My husband and I are interested in staying in one scenic location for 10 days or so (we can be flexible ). We'd like to take cooking classes for part of the day and then wander around in a pedestrian friendly area and eat our late meal in an ideal Rick Steves type restaurant/cafe (small mom & pop). Has anyone done this or have suggestions? We are not interested in renting a car.
Thanks very much for sharing any expertise and experiences.
We have a family cooking class scheduled in Rome for mid July. You prepare the food and they provide even more and that’s you dinner. It’s called Cookly cooking school. We can walk from our hotel. Not sure if this helps? Your question rather vague and maybe not enough info.
About 5 years ago, a group of friends and my wife and I went for a week-long cooking course at Chef Paolo Monti’s just outside Lucca, Tuscany, and it was wonderful. See https://www.cucina-italiana.com/ The weeklong course was a lot of fun, informative, included bus tours with Chef Paolo to wineries, a parmesan cheese producer, etc, in the surrounding area, and we had an abundance of delicious meals, prepared by our group or in his restaurant. We stayed at the accommodations in his restaurant/school. We also had a guided walking tour of Lucca, and we had free time on some days to wander the countryside near the restaurant/school. We had a week-long course, but there are also shorter ones, a few days or just a few hours. You can get to his place by flying to Pisa, bus to Lucca, then taxi to his restaurant/school just outside Lucca.
My husband and I did this cooking class - https://www.walkaboutflorence.com/tours/cooking-class-at-a-farmhouse-in-tuscany -
during our last trip to Florence.
We didn’t do the Chef Paolo Monti offering in Lucca, but another day class offered through another chef. However, Lucca would fit your desire to do cooking and then be in a pedestrian friendly town with good restaurant offerings. We only stayed two nights and would have been happy to be there 2-3 additional at least. There are tourists but it seemed mostly during the day. If Lucca is your choice I advise dinner reservations at all restaurants, big or small.
We stayed in Orvieto in Umbria. Rented a car and took the cooking class linked below. We had originally booked with a winery cooking class that gets five stars on TA, Decugnano Dei Barbi. They cancelled us (two people) because they were fully booked, and recommended this other class. It turned out to be a great turn of events. Very personalized and Velia (a former Italian TV cooking star!) sent us home with a giant package of leftovers. Orvieto is charming, has lots of restaurants that fit your description, and lots to do. We did not rent the car until the 3rd day, just before we needed it to take ourselves to Velia's home for the cooking class. But after that it was fun to keep the car and explore the area - lots of villages to visit.
