Dick and I spent a week at the Tuscan cooking school at Villa Crocialoni in May with Buncky and Marco, indulging ourselves in their warm hospitality. We had spent a few days in Florence, one of our favorite cities, absorbing the history and art treasures once again. But like most country girls, it was time to leave the crowds and enter the peaceful countryside. The drive to Crocialoni was lined with orchards, forests, nurseries and flowers. Our psyche began to relax as we approached Crocialoni. Entering the long tree-lined drive, we were enticed by the delicious aroma of freshly mown grass and clover. We knew we were coming “home”. As we approached the Villa, we were aware this lovely home had obviously been built in stages as the family grew through out the history of Crocialoni. 

Marco Pezzini’s grandfather, jeweler on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence purchased Crocialoni. For many years, he lovingly tended the 2,000 acres planted mostly in olive trees and grains. Marco’s mother inherited the property in 1966. The lure of the “farm” brought Marco and Buncky often to visit with their children as they were growing up. During that time, Marco and Buncky lived in Florence where he owned a faucet factory and Buncky was busy raising their 4 children. They came into ownership after his mother died. In 1989, they moved full time to Crocialoni.

Patricia Pezzini, or Buncky as she prefers to be called, is a native of St. Louis, MO. Always interested in cooking, she studied at Duchesne Residence School in New York City, a finishing school where she specialized in French Cuisine and worked with CBS in New York City. With a delightful, outgoing sense of humor, Buncky has become a delightful mixture of American and Italian.

She met Marco at a ball when he visited his sister in St. Louis where they shared a table: the rest is history. Arriving as a bride, Buncky learned Italian cuisine and language in the kitchen with Beppini, her mother-in-law’s cook. Her first lesson was preparing a perfect Tuscan tomato sauce, using only gestures. She learned a new recipe each day under this tutelage. 

Even though I itched to explore the gardens, we thought it best to settle into our room first. Making our way up the stairs, we peeked into the picture and memento filled rooms along the way. Obviously this is a home much loved by the large family inhabiting it. Everywhere we turned we were beckoned to enter, sit awhile and enjoy the ambiance. We could hear “ghosts" of the past; children running through the convoluted halls and rooms, exploring and playing hide and seek, the laughter and clink of glasses at family celebrations, the excited conversations of dinner guests. This is one thing I have now truly missed in my nomadic life – roots. I was planning on enjoying every minute of my stay with this delightful couple. 

We were shown to the “blue room” with a king-sized bed and wonderful views of the gardens and the swimming pool. A very short door lead down a long hallway to a large white tiled bathroom. Obviously the home was built long ago and not in the proportions for a tall man like Dick who had to stoop to avoid hitting his head, adding to the charm of the home. From the bathroom window, we could gaze out into the forestland and see the chapel in the back yard. The other rooms in the main house, pink and green, were each furnished with two twin beds with private baths. 

As tempted as we were to take a nap, we instead ventured into the organic gardens with Marco to pick the produce to be prepared in our first delightful dinner at Crocialoni, a daily habit before each class and meal. With wicker basket in hand and taste buds ready to be tantalized, we picked to our hearts content. An abundance of artichoke varieties, sweet white and purple onions, zucchini, sweet chard, many varieties of lettuces, tomatoes, round eggplants, and peppers – what more could you ask for? A passionate gardener, Marco plans to extend the garden to include potatoes, fava beans and peas. We walked among the 200 olive trees from which Crocialoni presses 200 kilos their own fabulous olive oil each year. Granddaughter Caroline was quick to point out that her olive tree is the largest! 

Inside, Buncky was awaiting us to bring the lettuces for the dinner salad. On the center island were arranged all the tantalizing produce to be used for our first taste treats. As Buncky and her assistant prepared the meal, we sat with Marco in the drawing room enjoying the local red wine and listening to talk about the Pezzini family. The coffee table was filled with books so tempting to Dick, who is in love with the written word. We poured over family photo albums, cookbooks and letters of praise from former students. Generations of family photos were on every level surface. Family portraits and collections of oil paintings hung on the walls as well as water colors painted by Marco. Bookshelves were packed with both Italian and English reading. Vases of roses freshly picked from the gardens filled the room with delectable aromas. The ancient tile floors were strewn with well worn oriental rugs. Wafting in were tempting aromas from the kitchen. 

At last, we were called into the dining room for a taste treat I will never forget. The antique table took center stage with a green ceramic firebox in one corner, doors leading out into the flower gardens in the back on one wall and a large arched door leading into another lovely sitting room where a portrait of Buncky as a young woman commanded the view. 

