Recommendation for cooking class in either Sicily, Lucca, Florence or Venice

If you just google "cooking class (insert city) " you will find plenty. Florence and Lucca are near each other, but Sicily is a another trip in itself.

I took a short (one evening) cooking class in Trapani, Sicily, in 2015. I enjoyed it, and at a cost of (I think) 35 euros, it was a lot less expensive than some other options. We produced handmade pasta and a Sicilian version of pesto sauce. Trapani is way over in the NW corner of Sicily.

I have used www.cookeatitalian.com two times on two separate trips to Florence. The classes are held in Manuela's kitchen. She was a delight to learn from. One visit there was six of us and the next visit just two of us. Both times she had gone to the local farmers market to get the ingredients for our meal. We did a day class, we cooked the meal and then enjoyed it together. I would not hesitate to use her again.

I thoroughly enjoyed the class I attended last summer in Lucca at Extra Virgin cooking school. There were 7-8 of us, and we started with a walk through town purchasing some of the ingredients for our meal. Then we went to Giuseppe's apartment (he has a huge kitchen designed for these classes), cooked, and ate. Highly recommended.

LOVED our cooking class in Lucca! The food was divine! Chef Paulo cooking school.

My husband and I really enjoyed the cooking class offered by www.walkaboutflorence.com called
Cooking class at a Farmhouse in Tuscany
You start your day with a walk in Florence visiting markets as you collect your ingredients. Then a short bus ride up into the hills over Florence to beautiful "house" overlooking the city. There you meet a fabulous cook - who has limited English BUT unlimited enthusiasm and knowledge. The tour guide translate so there is no problem. You prepare a numbers of dishes - not an intense detail lesson but lots of hands on experience. Then at the end you eat your meal with lots of wine and/or beer while sitting in a dining room overlooking the olive groves and city. Fabulous
One note - the house in the hills is down a number of steps so you need to be mobile - my husband has some knee issues but did not have a problem. You can also book the tour through Viatour

I will Second Paolo Monit's cooking school in Lucca. Great food and recipes that I used on a regular basis at home.
FWIW, you can walk there from inside the walled city. Check out Google maps for the route. It's a pleasant walk through Lucca and surrounding farm country.

I second the WalkAbout Florence cooking tour. I am an experienced home cook and my husband likes to eat and we both enjoyed it. The walking tour in the beginning was a nice surprise. It was a more than just a market tour but a historical tour as well. The markets are really incredible if you appreciate fresh, local produce, meats and cheeses. The class was a lot of fun. A gorgeous, purpose-built "farmhouse" with a kitchen an amateur cook could kill for. And all the chianti you can drink! Check out the video on their website. It was probably our best day (tied with Pompeii) on a really great 16 day trip to Italy in November 2016.

One of our favorite cooking classes was with Chef Massimo Gaffo in Taormina, Sicily. It started with an informative trip to the local market to choose the local seasonal ingredients that were used for our hands-on cooking class that included lunch and wine pairings. It was a great introduction to Sicilian cuisine. www.siciliancookingclass.com.

Buon appetito!

We also went to the Chef Paolo Monti Cooking School in Lucca and it was fabulous. We did three different cooking schools in Tuscany and that one was our favorite. We are going back again this Spring. His restaurant is also amazing. While we were so very stuffed from eating all the fabulous dishes that we prepared in class, we just had to go back and dine there. It was wonderful!