Cooking Classes
The cooking classes are held in Maria’s fully equipped kitchen. You will learn how to make traditional tortellini, Italian breads & pizza, homemade cheeses and more, with each lesson giving you the hands-on opportunity to make the local specialties you see and learn about in your local artisan visits. After each cooking lesson, lunch or dinner follows with local wine. Enjoy your foods prepared in class with everyone around the table with great wine and conversation.

The program offers 6 hands-on cooking classes with your hosts in Maria’s kitchen. Maria is noted as one of Bologna’s best tortellini makers and is a certified Sfoglina.  A Sfoglnia is the Bolognese term for women who make pasta  by hand in the traditional way and with an old fashioned rolling pin. She will guide you to using the old fashioned wooden rolling pin to create the small delicate pastas. What better opportunity to feel part of this wonderful region than enjoying cooking with the family and discovering all their favorite addresses in Bologna and beyond. It won’t take long before you begin to feel just like a local!

Emilia-Romagna
If it’s true that you go to Florence, Venice, or Rome to sightsee, then there’s no doubt that you visit Emilia-Romagna is to eat. One of Italy's wealthiest regions, it is home to the fertile plains of the Po River Valley, and produces much of the country's wheat and dairy products. Just think – one of Bologna’s nicknames is Bologna la grassa (Bologna the fat one!). A traveler surely cannot miss such cities as Bologna, home to some of the finest culinary traditions in Italy with its tagliatelle al ragu’, tortellini served in broth, and its delicious mortadella. Ravenna, famous for its spectacular mosaics from the Byzantine Empire; and the charming Parma, its claims to fame of course being Parmigiano cheese and prosciutto crudo (Parma ham). For the food lover, the culinary traditions of Emilia-Romagna won't fail to impress.

Parmigiano Cheese & Balsamic Vinegar Tour
Visiting a Caseificio is like going back in time. The "King of the cheeses" actually has very old origins and today, keeping true to the old world techniques that reach back 7 centuries, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is still made following the same traditional and genuine methods. Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is protected by the European Union and can only be produced in a restricted area, the so called "zona tipica", which includes the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and a part of Bologna and Mantova.  It takes about 2 hours to see the whole production, preferably early in the morning.

Continue your morning with a visit to a typical workshop where world-class balsamic vinegar has been produced for over 150 years. Once inside these sweet-smelling ancient walls, you will learn how this gourmet delicacy was born right here in this area. Throughout the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, the vinegar-makers of Reggio Emilia had one of the richest and most powerful trade guilds in central Italy, their secrets as closely-guarded as those of the Murano glass-makers. By the 1800’s it had become commonplace to enrich the dowries of local noblewomen with jars and little barrels of this precious liquid. During your visit to the workshop you will see the maker’s own vineyard, witness how a grape eventually meets one of its most glorious ends inside these little containers, and taste several types of vinegar made from various grapes and aged for various lengths of time. Believe us, even if you are a balsamic vinegar devotee, if you have never tasted one of the older ones – aged, say from 25 to 100 years – you still haven’t experienced a drop of heaven on your tongue. There is nothing like it!

Accommodations
You will be staying at a private B&B with Maria and Roberto in Budrio, a village in the countryside just outside of Bologna.  Each private room is comfortably furnished, and offers modern amenities. Breakfast is served each morning in the Dining Room featuring Maria’s homemade cakes, biscuits, bread, marmalade as well as local cheese and cold cuts. 

Itinerary 8 days/7 nights:

Day One:
Check in & Welcome

• Arrival and transfer to B&B in Budrio, just outside of Bologna.
• Welcome Aperitivo and introduction to your Cooking week.
• Dinner is served at the B&B with a sampling of some of Chef Maria’s specialties. 

Day Two:
Market Visit & Cooking Class 1

• Breakfast is served.
• Morning visit to the local market to select the best, in-season, local ingredients and learn about the local products.
• Lunch is served at the B&B
• In the afternoon, your first hands-on cooking class with Chef Maria, featuring the ingredients from the morning market. 
• Dinner follows on the foods prepared in class.

Day Three:
The Art Of Tortellini & Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• Meet in the morning for your visit to a local tortellino artisan maker.  Visit the tortellini maker and learn about filled-pasta production and its history in Emilia-Romagna. 
• Return to the B&B for Lunch
• In the afternoon, meet Chef Maria for your second hands-on cooking class and put theory into practice for: La Cucina Bolognese~ featuring fresh pasta, and Chef Maria’s famous filled tortellini.
• Dinner follows on the foods prepared in class.

Day Four:
Parmigiano, Balsamico & Cooking Class 3

• Breakfast is served.
• Head out early in the morning for a visit to the famous caseificio, to see the making of Parmigiano Reggiano.  Tastings included.
• Continue your tour to see the traditional making of aceto balsamico, balsamic vinegar, aged to perfection. 
• Lunch included in a trattoria featuring recipes with aceto balsamico.
• Return to the B&B in the afternoon for your third hands-on cooking class with Chef Maria putting theory into practice and cooking with Parmigiano and Balsamic Vinegar. 
• Dinner follows on the foods prepared in class. 

Day Five:
Vineyard Tour & Wine Tasting In The Hills Of Bologna~ Cooking Class 4

• Breakfast is served.
• Spend the morning visiting the vineyards and cantina of a local wine producer, in the hills of Bologna.  Tasting included and learn about the various types of grapes native and grown in the region to produce the local Emilia-Romagna wines. 
• Return to the B&B, lunch is served.
• In the afternoon, meet Chef Maria for your fourth hands-on cooking class focusing on the use of wine in the kitchen and wine pairings with the dished you prepare. 
• Dinner follows on the foods prepared in class. 

Day Six:
Cooking Classes 5 & 6~ Breads, Pizza & Fresh Cheeses

• Breakfast is served.
• Meet after breakfast with Chef Maria for your full-day cooking courses starting with a workshop on Italian pane, bread and pizza.  Work with Maria from the first heap of flour kneading, rising and baking the breads. 
• Lunch follows on the foods prepared in class.
• After lunch, continue with Maria for your Tutto Latte cooking class.  Learn milk-based specialties, such as fresh cheeses, homemade yogurt, creamy gelato, crème caramel and the classic pastry crème, crema pasticcera.
• Dinner follows featuring the foods prepared during both of the day’s cooking classes.

Day Seven:
Visit Bologna On Your Own~ Free Excursion Day

• Breakfast is served.
• The day is yours to explore as you like, and we suggest taking the local train into Bologna to explore the city on your own.  Visit the Medieval Market, the famous two towers and stroll the porticos of this historic city. 
• Lunch and dinner at your leisure.
• Return to the B&B in the evening.

Day Eight:
Departure & Check Out

• Breakfast is served.
• Say goodbye and Arrivederci! to your hosts Roberto & Maria.
• Check out and departure transfer to Bologna airport or train station.