As we sat under the glow of an antique chandelier reflected in the sparkle of family crystal, we were served our first course of roasted onions and artichoke hearts we had gathered in the garden. Then next came our main course. Had I told Buncky before that my favorite meal in the whole world is osso bucco? I don’t think so but, to my delight, this was served family style along with fabulous mashed potatoes. It was honestly the best I have ever had. I did not have to be asked twice to take a second large helping! As full as we were, we managed to enjoy dessert of poached pears accompanied with Mascarpone flavored with Jack Daniels and a little sugar. And to top off the meal, we had limoncello produced from their own lemon trees.

Bright and early the next morning we were summoned to a breakfast of eggs freshly gathered that morning from the chickens just outside the back door. The yolks were such a bright orange that I could hardly compare them to those at home. Mine were scrambled but Dick opted for Marco’s specialty: two eggs over easy surrounded by Crocialoni olive oil. He was literally in heaven! As we enjoyed, Marco exclaimed: “Listen, an egg is being laid.” We were silent and heard the hen clucking as he said, “She just laid the egg”. You can’t get any fresher than that! Toast was accompanied by Fig jam which Marco preserves each July accompanied the toast along with fresh blood orange juice and huge cups of caffe latte. 

Each morning began with a trip to the garden for the produce for class. Gathered around the island in the kitchen, Buncky said “Cooking is imagination in action” and then she began to weave her magic in the kitchen along with gossipy stories and anecdotes of her many years in Italy. The six-burner gas stove was covered with saucepans emitting delicious aromas. Using her culinary knowledge, years of practical study in Italy and using fresh Crocialoni produce, Buncky combined it all in delectable dishes, which she cooked with Tuscan simplicity. She began by making a tomato sauce of fresh tomatoes, onion, celery, parsley and oregano cooked over a low flame for 2 or more hours and passed through a mouli. Marco claims it makes the most heavenly bloody mary! Adding balsamic vinegar, hot pepper flakes and a little oil makes the perfect sauce on shrimp. Meat can also be added. The perfect roasting of free-range chickens gathered freshly from her yard was accompanied by the hilarious story of Buncky’s first time to attempt to wring the neck as her mother-in-law had done. 

Buncky invited us to participate in the making of many typical Tuscan dishes and the favorites of her children. We enjoyed the fruits of our labor after preparing pork tenderloin with anchovy butter, sautéed artichoke and cabbage, Chicken Despite, baked semolino with herbs, stuffed zucchini blossoms, and so many more all served in the dining room. After one delightful lunch we enjoyed vin santo and biscotti served out of an old Venetian bowl with lemons on the top, which Marco remembers as a child. 

The arts of bread baking and jam preserving are the domain of Marco. These he teaches in his own kitchen in Ugo’s house or the West Wing . The dough is made in the kitchen and taken out doors to a wood burning oven where he has prepared an oak fire 1-½ hours ahead. It is in this kitchen that the fig jam and the limoncello are prepared. Ugo’s house has 3 additional bedrooms that are in the main house. One even houses a Pilates machine for students to use. 

After class one day we walked along a path lined with persimmons, Christ’s Thorn’ bushes, rose bushes and trees planted over a hundred years ago to the chapel in the back yard where the weddings of their four children and christenings of their grandchildren took place. Beautiful stained glass windows adorn the walls. Buncky even caters weddings for guests with the ceremony held in the chapel. 

Buncky is very flexible during the cooking class weeks. She takes students to the market, loads the van for trips to Cinque Terre, Montacitini for the mineral baths, to the leather factory up the road where made to measure clothing can be ordered, to the Gucci and Prada factories to purchase clothing, bags, and luggage and to the fish markets in Via Reggio. In November, the students are welcome to help with the olive picking. All you have to do is ask. 

Our final day at Crocialoni was special. Marco celebrated his 70th birthday with family members for a picnic lunch under the shade of a huge chestnut tree along side the swimming pool. The table was laden with salads: fresh greens from the garden, tuna salad with onions from the garden and boiled eggs from the hens, a tomato salad with Crocialoni olive oil and balsamic vinegar and loaves of Marco’s fabulous bread from the wood burning oven. Hot from the kitchen was a huge bowl of Matriciana pasta. We took turns toasting Marco on his birthday, Buncky on her fabulous meal, the Gods for the abundant produce from the garden, the olive trees with the new blossoms of fruit, and the beautiful Tuscan sunshine. Vin Santo and a birthday dolci of layers of sponge cake, chocolate filling and meringue topped off the special celebration.

Memories of our week will linger for a long time, at least until we can return to the home of our dear friends in the near future. 

Click here for more information about Villa Crocialoni