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Where

Modena, Emilia-Romagna

Group Size

8-12 Travelers

Duration

8 Days, 7 Nights

When

May 22 - May 29, 2025 Join waitlist

October 9 - 16, 2025 Join waitlist

May 14 - 21, 2026 I'm interested!

Price

7,500 USD per person

Emilia-Romagna, in Northern Italy, is the land of Parmigiano Reggiano, Mortadella di Bologna, Aceto Balsamico, Prosciutto di Modena, Sangiovese, Lambrusco, Barbera and Albana wines, medieval hill towns and breathtaking scenery. It is a food lover’s and traveler’s dream destination, and where you’ll make pasta by hand, cook multi-course North Italian feasts, visit the best small-scale producers of famous and lesser known regional products, shop in local markets, and relax by the pool during our first ever Culinary Retreat. 

Hosted by cookbook author, cooking teacher and Friend of Milk Street, Viola Buitoni, this week-long exploration of Emilia-Romagna’s Modena and the region surrounding it offers travelers a slower pace, flexible days and the chance to participate in longer, more frequent hands-on cooking sessions. You’ll stay in a private estate that includes three houses we have completely to ourselves, formal gardens, walking paths, a swimming pool, and ample space to decompress. Breakfasts will be leisurely, and may include an impromptu cooking lesson. Days will be filled with activities (or less full if you wish to stay back and relax). Dinners will be of your own making, under Viola’s expert guidance, and composed of the best the markets and producers we visit each day have to offer.

Cook

Cook

Spend a week with Viola Buitoni and friends cooking with the best ingredients Emilia-Romagna has to offer
Immerse

Immerse

You will be the only guests on a private estate with three villas, a swimming pool, formal gardens and walking paths
Visit

Visit

Meet extraordinary, small batch producers of Parmigiano Reggiano, mortadella, and aceto balsamico – all three only made in Emilia-Romagna
Taste

Taste

Visit a highly regarded producer of natural wines for a tasting and private tour of their biodynamic vineyard
Explore

Explore

On guided tours of Modena and Mantua, you will learn about historic and contemporary life to round out your sense of place in Emilia-Romagna
Cook

Cook

Spend a week with Viola Buitoni and friends cooking with the best ingredients Emilia-Romagna has to offer
Immerse

Immerse

You will be the only guests on a private estate with three villas, a swimming pool, formal gardens and walking paths
Visit

Visit

Meet extraordinary, small batch producers of Parmigiano Reggiano, mortadella, and aceto balsamico – all three only made in Emilia-Romagna
Taste

Taste

Visit a highly regarded producer of natural wines for a tasting and private tour of their biodynamic vineyard
Explore

Explore

On guided tours of Modena and Mantua, you will learn about historic and contemporary life to round out your sense of place in Emilia-Romagna

Your itinerary

Day 1

Explore Pragatto Hills & meet your fellow cooks

Explore Pragatto Hills & meet your fellow cooks

Arrive at Pragatto Hills, our home for the week and get settled in your room. This estate-like bed & breakfast includes three houses, a rose garden, swimming pool, walking paths, active farmland and beautiful views. Nearby is Vigneto San Vito, makers of acclaimed biodynamic natural wine, and our kitchens will be stocked with their bottles throughout our time together. After exploring the property and getting unpacked, we’ll meet Viola Buitoni, our resident teacher, guide and host. A longtime friend of Milk Street, Viola is an Italian native with roots in Bologna and an expert in regional Italian cooking and teaching. Tonight, Viola is preparing for you the gentle post-travel meal her mother would make when welcoming her back home. Around the big table, you’ll meet your fellow cooks and learn about the week ahead. 

Explore Pragatto Hills & meet your fellow cooks

Day 2

Make pasta with a sfoglina

Make pasta with a sfoglina

After a leisurely morning, it’s time for our first cooking lesson. We start with pasta – fresh egg noodles, to be precise –  as it is the building block of most meals in Emilia-Romagna. Simonetta Capotondo, an award-winning sfoglina, joins Viola today to teach us her special craft: hand-rolling sheets of egg pasta dough using nothing more than a board and rolling pin. You’ll spend the afternoon with her mixing dough, rolling it into sheets that we’ll shape into regional pastas and making fillings and sauces. Viola will make salads and cooked vegetable side dishes (contorni) to round out our first big feast of the week.

