Yes. Our classes becomes chummy groups within minutes. Our students are well-travelled and out going by nature, from all over the world. Students from most classes stay in contact for years to come and we receive emails about their meetings together years and decades later.
Probably not. You really should have listened to your mother.
We have never cancelled a class for any reason, ever.
In a post-COVID-19 world though, this is now our policy: If you write us you can switch dates for free, as long as we still have space. This credit is non-transferable between people but it never expires. Come whenever you can. If you book a date by mistake,write us and we’ll switch you to the proper date you intended, no problem (no need to cancel payment and rebook).
In light of the pandemic, we recommend travel insurance.
We do not offer refunds for any reason once you book.
Our half day courses are 145 Euro, full day 270 Euro and our week-long courses are 1995 Euro, regardless if we are in Lecce or at the Castle. By law we cannot include accommodation in our price (if anyone does they are either operating illegally or they are travel agents versus a school). There are a few times a year when a course requires extra expenses and we ask for a supplement (such as bicycle hire / rental). These are clearly stated. We take payment through Paypal but should you require an alternative, write us.
There is no need to spend any personal money while on any of our cooking courses. Those that do spend money do so on souvenirs during the breaks. Most of our students don’t even carry their wallet or purse while with us. We take care of everything.
Once you’re booked you’ll be given access to our Student Services, the password protected part of our site. It helps you book all of your travel.
Only you can answer this but we have seen a few tendencies over the years. Our short cooking or day courses are for those that are already traveling in the region. They are designed to be short, succinct food and wine components of larger trips.Those that attend our week long castle courses tend to be after fun, larger-than-life celebrations of food, wine and learning. While those that attend our Lecce course tend to seek smaller, more intimate classes in a more sophisticated urban setting (the historic centre of Lecce). Many of our students return and do a different course and they always say the same thing: Loved both, just for different reasons.
No. Those that take our Lecce course stay in bed and breakfasts in the city of Lecce (we help you book all of it). The castle is not only an hour south of Lecce, it’s a completely different format for a class (those that attend classes at the castle stay at the castle).
Our three extra virgin olive oils are 19 Euro per bottle. We do ship all over the world–23 countries to date– but the shipping isn’t cheap (although very competitive in continental Europe).
We mostly ship in cases of 12 bottles, 4 of each. Shipping prices are such that 12 turns out to be the sweet spot in regards to shipping prices.
If you take a course with us you can certainly carry away as much as you like, as long as it lasts.
Those that buy our extra virgin one year statistically will order it again and again. It’s likely to be the best you’ve ever tasted.
You’d pay the same for a bottle of wine that is gone in an hour. High-quality extra virgin olive oil from Puglia is one of life’s great pleasures.
Keep in the dinning room, not the kitchen.
We don’t know until they arrive. (Just like we know very little about you before you arrive). So far we have had students from 59 different countries. Our students are open, curious and very well-travelled. Statistically, you’ll make life-long friends while you are here.
You’re likely an Apple computer user. You likely vote left of centre. You likely have an advanced degree. You have been to Italy many times. This is the profile of those that been coming to the school for the last 20 years. From which country changes with the seasons, the international economic exchange and the opening of new economies.
Most international destinations fly into Rome. In our twenty one years of experience, flying into Roma is by far the easiest way to arrive in Italy. Getting to Lecce from Rome is as easy as jumping on the high speed trains from Rome’s primary train terminal (Termini station). The new, high-tech Freccia trains depart from Roma Termini for Lecce several times a day.
Flying into local airports has been problematic in the past, mostly for delayed arrival of luggage. As always, you’re free to arrive however you like and this information is only here to alert you of our past experiences working in the travel industry.
Taking the train from Roma to Lecce is an easy, afternoon ride that cuts through Campania , and then down the gorgeous Adriatic coast, passing the sprawling grain fields of Northern Puglia into the olive oil country of the South. For many, the scenery is a highpoint of the trip. The train ride from Rome to Lecce is only about 5 ½ hours and it’s direct. Lecce is also the last stop, so you can sleep away any jetlag without fear of missing your stop.
