Luxury cookery holiday in Umbria
This 4-night cookery holiday in Umbria includes cookery classes that are held at Villa di Monte Solare and are taken by the English-speaking chef, Nicola Fanfano, who cooks using mainly organic produce. The classes are hands-on with each of the maximum of 6 participants having their own work station. The emphasis is on explaining and instructing you in traditional cooking methods and regional dishes. Each of the two courses lasts approximately three hours and is followed by a meal together. You are provided with a recipe booklet. Also included are three dinners at the hotel and two wine tasting sessions. The Villa di Monte Solare is in the countryside near the village of Tavernelle di Panicale and a few miles south of Lake Trasimeno. Surrounded by undulating hills, woods, fields and olive groves, the Villa was the residence of a noble family and dates back to the 18th century. Today it is a small hotel of just 25 rooms and combines a charm and cosiness with high standards of service and comfort. Antique and traditional local furniture complete the picture of terracotta floors, murals and original fireplaces. Facilities at the hotel include two swimming pools for summer use, clay tennis court, spa and cycle hire. The hotel is about 2 hours’ drive from Rome Fiumicino airport.
Highlights
Two cookery classes each of 3 hours’ duration • Recipe booklet • Meal follows each cookery lessons
It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room for 4 nights.
From about
£1,860
Holiday Code FHIT17
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury cookery holiday in Umbria
Depart from London Heathrow on the British Airways flight at 08.35 arriving in Rome Fiumicino at 12.05. (Flight times may vary according to departure date). You are met and transferred to the hotel Villa di Monte Solare. The journey time is about two hours. Once you have checked in, there is time to explore the villa and its grounds, perhaps enjoying a sandwich or tea and cakes before changing for dinner. Enjoy an aperitif and then you are served dinner (drinks not included).
After breakfast your first cookery class starts at 10 am. This three-hour session is hands-on and provides an insight into the preparation of regional dishes as well as traditional cooking methods. At the end of the session, you share a meal together. Free time this afternoon to explore on your own or to relax at the hotel. Dinner is not included tonight.
Today is a free day but if you have a hire-car with you it is worth visiting the famous wine town of Torgiano and the Lungarotti Wine Museum, one of the best in the world. There is also an olive oil museum to visit. Then you could continue Assisi, birthplace of St Francis, World Heritage Site and a symbol of peace or visit the nearby university city of Perugia. Dinner (without drinks) is included at the Villa di Monte Solare tonight.
The class this morning starts after breakfast at 10 am. Once again it is hands-on and will focus on yet more aspects of regional dishes and traditional Italian methods of cooking. A meal together follows the course. Spend the afternoon relaxing or perhaps walking in the nearby countryside. Own arrangements for dinner.
A leisurely breakfast and then some free time before a departure about midday in your luxury minibus for the journey of about two hours back to Rome Fiumicino airport for your flight to London Heathrow which departs at about 17.20 hrs.
It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room for 4 nights.
From about
£1,860
Holiday Code FHIT17
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.
Our prices include
● Scheduled flights with British Airways London Heathrow to Rome return, economy
● Transport by luxury mini-bus from Rome airport to the hotel and back
● Four nights’ bed and breakfast in a Superior double room at the Villa di Monte Solare, at Tavernelle di Panicale
● Two dinners at the hotel
● Two cookery classes each of 3 hours’ duration
● Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints
Additional information
This holiday operates in 2022 on 24 April, 8 May, 12 June and 18 September.
Holidays for two people can take place at any time subject to availability.
Call us on 01392 441245
It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room for 4 nights.
From about
£1,860
Holiday Code FHIT17
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.
Our prices include
• Scheduled flights with British Airways London Heathrow to Rome return, economy
• Transport by luxury mini-bus from Rome airport to the hotel and back
• Four nights’ bed and breakfast in a Superior double room at the Villa di Monte Solare, at Tavernelle di Panicale
• Two dinners at the hotel
• Two cookery classes each of 3 hours’ duration
• Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints
The journey and how you get there There are scheduled flights with British Airways from London Heathrow to Rome, several times a day. You are collected at Rome airport and transferred to your hotel by mini-bus, a journey time of about 2 hours. If you are booking this holiday for just two people, you may want to have the use of a hire-car instead of the transfer.
Additional information
This holiday operates in 2022 on 24 April, 8 May, 12 June and 18 September.
Holidays for two people can take place at any time subject to availability.
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury cookery holiday in Umbria
Special offers
Call to make your booking and save an extra £50 per adult Call us instead of emailing us when you are thinking of booking a holiday and save an extra £50 per adult (in addition to any special offers that might be available). We want to talk to you to discuss your requirements and a phone call is usually the best way for you to define what you want enabling us to respond more accurately. We want to talk to you and you save an extra £50 per adult.