Make pasta with a sfoglina

Day 3

Shop like an Italian

Shop like an Italian

You cannot learn to cook like an Italian without learning to shop like one, so after breakfast we head to Modena’s Mercato Albinelli. This beautiful Art Nouveau-style covered market is where we’ll taste and pick up local vegetables, cured meats, fresh fish, bread, cheeses and sweets for our classes and meals at Pragatto Hills. Fortified, we’ll take a break from food to take a private guided tour of the Duomo and historic center of Modena. Then, it’s on to a late lunch at La Punta, a butchery serving the best meat Viola has tasted. We’ll eat sandwiches and other casual fare at their in-store cafe. The evening is yours to enjoy back at Pragatto Hills, where the kitchens will be stocked with ingredients for preparing a light dinner, if you get hungry. 

Shop like an Italian

Day 4

Experience Parmigiano Reggiano through touring, tasting & cooking

Experience Parmigiano Reggiano through touring, tasting & cooking

Parmigiano Reggiano is synonymous with Emilia-Romagna, and no food experience in the region is complete without tasting this iconic cheese. We’ll do more than just that, though. On this day, we’re going to focus on Parmigiano Reggiano made from the milk of Vacche Rosse cows, a heritage breed considered to be the source for some of the finest cheese available. Despite the quality of its milk, however, the breed was almost lost during a push for industrialized farming in the 1980’s. Thanks to a small group of producers and farmers, the cows and the cheese they are responsible for are still celebrated today. Luciano Catellani spearheaded this effort and we’ll visit him at his newly renovated dairy farm. There we’ll meet the Vacche Rosse, tour the farm, taste Luciano’s cheese and be hosted for lunch. We’ll bring back some cheeses to Pragatto Hills so we can continue our learning in a hands-on fashion with Viola that evening. After we cook, we’ll share a long leisurely dinner.

Experience Parmigiano Reggiano through touring, tasting & cooking

Day 5

Get the real deal on bologna

Get the real deal on bologna

Mortadella is a far cry from the slices of bologna (aka baloney) of sandwich fame. Thinly sliced and studded with pistachios and black peppercorns, mortadella is an art form in Emilia-Romagna. We’ll learn all about it this morning when we visit a local producer for a tour and tasting. After lunch, we’ll visit Vignetto San Vito for a tour of their biodynamic vineyard and tasting of their natural wines. While we tour the vineyards, you’ll also see their vegetable gardens and meet their Mora Romagnola pigs and two sheep. That evening we cook again with Viola. Tonight’s plan is loose; we’ll use what we have in the kitchen to make an impromptu feast, Viola’s favorite kind of cooking. 

Get the real deal on bologna

Day 6

Learn about real aceto balsamico

Learn about real aceto balsamico

Breakfast is on the road today. We’re visiting Viola’s favorite pasticceria, Tola Dolza, for espresso and cookies on our way to her favorite balsamic vinegar producer, Mariangela Montanari at La Cà dal Non. Mariangela and her family make vine-to-bottle vinegar and we’ll spend the day touring their vineyard, learning about fermenting and aging vinegar, tasting a variety of different balsamic vinegars and cooking with them. You can also expect to visit their lavender fields and take in vast views of the surrounding hills. For the day’s cooking session, Viola and Mariangela will team up to demonstrate traditional and innovative ways they use balsamic vinegars in savory and sweet dishes. They’ll serve you a meal featuring their favorites. The evening is yours to cook in your house kitchen, take a swim, or relax.

Learn about real aceto balsamico

Day 7

Taste mostardas in Mantua & cook a farewell dinner

Taste mostardas in Mantua & cook a farewell dinner

Mantua, located an hour away from Modena, is a European Capital of Gastronomy, which is our primary reason for visiting, but it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site with elegant palaces and a medieval and Renaissance cityscape. Monteverdi premiered his opera L’Orfeo here and Romeo is banished to Mantua in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We start our time in Mantua with food, of course. Viola’s friend Paola Calciolari has invited us to her school and workshop to learn about preservation and Mantuan cuisine. As Viola says, no one preserves as originally as Paola does and we’ll be lucky enough to taste her sweet vegetable preserves and savory fruit preserves before sitting down to a traditional Mantuan lunch. To digest, we’ll go on a special guided walking tour, arranged by Paola just for us, in which we’ll visit the town’s historic sites and learn about Manuta’s traditions and innovations. Back at Pragatto Hills we’ll cook together one last time. Viola is an avid no-waste cook and tonight she shows us her art. We’ll turn leftover vegetables, stray pieces of cheese, ends of bread and odd amounts of meat into a beautiful and elegant farewell meal that pays tribute to the generations of Italian cooks like Viola who, out of necessity and desire, craft gold from straw. 

Taste mostardas in Mantua & cook a farewell dinner

Day 8

Goodbyes and Departure

Goodbyes and Departure

We wish you safe travels and continued adventures.

