Organic Tuscany Cooking School was a one of a kind experience. The setting of the rural Tucany landscapes are breathtaking. The villa Il Pino was a spacious and welcoming setting for the cooking school. The week of activities in addition to the cooking classes provide an expansive selection of historic and cultural information. The days are planned to include cooking, site seeing, socializing or just relaxing. The menu design used the best of the local organic products. The Organic Tuscany staff are patient with all the participants and the various levels of cooking skills of the group. Enjoyed the time and would recommend the Organic Tuscany Cooking School to anyone that loves the food and people of Italy.

If you are at all considering this experience, do not hesitate to treat yourself to a unique Tuscan cooking, cultural, and just plain fun week staying in a picturesque and comfortable villa in Il Pino/Certaldo. The food you will learn to make is simple, yet sumptuous and made in a non-fussy fundamental way that honors the locally sourced fresh ingredients and Italian techniques. Under the excellent and caring oversight and humor of your hosts, Richard and Shilpa, as well as a cadre of local family members and friends, you will make memories to last a lifetime while learning some serious food, olive oil, and wine chops along with your group, who will become your best friends for your week together. Meal times on the expansive terrazza overlooking the Tuscan countryside were an endless source of delight.

I was a little worried that my daughter (21) might feel out of place due to her age, but we both loved our week at Organic Tuscany. Riccardo, Shilpa and all the staff were wonderful, as were the other guests during our week there. The week is a nice balance of cooking and sight seeing, with opportunities to relax poolside if you wanted to. I would highly recommend this experience to others. It was the highlight for me during our 5 weeks in Europe. - Cathy Shilpa and Riccardo were very welcoming and accommodating hosts, they even helped us to print our voting papers so that we could vote from overseas! The food was exceptional and I probably ate twice as much as I normally do because of this. I throughly enjoyed the cooking classes and the staff were friendly and helpful. We visited Florence and Siena and the tour guides (who were organised by Organic Tuscany) were very passionate about their cities and gave engaging tours. I particularly liked the tour that our guide gave of Florence where we saw a local market and she got us some samples of cheese and truffle dishes. The other guests were friendly and we all got along really well. The villa has a spectacular view and it was nice to call Il Pino home for a week! Overall it was a wonderful vacation and my only regret is that we didn’t manage to get a photo of everyone. - Emma