Come and live it!
There is a side of
Italy tourists will not find
Who is Melina
"Born in Australia - Raised on Calabrian cooking - Living at Home in the mountains of Parma. This is everything I know."
My parents came from Calabria to Australia with nothing except the knowledge of how to feed people properly. They cooked without recipes because they didn't need them. They had the land, the seasons, a need to share who they are, and the memory of a food culture so old it predated measurement.
I spent 27 years in professional kitchens — two restaurants across two continents, a cooking school, fifteen years leading food tours across Italy. I’ve watched people discover what food is actually supposed to feel like, again and again, the moment they stepped away from the tourist track and into a real Italian kitchen.
Then I came home to Bedonia. I stopped running the machine. And I built the thing I'd always wanted to offer — not a class, not a tour, but a genuine week inside the living food culture of this country, this mountain.
Everything I know. In the most honest place I've ever cooked.
1 mountain - 2 ways to live it
The season determines the experience. The philosophy never changes.
Cook The Mountain
Italy as Italians Live
April through October
Spring, Summer & Autumn
This is me bringing you home
This is not a tour. This is your week as a local. Each season brings a different mountain — different plants in the forest, different producers at work, different food on the table. Every morning we go out: to the artisan, the farmer, the forest, the market that only locals know about. Every evening we cook together with what the day taught us. No itinerary designed for outsiders. No restaurants chosen by a guidebook. Just Melina's world, opened up for you.
WHAT IS INCLUDED:
- Half-day artisan visits and seasonal foraging
- Evening dinners cooked together as a group
- Spring, summer, and autumn dates — each a different mountain experience
Explore Italy as Italians Live →view all dates, availability and pricing
November through March — Winter
Cook The Mountain
THE PASTA PROGRAMS
When the mountain goes quiet, we go deep
Winter in Bedonia is when the town returns to itself. The locals dedicate this time for themselves, the pace drops, and the kitchen becomes the centre of everything. This is when we focus — on food as a way of life, on flour, on water, clearly represented in the ancient shapes and stories of Italian pasta. For chefs who need to find their voice again. For food lovers who want to understand Italian cooking from the inside out. Hands in dough, history on the plate.
WHAT IS INCLUDED:
- Small-group pasta masterclasses for chefs and enthusiasts
- Mountain foraging and local artisan visits
- The full story of Italian pasta and how it shapes a new way to live — just ingredients, mindset, geography, seasons
“Our tour guide, Melina, was excellent - she was good fun to be with and she had a wealth of knowledge about everywhere we visited.”
Bob Hitchens
HOME FOR THE WEEK
Il Mulino is a magicalretreat tucked away in nature.
Your home for the week sits nestled along the Taro–Ceno River, in the picturesque comune of Masanti—only 10 minutes from the center of Bedonia. Masanti is famed for its breathtaking waterfalls and beloved by locals for the prized truffles that grow quietly in the surrounding forest.
Set on sprawling grounds with a private tennis court, sparkling swimming pool, and a serene spa room, Il Mulino is the perfect escape to unwind, recharge, and soak in the beauty of the Italian countryside—all just a stone’s throw from town.
No Rushing from hotel to hotel, unpack set up for the week ahead and enjoy the quiet evenings.
seasonal culinary retreat - Italy
Step away from the brochures and into the real Italy. Slow down and reset. Join Chef Melina for a slow-living culinary journey through the gastronomic heart of Parma and the hidden artisan shores of the Ligurian coast. Live like an Italian, laugh like an Italian, learn to be Italian!
FORAGE | COOK | WINE & DINE | BAKE
While guidebooks recommend the same months, sending travellers to the same overcrowded monuments and big name producers that run tourists through on loop, you will be visiting small local food producers, watching artisans create generations old pasta making tools, eating food we have prepared from what we have foraged from he mountains that day! I have also selected the perfect weeks for travel to take the guess work out of when you should visit my beautiful little village.
This is Italy’s true rhythm—intimate tables, local producers, and the kind of regional specialties you won’t find anywhere else.
There is no rushing between our daily activities.
No unpacking and repacking every few nights, you will be staying the week at Il Mulino, nestled along the Taro–Ceno River, in the picturesque comune of Masanti
No feeling like another number in a sea of tourists on a big commercial bus, just you me and the rest of our small group of like minded travellers.
We will Forage the mountains for what is in season, cook what we find, visit local artisans, wineries and cheesemakers, bake bread, wine & dine and live like an Italian in my home village. If your looking for an authentic holiday with a true and deep connection to your food and the people you are travelling with, my retreat if perfect for you!