Depending upon the flights available from your point of origin, you might consider flying into Brindisi or Bari as opposed to Rome. This is particularly true if you are coming from London. Brindisi is a popular hub for many European airlines and is a 30 minute cab or shuttle ride away from Lecce. Flights from Stansted fly directly into Bari and Brindisi, although the days of the week vary with the seasons. Flights from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, France, Norway, Holland and Spain all now arrive and depart from Bari or Brindisi. And jet lag isn’t an issue.
All of our classes in Lecce start at 10 am or 18:00 under the column in Piazza Sant’ Oronzo, Lecce’s main square.
All week-long classes in Lecce start on Monday at 10 am, under the column in Piazza Sant’ Oronzo.
All of courses at the castle start at 9 am at Porta Napoli for the trip to the castle. Bring your luggage with you. We leave directly for Porta Napoli. All of this is well-spelled out in our Student Services.
We handle all transportation to and from the castle for all of week-long classes there. If you join us as a guest student at the castle for a half-day, you’ll need to arrange your own trasportation.
In order to accommodate the additional travel to the castle, our castle courses begin earlier by one hour. We suggest that all arrive in Lecce sometime on Sunday and spend the day around the city. If staying in a family-owned B & B, alert them to your arrival time. Arrive at Porta Napoli with your luggage. Take a moment and reread this. We handle everything but it’s important to understand how we go about it.
For our Lecce week-long courses, we meet under the statue of Sant’ Oronzo at 10 am, Monday mornings. We have maps in our Student Services, but it’s the city’s most obvious point.
For our castle courses, we meet at 9 am at Porta Napoli, with your luggage. We’ll handle all the transportation, to and from Lecce. Should you insist on arriving by car, meet us at the castle directly at 10 am. on Monday. Maps, GPS coordinates and more details are Student Services. Parking at the castle is free and not an issue.
We can be certain that we don’t feed you any gluten during one of our classes but we do make fresh wheat-based pasta during our lessons (our two wine classes don’t involve time in the kitchen).
If you can’t touch flour or even breath it in, we are not the class for you.
If, on the other hand, you can touch it but not eat it, we always keep purchased gluten-free pasta for those that need it.
Tell us when booking and remind us when you are arrive but it’s never an issue. And gluten-free pasta has really improved in the last 5 years.
No, we don’t know how to make it better than what is for sale.
Never come to the school. We always meet under the column in Lecce’s main square, with the exception of our week-long classes at the castle, when we meet at 9 am on Monday morning at Porta Napoli.
Otherwise, we always meet at 10 am under the column in Piazza Sant Oronzo. It’s Lecce’s main square and the most obvious meeting point in the city.
It’s the same place we meet for evening courses: 18:00 (6pm) under the column. We always go to the market first.
Please arrive early and have a coffee at Cafe Alvino before hand. You’ll be thankful that you did.
Via Adua. Find Porta Napoli on the map (it as the obelisk and the giant stone arch) and turn right just before entering the historic centre (do no enter the historic centre). You can park on the street using coins for the meter (big blu ‘P’, for ‘parking’) or park in the lot.
Do not come to the school. We meet in Piazza Sant Oronzo under the column, Lecce’s main square.
While parking just outside of Lecce is rarely difficult, it might take longer than you think. Leave 30 minutes more than you need. You can always have coffee next at Cafe Alvino next to our meeting point.
If you plan to arrive by car, please allow at least half an hour to secure parking before the class begins.
Those that arrive in time will not be made to wait for those that arrive at the meeting point but still need to park their car.
The best place to park is Via Adua at Porta Napoli, the first arrival gate when entering the city if coming from the north. You can pay at the meter (the machines with the giant blue ‘P’) and put the ticket right side up on your dashboard.
Via Adua at Porta Napoli is also very near the school, which makes it easy to find your way back to your car after class. We’ll point you in that direction after class.
Do not come to the school when arriving in Lecce. We meet in Piazza Sant Oronzo, under the column, for all classes in Lecce.
European law dictates that only travel agents can arrange travel packages, which is why we are not allowed to ‘bundle’ your room into the price of the course.