Goodbyes and Departure

Meet the Crew

We are firm believers in the power of local knowledge. Our guides and the culinary masters and other artisans who are part of our trips all deeply reflect that. Meet some of our local heroes:

  • Viola Buitoni

    Viola Buitoni

    Guide and chef
  • Simonetta Capotondo

    Simonetta Capotondo

    Sfoglina
  • Mariangela Montanari

    Mariangela Montanari

    Balsamic Expert
  • Luciano Catellani

    Luciano Catellani

    Cheesemaker
  • Paola Calciolari

    Paola Calciolari

    Preserver
  • Federico Orsi

    Federico Orsi

    Winemaker

Where you’ll stay

Pragatto Hills

This week’s focus on deeply local experiences and places is also well reflected in our choice of accommodation. We always select boutique and independent places, ones inspired by international standards while staying loyal to the area’s local heritage – that’s the balance we seek for more than a good night’s rest.

Pragatto Hills B&B offers a serene retreat nestled in the picturesque countryside. Tucked away amidst rolling hills, this charming retreat boasts cozy rooms adorned with quirky local artwork and plush comforts. The stunning views of rolling hills and lush landscapes provide a perfect backdrop for relaxation. With its blend of rustic charm and modern allure, Pragatto Hills B&B is your ultimate playground for relaxation and rejuvenation.

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Hear what travelers are saying

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From an authentic Lasagne Bolognese which is almost lighter than air to homemade pasta to fried dough for breakfast to the simplest of dishes of cucina povera, Bologna and the surrounding areas are the height of great Italian cooking.

Christopher Kimball

Christopher Kimball
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Viola Buitoni is a consummate chef and instructor and I've learned so much from her classes. She connects ingredients, history, and culture through storytelling while demonstrating techniques in an accessible way.

Kimberly L.

Kimberly L.
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Viola is an absolute gem, a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Italian cooking. She shared all kinds of tips and tricks in the class I took with her, things that I still use now as an experienced cook to inform my work in the kitchen.

Kelly A.

Kelly A.

Know before you go

PRICING AND ACCOMMODATION

The total cost of this trip is $7,500. For travelers wishing to have single accommodations during the trip, an additional $1,250 supplement will be due at the time of the final payment. A $500 non-refundable deposit per traveler is required to secure space on the trip. The balance is due 90 days prior to the start of the trip.

ACTIVITY LEVEL

Travelers should feel comfortable walking two to four miles each day and remaining on their feet for periods of time. There are a couple of hikes on uneven ground. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and get hands-on during a couple cooking workshops.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE

You are responsible for getting to Pragatto Hills (a short taxi ride from Bologna airport) by 3 p.m. on Day 1 and depart anytime on Day 8. We’ll provide the option of booking additional nights at our group hotel before and/or after the tour, and are more than happy to provide suggestions for things to do and see on your own.

INCLUSIONS

• All accommodation throughout the trip in stylish, boutique hotels
• Professional team throughout the entire experience
• All meals and drinks included in the above activities
• Admission to all proposed activities, locations, and events
• Private coach for visits inside and outside the center city
• A hungry group of Culinary Backstreets and Milk Street travelers, excited to explore and cook!

EXCLUSIONS

• Private individual arrival & departure airport transfers
• Airfare and transportation to/from the start and end destination
• Meals beyond those specified in the itinerary above
• Alcoholic beverages other than those served at the table
• Accommodations outside those noted, including pre- or post-trip hotel nights
• Activities, tours & entry fees not included above
• Personal purchases and incidentals at hotels

DIETARY RESTRICTIONS

We encourage an adventurous palate! We try our best to accommodate dietary restrictions, though ingredients cannot always be substituted or omitted from particular dishes. This trip may be challenging if you adhere to a gluten-free diet. If you have other food allergies or intolerances, please contact us to find out if this is the right trip for you.

NOTES ON ITINERARY

Itineraries and daily schedules are subject to change. We expect to do everything listed in the itinerary, though the order may be rearranged based on weather or other local conditions.

SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY

We have reinforced our commitment to sustainability and safety with new guidelines to assure maximum safety of our guests on our trips while maintaining the quality of the experience. All of our experiences are designed to have minimal impact on the community and environment. For more details on our precautions, read here.

CANCELLATION POLICY

You may cancel 90 days before the start of the trip and receive a full refund minus a $500 per-person service fee. If you cancel on or after 60 days before the start of the trip there is a 50% cancellation fee. On or after 45 days there is a 75% cancellation and fee and on or after 30 days there is a 100% cancellation fee. We highly recommend purchasing travel insurance as we are not able to make exceptions to this policy in cases of family/medical emergency or cases of the trip being canceled (see our Terms and Conditions for full details).

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