this lunch will be “quick and healthy homemade meals”. We’ll see how delicious, easy, and healthy Abruzzese cooking can be. We’ll lunch on our tasty creations in traditional Italian style, slowly and in good company!

After lunch, we’ll rest up for the afternoon activities. Next, we will visit an organic olive oil press, where the owner of the farm will show us the traditional ways of making the “real extra virgin olive oil”. You will also have the opportunity to do a professional olive oil tasting.

Dinner will be at the palace.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 7 :

Homemade Pasta Extravaganza & Sommelier

Today, we’ll learn how much fun and delicious making pasta can be, in a variety of colors and shapes. Learning all the tricks so it turns out great every time. You will be amazed by the variety: pasta alla chitarra, gnocchi, cavatelli, stuffed pasta and so on. After lunching on your creations and a well deserved break, our own sommelier will show you wine sampling techniques and you are going to learn all about Abruzzo wines.

Dinner will be at the palace.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 8 :

Vasto, Trabocco "Fishing House", Shopping, "Taste of the Adriatic" Seafood Lunch

The day starts with a visit to the curious trabocchi fishing houses, a unique piece of art that is available only on this small strip of the Adriatic. Lunch at the best restaurant in town, serving a seafood sampling feast. After lunch we’ll have the opportunity to do some window shopping in Vasto: shoes, lingerie, jewelry, clothes and much more.

Dinner at the palace.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 9 :

Cooking Peasant Food and Biscotti, & Truffle Hunting

Learn some recipes of the old world, the peasant food. What used to be peasant food is now super gourmet. And it satisfies all the palates because it is a vegetarian dish. For dessert we will be making the best almond biscotti ever made, with an Abruzzo twist. In the afternoon, if weather permits, we will go truffle hunting!

Dinner at the palace.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 10 :

Agnone, Cheese Making, Bell Foundry, Porchetta, and Pizza Making Class

In the morning, we will head to Agnone, in the region of Molise, where we can watch real family production of mozzarella, burrata and caciocavallo. Agnone is famous in the area for its quality cheese, especially caciocavallo, which is a gourmet version of provolone. Then we will visit a historic artisan bell foundry which still makes church bells manually for the Vatican. We will learn about the manufacturing phases.

Lunch will be a gourmet street food and that is a porchetta sandwich, pair with a fine Italian beer.

In the afternoon after a small rest, we will be making pizza, in our woodfired oven. Stretching pizza dough, top it with fresh ingredients and throw it in an artisan wood fired oven. The result is a crunchy, thin crust, flavorful pizza perfect for our farewell dinner.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 11 :

Homeward Bound

After an early breakfast, we will transfer to the Rome airport for our flight home, arriving late afternoon the same day.

Breakfast

Pantheon Inn, Rome

Our accommodations for 3 nights in Rome are in a historic palace now a deluxe hotel with air conditioned rooms with private bathroom. Our unique inn is just 2 blocks from the Pantheon, where there are shops, cafes, and sites to explore at your leisure.

The original structure of the building was built for the family Porcari and was later owned by the family Ghislieri, from whom the Nunez bought it renovated, probably designed by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi at the end of the seventeenth century. The building consists of four storys over the floor, remodeled shop with doors that flank the portal architrave surmounted by a balcony. At the corner of Vicolo della Minerva, stands the emblem of Nunez, a destrochiero armed with palm under a bridge of three peaks. In a shelf of the stairs there is a fresco with the following inscription: «Madama Providentia Andreas Demleiter 1664».

The building was the home to none other than the famous Giuseppe Garibaldi. From 1873 onwards Garibaldi settled in this building several times. This was shortly after publishing “I Mille” and during the years of his election, his literary works and his marriage to Francesca Armosino. As a Member of the House, of this newly created nation, he proposed the first political plan. This consisted in the universal adult suffrage act, the reconstruction of Italy, the drainage of the Pontine land and a project to render the Tiber waterway navigable. In nearly all Italian cities there is at least one statue of Garibaldi and almost all of them have one common feature: the eyes of Garibaldi are always pointed toward Rome, the city which he never managed to conquer.

Palazzo Tour D’Eau, Abruzzo Cibus, Carunchio

One of the most frequent comments is that we don’t emphasize enough the beauty and the exclusivity of the palace where you are staying. It is in fact a castle, own by a noble family that moved in Carunchio in 1730. Palazzo Tour D’Eau, as it was originally named, has recently been restored from its once forlorn state to what was likely its original external appearance, with every modern amenity on the inside. It’s ten stately rooms have been richly refurbished for your comfort. Each room has its own bathroom and a sp

lendid view of the valley and surrounding mountains. Open your windows in the morning to the sound of the church bells still keeping time for the townspeople and fill your lungs with clean, fresh air.

The palace has been totally renovated in 2003. All the beds are new and very comfortable and the size of the rooms are very generous. Guests that stay here have the feeling of being royalty. It is a totally different feel from a typical Rome or Venice hotel. The quietness, the beauty of the room, the décor, the size. Everything is top of the line.

The broad terraces surrounding the palace provide panoramic views of the surrounding hills, valleys and distant mountains.

The palace also features a bar for an espresso, beer, wine, or aperitivo.

Our cooking classes take place on the lower level in the palace’s professional kitchen of Abruzzo Cibus.