Arrive at Pragatto Hills, our home for the week and get settled in your room. This private estate reserved exclusively for our group 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Breakfast will be enjoyed en route to Vignola, where we will stop at Tola Dolza, one of Viola’s favorite cafés, for espresso and a generous, sweets-focused spread. We will gather to try their renowned cake along with a selection of local pastries and confections. Afterwards, you will have free time to stroll, shop, or explore this charming town.

Later, back at Pragatto, Viola will host a memorable farewell dinner, a fitting finale to our week together.

We wish you safe travels and continued adventures.