We met Lori for the first time last year. Her warmth, hospitality and knowledge was so fantastic that we’re returning this year to live in San Martino in Pensilis for a couple of months to explore our ancestral regions of Molise and Abruzzo. Grazie, Lori… see you soon.
Living Italian – April 2017
We took a cooking class earlier this month with Molise Cuisine. It was a really fun and interesting day. Lori, Mario and the others at Cantine D’Uva were great. Today, I decided to try the skills and recipes we used and made homemade Cavatelli in a pork based sauce. It was delicious! Thanks Lori for a wonderful time. I hope to make fresh pasta more regularly at home. I definitely recommend this experience to anyone who might be in Molise. We will for sure be back!
Bill Cotgreave – March 2017
Fantastic experience! I cannot thank Lori enough for her generous and helpful attitude, her class was really great and she went above and beyond to accommodate my group which due to unfortunate circumstances had to change in numbers but Lori was not phased and handled the changes with efficiency and a smile. Thank you for the wonderful tours to San Martino in Pensilis and the beautiful wine estate. I highly recommend this cooking class and will definitely return to this area and to try one of Lori’s other tours and classes, a real find.
Laura Joseph – August 2016
Thank you for a fabulous dinner tonight! You went above and beyond! Wonderful food and company!
Erin Kleh – July 2016
Lori “Thank you ” simply doesn’t say enough. You were contracted to be our tour guide. You went way above and far beyond that for the last seven days. You and Giancarlo have become FRIENDS. Your help and support through this part of our excursion has been remarkable, We love your commitment to your job, your initiative , your sense of humor , and your deep compassion. We hope to see you again, soon,
Peace & Love
Pat & Sharlene Santelli
Dear Lori,
Tom and I want to express our great appreciation to you and others working with Molise Cuisine for the wonderful time we and our relatives had in Molise recently. We are especially grateful for your efforts in organizing fun and informative experiences over a time period which included an Italian holiday and for fulfilling a couple of special requests beyond our expectations. We believe that the special efforts you take to accommodate your guests will serve you well in the future. As you know we will shortly be guests of Molise Cuisine again with different relatives in July. We wish you the best of success.
Tom and Pamela Gieleghem
Hi Lori,
I loved the trip almost as much as getting to know you !
You were a great guide and your multilingual skills certainly contribute a lot.
I was able to ask you a lot of questions at the winery, and that was great.
It is not fair that you are not on travel advisor.
Ciao Ken
Bonjour,
Je m’appelle Léonie Desfilles Je vis en France je suis d’ origine italienne et c’ est ce pourquoi j’ aime aller retrouver les racines familiales .
Ce printemps 2017 Avril pour être plus juste je suis allée passer les fêtes de Pâques à San Martino dans la région des Molise.
C’ est en allant prendre un verre dans un café que j’ai retrouvé Lori De Santis que j’ avais rencontré par hasard juillet 2016 avec qui j’ avais échangé et notamment sur son activité de cours de cuisine. L’ envie, la curiosité me tentait d’ assister à ce cours de cuisine.
Mais trop limite en temps je rentrais les jours suivants. Lori parlait de son travail avec un engouement certain pour cette activité développée. Une personne fort sympathique et très intéressante à écouter me raconter son quotidien de travail en Italie.
Et puis ce printemps le hasard nous a fais nous rencontrer à nouveau et tout en parlant Lori m’ a proposé la visite des caves dans les environs du village .Sans hésitation j’ ai accepté.
Une sortie très agréable tant pour le palais (bonnes dégustations) que pour la rencontre de personnes bien averties dans ces domaines viticoles.
Lori m’ a apportée de précieux conseils sur le choix des vins.
La découverte de ces bons vins locaux et la rencontre avec Lori De Santis une personne très professionnelle, chaleureuse qui avait à coeur de me faire connaître cette richesse viticole. Ce fut un partage très convivial, enrichissant .Je suis rentrée avec quelques bouteilles qui avaient ravi mon palais lors des dégustations.
De l’ imprévu bien sympathique.
