“I highly recommend you look up Gianna in Lecce”

My wife and I have taken four cooking classes while on vacation and by far the top two were both in Italy.

The first one was in Arezzo in Tuscany. The last one occurred in May 2019 in the small village of Lecce, in the Puglia region. Along with three other couples we visited Puglia for a bicycling holiday.

Puglia is a southern region of Italy forming the heel of Italy’s boot. It is famous for its olive oil production. With the Ionian Sea to the west and the Adriatic Sea to the east it has the longest coastline of any Italian mainland region. The area seemed fairly poor but the landscape, architecture and beaches were stunning.

My wife and I decided to take a break from cycling one day and go to a cooking class. My wife googled cooking classes and found a cooking class in Lecce called Cooking Experience.

It was a 25 minute drive from where we were staying so we took a chance and signed up. When we arrived at 10 in the morning we met Gianna Greco, our chef for the class and the owner of the business. Her huge kitchen, with its 30’ high ceiling, is located on a narrow street in Lecce’s historical centre. Gianna, who was born in Lecce, was wonderful and full of energy and we knew immediately that we were in for a fabulous experience.