It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room for 4 nights.
From about
£1,860
Holiday Code FHIT17
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.
Our prices include
• Scheduled flights with British Airways London Heathrow to Rome return, economy
• Transport by luxury mini-bus from Rome airport to the hotel and back
• Four nights’ bed and breakfast in a Superior double room at the Villa di Monte Solare, at Tavernelle di Panicale
• Two dinners at the hotel
• Two cookery classes each of 3 hours’ duration
• Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints
The journey and how you get there There are scheduled flights with British Airways from London Heathrow to Rome, several times a day. You are collected at Rome airport and transferred to your hotel by mini-bus, a journey time of about 2 hours. If you are booking this holiday for just two people, you may want to have the use of a hire-car instead of the transfer.
Additional information
This holiday operates in 2022 on 24 April, 8 May, 12 June and 18 September.
Holidays for two people can take place at any time subject to availability.
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury cookery holiday in Umbria
About Umbria
An Expressions tailor-made holiday to Umbria offers the chance to explore a lesser-known rural area of Italy. Umbria is a gentle, undulating land of hills, river valleys, a patchwork of fields, vines and olives similar in many ways to her better-known neighbour, Tuscany, yet in other ways so very different. Umbria evokes a deeper rusticity, a less ‘polished' feel than Tuscany, the secrecy and mysticism of the Middle Ages and yet because of this holds a charm and fascination for the visitor. The hill towns are superb in their own right; steep, narrow cobbled streets with overhanging arches, the grey stone enlivened here and there by pots of geraniums. Ancient crafts remain very much alive, with ceramics and woodwork in particular. Umbria abounds in Roman architecture with Gubbio and Spoleto being noteworthy and there are Etruscan remains too. The food is hearty and earthy too with truffles and porcini, sausages and salami being regional specialities. Yet Umbria also has some of the most important religious sites in Europe, such as the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi and throughout the region are to be discovered outstanding works of art by Perugino, Giotto, Pinturicchio and Gozzoli. Umbria is an intriguing region that awaits further discovery.
Highlights of Umbria
Shop for ceramics in Gubbio, truffles and cooked meats from Norcia. Dramatic landscapes of the Monte Sibillini and one of Europe's highest waterfalls called the Cascate delle Marmore near Terni. One of Italy's beauty spots is the Fonti del Clitunno south of Trevi. See carpentry and woodworking in Todi. Visit the wine museum in Torgiano. Forests of holm oak near Spoleto. Antique fair in April and a national craft fair in August and September in Todi.
Cultural highlights of Umbria
A mixture of religious and secular art and architecture makes Umbria fascinating. The cities of Perugia and Assisi are great centres but the smaller towns of Gubbio, Todi, Spoleto and Spello are also of outstanding interest. Highlights of the region include the Fontana Maggiore in the Piazza IV Novembre in Perugia. Perugia`s Galleria Nazionale containing works by Perugino and Pinturicchio. Gattapone`s Palazzo dei Consoli in Gubbio and his Ponte delle Torri in Spoleto. The `Adoration of the Magi` by Perugino in the church of the Madonna della Lacrime in Trevi. Frescoes by Matteo da Gualdo in the Pinacoteca of Gualdo Tadino. `San Sebastiano` by Luca Signorelli in the Pinacoteca at Citta di Castello. Frescoes by Giotto and Lorenzetti in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi.
Festivals in Umbria
Perugia has a jazz festival in the summer and the Sagra Musicale music festival held in its churches in September. Orvieto holds concerts in August and has a firework display on the 15th. Spoleto`s Festival of the Two Worlds, a world-class cultural event, takes place June and July. Spello holds its Infiorata in June when the streets are decked with flowers. Foligno holds jousting in September during its Giostra della Quintane.
Gastronomy in Umbria
Umbria's gastronomy is very much a product of its earth and waters: Mushrooms and truffles flavour many dishes, Game and wild boar, Trevi produces black celery, olive oil and black truffles, Pecorino cheese from Torgiano, Todi offers Panzanella, dried bread soaked and marinated in sliced tomato, basil, onion and olive oil, Sweet macheroni with walnuts, Salami and sausages are a regional speciality, Trout from the rivers and perch from Lake Trasimeno, Strangozzi and Bici are local pasta, often flavoured with porcini and truffles. Umbria produces some high quality robust red wines near Torgiano (Rubesco produced by Lungarotti for example) and Orvieto is known for its white wine.
