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Olive Oil Tasting at Villa Monteoriolo in Tuscany (near Florence)

Villa Monteoriolo is a family estate just south of Florence. We visited on our way driving out of Florence towards Orvieto, but it is close enough to Florence where I think you could take an uber/taxi there and back. It was a fantastic visit of a couple of hours with a very authentic family whose estate holds several thousand olive trees. They were extremely welcoming. I spoke to Eleonora and her son Tommaso via email and in person, and Tommaso spent the entire time there with us. A few other family members stopped in to say hello while we were there. It felt both welcoming and authentic. It is a working estate - some of the family lives there and they produce and sell their own olive oil.

We saw the estate including the garden, the olive groves, the chapel inside the Villa, and their open air cellar where we did an Olive Oil tasting. We learned a lot about the process of creating olive oil and saw many of the implements which were traditionally used. Tommaso taught us how to taste olive oil which was fun. We enjoyed their olive oil with some fresh pecorino, bruschetta, olives, and wine. It was fantastic and our whole family really enjoyed the experience. Tommaso even brought out their family made version of Nutella - my teens loved it!

Their Olive Oil was so amazing I asked if they could ship some to the United States. Turns our they can ship their oil directly from their Villa to anywhere in the world. They were going to wait till the next time they decanted from their large stainless steel storage (they do this every few weeks) to send our cans so it would have the absolute best freshness. They use cans because it protects the oil well and is ideal for shipping. Right now, checking Fedex, my oil is in Virginia on its way to Boston. I can’t wait to enjoy it and share this special taste of Italy with family and friends.

Anyways, I thought I would share this hidden gem with you. I found them after quite a bit of searching on-line for a way to explore Olive Oil in Italy (there are many more options to explore wine than oil, and few overall experiences as authentic as this). If I am back in Florence again, I will try to make it there again to take a cooking class from Eleonora (I didn’t know she did this!). Tomasso is starting to grow some grapes by the coast, so who knows - maybe I will be able to enjoy some of their family wine in the future as well!

Posted by
14 posts

Thanks for the info. Was looking at this, we will be in Florence for 6 days and thought about doing this. We will have our 12 year old daughter, just not sure if she would enjoy.

Posted by
1 posts

We were there in mid June 2025 for pasta making and dinner. There were 23 of us including 8 small children. Eleonora and her son Tomasso were fabulous as was the al fresco dinner in their courtyard. I would recommend this very highly. Villa Monte Oriolo is a little south of Florence and you have a great panoramic view of it from their courtyard. They do ship their olive oil to the U.S. as we have already received the olive we ordered while there just a few weeks ago.

Posted by
874 posts

Because I don't like wasting people's time by asking about something that might clearly be out of my budget, what types of prices did you have for the cooking classes and also the visit and tasting?

Posted by
10 posts

Katherine,

I believe it was 25 Euros per person for the Olive Oil Tasting, but I have no idea if that is season dependent (we went in April). For the couple of hours we were there, it was well worth it. I assume they do this because a certain number of visitors become customers of their products. That is what it was for us. We loved the Olive Oil and ordered some (we felt no pressure to buy anything, they just mentioned that they could ship Olive Oil anywhere and could contact them if we were ever interested). They recommended a Gelateria in the nearby town when we left which was fantastic though I don't recall the name offhand (Pistachio was amazing).

Kevin

Posted by
874 posts

OOOO very nice! Now to figure out how to make it there without a car :) I bet they have taxi numbers to call for people on the way back into town....thanks!

Posted by
64 posts

Thank you so much for this recommendation. We will be in Italy for a month in October and will definitely put this on our agenda even if it means going a little out of our way. Sounds amazing!

Posted by
64 posts

I just made a reservation for an olive oil testing. It's only an hour's drive from where we will be, so it's ideal. Can't thank you enough for the recommendation. From their website, the villa looks gorgeous. Really looking forward to our visit.

Posted by
10 posts

Glassgal, I think you will love it. One thing Tomasso warned me about was if the GPS recommends "Via di Riboia", choose an alternate road (there are others) unless your vehicle is small. I saw his warning too late and took a full size car on that route. It is all good except at one point, two buildings are super tight for just a few feet. I had my daughter guiding from the passenger window and I was watching the drivers side. It was a tight shave on each side. I just went for it... and made it! We still laugh about it. I wish I had taken pictures. If you have an Italian driver, probably not a concern unless they have a large vehicle. Hope you have a fantastic visit.