Once booked you’ll be given access to our Student Services, which points you to our trusted options. Today, much is online so you are free to do your own research if you don’t want to follow our advice.
If booking a castle course, we’ll be staying at the castle, an hour south of Lecce. For our castle courses, there are no alternative venues. We stay at the castle. We’ll send you all the relevant info for booking your room there.
If you intend to swim, then the summer. Otherwise, the rest of the year is far better, especially if are coming for the food and wine. Puglia’s olive oil is justifiably famous, as are the deep-green vegetables- such as rape and la cicoria, all at their best over the winter. If you’re coming to work on your Italian with the people you meet, late winter and late autumn are ideal. As a school we are closed the month of August.
1) Spend the week apart doing separate things, 2) remarry, 3) pay 995 Euro and he or she can join us only for meals and outings. We lovingly call these folks ‘fannullone’, or ‘slackers’.
We have information for them in Student Services but we don’t employ any concierge or guides (we don’t have anyone on staff to take them around town, etc).
As slackers, we’ll give them a set of keys and they can come and go as they please, joining us for meals, wine tastings and any field trips we take.
Absolutely not.
And anyway, that doesn’t really exist.
We teach regional cookery and Southern Italian wine, which is how food and wine are made here, in this part of Italy.
We go into the history, the culture, the local agricultural, why the wine is made the way it is, which problems are producers trying to work around, etc. Yes, you will take home lots of new skills, recipes and ways of conceiving of regional food and wine but everyone starts on the same level. When we visit other regions of Italy, we are the students. Southern Italian food is about food as pleasure and as an expression of a place. And we’re all equal as we approach the table.
For all of Italy’s international fame, few foreigners really know that much about the nation, even those that tend to visit Italy every year.
It seems strange, but it’s true.
Take Tuscany, a region that everyone knows, but how many can list the regions that border it? How many of us could find the region of Molise on an unlabelled map. Or have ever been to Abruzzo, an enormous and stunningly-beautiful, central Italian region, just a few hours from Siena? Or even know, historically, which regions ate pasta? Or how many indigenous languages are spoken inside of the borders? Italy has always been a virtually blank map in the minds of most foreigners, with just a few cities receiving the millions of visitors a year. Things are slowly starting to change.
Pack light. Place everything you intend to take on a bed. Pack half of that into two suitcases and take only one of them.
In our experience, those that pack light have a much better travel experience, both arriving and departing. It’s also much more difficult to leave it all behind if you bring it all with you.
Many of us rewear outer clothing a few times before washing it when home but suddenly change our behaviour when we travel. For a free preview of your upcoming trip, pack your bags and walk them around your city.
This may cause you to rethink all those spectacular mid-meal wardrobe changes.
For everything else, just write us. We’d be happy to hear from you.
1) Book yourself first. An shared idea becomes a determined plan once you book. If you need to move dates we can, no problem.
2) Send him or her a link to the site. Their happiness here is based on actually wanting what we offer. If they just assume that they can sit at the pool all day (we don’t have a pool) or do an afternoon trip to Venice (we’re 15 hours away) then they will be miserable.
3) They don’t need to be on the same flight or even arrive the same day to join you. Don’t wait to book anything.
4) If they slack and never book, we’ll Facetime them in the middle of the night- their time- when we are all really drunk.
It wouldn’t be our first class ‘moon’.
Throughout the year we sometimes have remaining openings in week-long classes. When it seems that it’s unlikely that we’ll have last minute week-long bookings, we open up the courses to those that want to come for half a day, either lunch or dinner, depending on the structure of the week.
The format is easy: You’ll go to the market with us, make pasta, have a cooking lesson, a wine tasting and a full-meal. What we can’t do though is predict the menù, as our priority during week-long courses are the week-long students.
If you’d interested and open to the experience, these are some of the best courses of the year. You’ll make friends and learn about the best part of Italy, in the kitchen and around the table.
145 Euro per person
We meet under the column in Piazza Sant Oronzo at either 10:00 or 18:00, depending on lunch or dinner. Write us for details.