Léonie
I regret that we only spent four days with Lori and Molise Cuisine. We were two lucky couples on this trip. Being picked up and taken back to Rome was a great benefit. Lori showed us so much of her beloved region, the Molise, which is also my grandfather’s region. Each day provided us with more traditional food and wine selections, cooking classes in a restaurant kitchen, visiting the Marinelli bell foundry, the DiNuccio cheese plant, the wonderful tartufo (truffles) center, the ruins at Sepino. My favorite meal was the luncheon at the Tartufo Center, but each meal was special. Having breakfast together each morning to talk about the upcoming day was a wonderful start. Accommodations in San Martino in Pensilis were quite comfortable. It’s a beautiful town and very walkable…with a great view of the Adriatic and close to Termoli.Having a driver each day really made it easy for us to view the beautiful scenery – from snow-covered mountains to the sea. Lori made sure everything was taken care of – we had no worries at all about anything – just lots of fun and great memories.
Carol Venuti Agia
Two weeks with Molise Cuisine Traditional Cooking and Wine Tours just wasn’t enough! Time to book another trip. YOU MUST TAKE A TOUR. PERSONALIZED TO PERFECTION.
Carmela Pecone – New York
October 4th, 2017
Do you want to see the real Italy, behind the scenes without hoards of people and tour buses? Look no further, Lori at Molise Cuisine will show you the true Italy that you have been longing to see. The people that make Italy so magical and has people like me coming back each year. What ever you can think of Lori will accommodate. History, foodie, sports adventurer or just want to see the beauty of Italy and the eastern part that is so overlooked. This year we went and saw and helped make jewelry by melting silver & gold. Want to design and make ceramics, you can do that, mountain bike, or pick grapes for wine making. Oh, and yes you can take cooking classes, your stomach and your heart will be full after spending time with Lori and seeing Italy through her eyes!
Colleen Buonadonna
10 aprile 2018
From the moment we started to book our trip owner and operator Lori De Sanctis was warm and accommodating. She gave me tips from what to pack to customizing our tour to visit the small town my father grew up. It is obvious that Lori loves what she does and the region.
As a first time traveler to Italy and not knowing the language, Lori did a fantastic job of translating and teaching us the language. She welcomed me, my 14 yr old son and my mother with open arms and made us feel like family. Lori did everything in her power to accommodate all of our needs even arranged for a car to drive my mother who can’t walk well. She was very knowledgeable about the region and was constantly adding to each destination.
For a week we felt like we were part of the town and not just a tourist. The food was as amazing as the sights we visited. Celebrity Chef Nicola Vizzarri, with the help of Lori taught us amazing dishes easy enough to cook at home. Lori and her staff were amazing and I can’t wait to rebook with her. I recommend Molise Cuisine to anyone and everyone of all ages. It was truly an amazing experience! Thank you and miss you Lori!
Robert Pacifico
9 Luglio 2019
Had a wonderful day of truffle hunting with Lori and cheecho the truffle hunting dog. It was a fantastic experience. The lunch was great and the tour of the truffle lab was amazing. Also our tour guide Lori did a fantastic job. Would recommend this highly to anyone interested in truffles.
John Alpizar
06, 2019
Agnone Italy. We toured a famous Cheese making cellar, Caseficio Di Nucci, 11 generations of producing a non pasturized pulled curd cheese called caciocavallo. One of the 3 siblings and future owners was our lovely guide Antonia. Amazing family and cheese. Next, we toured a famous Bell makers foundry, Pontifica Fonderia Marinelli. Second oldest family-run business in the world. Bells are fascinating. Got a small concert from their famous bell tuner. Our wonderful guide Lori De Sanctis took us also for another amazing 3 hour lunch at this gorgeous gem of a restaurant in Agnone, Italy. And last a quick stop at a famous Copper product makers shop, La Ramera Di Franco Gerbasi. Making me rethink my cooking and water containers. This was all possible thank you Lori De Sanctis with her company Molise Cuisine Traditional Cooking & Wine Tours for organizing our wonderful day.
Kelly Kinnaman – Edge Miami Florida
18/07/2019
Simply the Best.
Loriana is passionate of the Region of Molise , has a big heart to welcome you and instantly make you “Famiglia” . She strives to make your time a memory you will never forget .
