A taste of Italy: our favourite agriturismi with cooking schools
Guest Expert
5 min read
From its dynamic, cosmopolitan north to its insouciant, sun-bleached south, Italy inspires like no other. Home to some of the world’s finest art, architecture and gastronomy, no wonder almost 4 million Brits visit every year. We love it! To experience an authentic taste of rural Italian life, an agriturismo, or farm stay, is the perfect vantage point. Typically found tucked away in beautiful locations, where crops, vines and livestock are tended; agriturismi allow you to delve deeper into the local food, heritage and culture. Often you’ll stay with a family who have farmed the land for generations and who still cook grandmother’s recipes. Not only will you be treated to exquisite meals, you can also expect warm hospitality, style and comfort. Here are four of our favourite agriturismi, dotted about the country, where you can learn to cook like a proper Italian nonna.
Ca’ de Memi – Agriturismo
The Scquizzato’s ramblingly elegant old farmhouse is in the middle of town – albeit a small one – its courtyard and big garden at the back. Ottorino looks after their nearby orchard (‘forgotten’ fruits a speciality), the land and the animals. His wife Michela looks after guests, is a sublime cook – try her seasonal, homegrown, regional dishes – and runs cookery courses. If you’ve always wanted to make pasta, Veneto style, now’s your chance. Dinner, at one long table next to the open fire, might be risotto with fegatini, bruscandoli and radicchio, homemade pasta with duck sauce, pollo in tecia with polenta, and apple and cinnamon cake or fruit tart to finish. You sleep in beamed and wooden floored rooms on a comfortable mix of antique and new beds, decked with stripes and checks (and there’s a lift, if stairs are a problem). Visit Piombino Dese’s magnificent Palladian Villa, Cornaro. Oh, and cycle the former Treviso-Ostiglia railway path.
Agriturismo Barone Antonio Negri
Monica’s grandfather, the Barone Antonio, was a much-loved mayor and the piazza named in his honour is a fine place for an evening passeggiata among the locals. The farm has been in the family for 150 years, and Monica offers cookery classes using regional, farm-fresh ingredients. Delicious dinners are eaten on the terrace (or in the restaurant): local mozzarella, just-picked tomatoes, chicken cooked to grandmother’s recipe, and always, a dessert extravaganza. Soak up the beautiful far-reaching views toward Salerno; the sunsets are divine. Positioned on various levels, each of the good-sized and individually decorated Provençal style rooms, some sporting modern frescoes, keep their original tiles and overlook nine hectares of nut, fruit and olive trees and vines; enjoy a morning stroll before cooling off in the pool. It’s wonderful being high and cool and still within easy reach of the Amalfi coast.
Fattoria Mosè Agriturismo
Three generations still work this farm where Chiara’s family used to come to escape Palermo’s summer heat; get involved in one of her amazing cookery courses using the freshest ingredients to recreate family recipes or join the olive harvest if you time it right. The town creeps ever up towards the Agnello olive groves but the imposing house still stands proudly on the hill, protecting its private chapel and a blissfully informal family interior. In the main house, high, cool rooms have superb original floor tiles, antiques and family mementos. The stables, now six airy modern apartments, have high, pine-clad ceilings, contemporary fabrics and good little kitchens, plain white walls, no pretensions. Most have their own terrace, all spill onto the lovely plant-packed courtyard (with barbecue). Breakfast is in a huge dining room or on the terrace, and there are Chiara’s olive oils, almonds and fruits and vegetables to buy.
Masseria Montenapoleone
There’s a sense of timelessness here, not only in the careful preservation of the site’s historic buildings but also in the deep links expressed between land, people, culture and food. Breakfasts are sublime testimonies to the farm’s wealth of produce and lamplit dinners among the vine are an unforgettable experience. On the cooking courses, local chefs and farmers will guide you to the heart of the Apulian cuisine, as you learn to prepare dough with bran and flour, adding just enough salt and water to give life to the unique orecchiette, the crinkled cavatelli and open strascinate. Along the way, they’ll add stories of the farm and treaditional life in the area, as well as keeping your wine glass topped up to inspire your culinary creativity. When the class is over, you can wander down the rows of vines or take to one of the recliners by the saltwater pool, sliding into the water whenever you need to cool off.
Masseria La Macchiola-Corti del Mito
While most agriturismi are, understandably, set among open fields and expansive orchards, Macchiola-Corti del Mito sits on the edge of the town of Spongano, yet still retains enough land to produce a wealth of superb ingredients and food, from a feast of fruits, to the makings of great cakes, jams and fresh tomato friselle. The autumn and spring cooking workshops will introduce you to the local cuisine, but visit any time of year to sample it in the beautiful old town’s trattorias and spend a few fabulous days walking down to the stunning beaches of the east coast. Here, you can swim in the cool clear waters or take boat trips between the rocky pillars and into the caves beyond. With so many options for dining in or out, even if you don’t take a cooking course, you’d be well advised to work up an appetite somehow.
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Carmen McCormack
Guest Expert
Carmen is a freelance writer specialising in travel. She once lived in a bus in north Wales, skipped off to study in Barcelona, and now calls Bristol home. When she’s not tapping away on her laptop, she can be found reading (a lot), lake swimming (a little), and pottering on the allotment with husband and two kiddos. She’s currently dreaming about cold cerveza and torta in Mexico.
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