Experience the kitchen: cooking classes in Tuscany

Enjoy learning the secrets of Tuscan cooking while immersed in the beautiful countryside! Far from the city bustle, you can learn how to cook from the famous food blogger Giulia Scarpaleggia (aka Juls' kitchen) in a traditional country home located between Siena and Florence.

The Valdichiana area offers plenty of cooking activities. Through the website Valdichianaliving.com you can book, for example, a cooking lesson in a farm and learn how to cook like grandmothers or have fun with your children enjoying a pizza making class for the whole family.

Featured by Channel 5 (UK) as the guest chef in their TV series A Celeberity Taste Of Italy, Simonetta Demarchi offers cooking courses and charming holiday accomodation options in the Cortona countryside.

In Valtiberina you'll find experiential tours where guests learn about farming and how to make pasta and bread, not to mention learning about picking olives, grapes and mushrooms and hunting for truffles. Agriturismo Le Ceregne organizes special family cooking lessons where you can join your kids or leave them with the cooking instructors while you take a break - and come back to find dinner ready!

In the Carmignano area, you can learn the secrets of the Medici cuisine and the dishes of Catherine de 'Medici at Biagio Pignatta restaurant a few steps from the Artimino Villa or arrange a personalized course at Tenuta Capezzana.

In Quarrata, near Pistoia, become a baker for a day and learn how to make delicious pizza, Tuscan bread, chestnut flour cake and the famous schiacciata flat bread. At the end of the afternoon, you can enjoy the freshly-baked food over a mouth-watering dinner.

But this is only a small taste of what the region has to offer; Tuscany boasts countless possibilities for testing your skills in the kitchen. If you're interested in learning more, check out these other cooking courses.