Antony e Diana
Custom tours and personal service! I was very excited about this trip but it turned out better than I ever could have imagined!
Angie Luciani
08/2019
Pros: We had a wonderful time in this little known part of Italy!! We saw quaint hilltop villages, Roman ruins, beautiful mosaics, castles, beaches, awesome museums, oxen races! and scenic views everywhere we went!!! And the food–I cant say enough how much we enjoyed the cooking classes and the meals at the restaurants and winery. I have never had such heavenly food before!! Chef Vizzarri’s classes and recipes made cooking seem easy and definitely replicable. Such an incredible holiday!!
Cons: Some days the heat was stifling…but nothing that a sunhat and an aperitif couldn’t fix!
Overall impression: Perfect
Accommodation & facilities: Perfect
Food: Perfect
Location: Perfect
Value for money: Perfect
Quality of activity: Perfect
Julie Morrison from Canada
September 9th, 2019
My wife and I spent a wonderful week with Lori and her Molise Cuisine team. They were outstanding and made us feel at home from day 1. We experienced so many wonderful things, tastes and wines. Swimming in the Adriatic by grottos, dancing under the stars by the sea, seeing beautiful cities/countrysides/islands, even an emotional visit to my Nonno’s home city and tasting delicious wines and foods (including cooking lessons from a five star chef on the beach) just to name a few. It was a fun filled memorable week for us. We would not hesitate to recommend Molise Cuisine to friends and associates to have insure a great time in Italy.
Rick Sestile
09/2019
Molisecuisine what a lucky find!
My daughter, granddaughter and myself were looking for something “fun” and something we could do together, just us girls on our trip to San Martino in Pensili , in Molise. I found the website for this cooking class and thought what a wonderful idea ! Something we can do as a family and the best part was learning to cook something local from the village where my grandparents came from !!!
We were invited to come to Lori’s house on Thursday, June 1, 2023 for our cooking class !
Lori is a kind, warm and very entertaining teacher ( and I might add VERY Patient ! )
We learned to make homemade pasta, sauce ( I say sauce NOT GRAVY ), meatballs, braciole. After the cooking, came the EATING ! Lots of food, wine and laughter !
Granddaughter ( who is 13 ) loved the cooking, but when she learned that Lori is also an Elvis Presley fan that topped off the day !
Granddaughter enjoyed the cooking so much she asked if we could do it again next year. So, I guess I see another cooking class with Lori in our future !
It was wonderful making a new friend and look forward to doing this again !
Warm Regards
Jan-Marie Stroh
Everything about the trip was fantastic! Lori was amazing and she was able to make sure that we did everything on the trip (the Bell Foundry, Cheese tour, wine and olive oil tasting, and the Tremiti Islands)! It was a wonderful experience!
I wrote up a few paragraph review of the trip and talked about the highlights! I am adding it to this email! My mom and I were so happy with every single part of the trip.
Our trip with Lori was fantastic. She was a gracious host and tour guide around her wonderful town! She gave us first-hand experiences into the life of the people of Molise and Termoli.
We started our trip after a long day of traveling and we were picked up by Lori and taken to our hotel 3-4 hours away from Rome’s airport. She told us about the towns we passed and explained the history and culture of the areas. When we got to the hotel, she let us rest and then took us out to a wonderful dinner with her husband, daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. We were thrown right into the middle of family life and it was very welcoming.
Our cooking classes were held at her house and everything was wonderful! We made family recipes, drank amazing wine, and had wonderful and pleasant conversations. She took us to all her favorite restaurants and cafes for dinners and breakfasts.
We had a little problem with the weather but Lori made sure that we had the best experience we could given that our daily schedule changed due to rain/storms. She was able to get everything the tour promised us. My mother and I were so grateful that she put in so much effort to make sure that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. When my mom first landed, she had some eye irritation from the smoke from the wildfires in Canada and Lori made sure that we were able to get the eye drops that she needed so she could enjoy the rest of the trip.
We will definitely be planning another trip/tour with my sisters and sister-in-law with Lori! It was the best way for us to experience small town Italian life!
Sarah Klass