Tivoli Day Trip: Villa D’Este & Cooking Class

Our day with Chef Davide and Elena at their beautiful home in Tivoli was a true high point of our trip to Rome. We brought our three kids, aged 9 to 15, who all had a ton of fun. Davide and Elena were great with the kids. Every step of the visit was well organized and easy to navigate. I’m not new to cooking and I’m not new to Italy, but I still managed to learn quite a bit from our hosts. It was really quite a good time. Oh, and of course, the food was top notch. Many thanks and best wishes to our wonderful hosts!

Davide and Elena entertain you as well as instruct how to make genuine Italian dishes. Tivoli gardens are amazing and transport to and from Rome was seamless,

The gardens at Villa d’Estes was on my bucket list. I want to see the top 10 gardens in the world (according to National Geographic) and these gardens were rated number 5. They were beautiful and I have never seen so many fountains! But even better than the gardens was the cooking class with Chef Davide. He was absolutely wonderful. We met his mother and his wife and they were very nice too. The two puppies were so cute and very well behaved! They made a charming addition to the visit. Chef Davide taught us how to make pasta and then we cut our pasta into fettuccine noodles and also made ravioli. They served different appetizers and lots of wonderful wine. Then we had an awesome dessert. This was an awesome tour and I suggest you book it!

This is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. The sommelier and the chef go above and beyond to give you a personalized treatment while feeding you amazing food and providing amazing wine. I would do this a 1000 times.

If we could give this experience extra stars we would! Davide was such a generous host and we enjoyed every moment of our day.

Davide is a perfectionist starting with all the communication preceding the tour including advising us of the weather and recommending that we bring umbrellas and rain jackets. He and his wife, Elena, make a great team and treated us wonderfully. We learned to make two types of pasta and were treated to a delicious lunch which included two appetizers, two pasta dishes, dessert, and wine. At the end of lunch they drove us to the city center where we strolled on our own through the Tivoli Gardens which were stunning. Finally, the drive to Tivoli and back was very comfortable in a large Mercedes Benz van.

David and Elena are welcoming, wonderful hosts. We made pasta and ravioli, drank delicious wine and had the best time! You will never want to leave their beautiful property. We felt like we were in a movie while being there. Villa d'Este is also gorgeous and it was great to explore and stroll through the gardens after our meal. This was our favorite experience while visiting Rome. Eight thumbs up from us!

This is a great escape from the city. Not only do you learn to make and enjoy wonderful food, Davide abd Elans couldn’t be more welcoming.

The best experience! Chef David was wonderful. Professional, knowledgeable, and patient. Welcomed us into his home and made us feel like family.

I cannot say enough great things about this experience. This was our favorite experience while visiting Rome. Chef Davide and his wife Elena invite you into their beautiful home to learn how to cook pasta. You are served different types of local wine while cooking. Chef Davide and Elena were great teachers and really worked well together. None of us had any experience making pasta yet this was the best meal we had while on vacation. The ingredients were fresh. We picked herbs from his backyard garden. When we were done, we ate on their back porch and enjoyed the views. After our cooking class, Davide and Elena drove us to the gardens at Tivoli where we walked around for about 2 hours. It was plenty of time to take it all in. Truly an amazing experience you will never forget.