October 2008

My October visit was a dream come true — after only a week in Positano I felt like I’d fully experienced the heart and soul of the beautiful Amalfi Coast — which has got to be one of the most rejuvenating, peaceful places on earth. The cooking classes — from Mamma Rosa joyfully making mozzorella, followed by her son walking us through the family lemon groves, to chefs at Positano’s most popular restaurants teaching me how to make pizza and prepare their fresh caught fish — were a revelation. Add to that a visit to Amalfi where the church bells rang for a solid 10 minutes as I sat overlooking the main square before tasting fantastic homemade pasta. And to seal the wonderful deal were my accommodations, with my very own terrace and view of the placid sea to calm every nerve, along with access to a private beach where the snack bar serves fantastic gnocchi. I can not wait to return!
Susan, Los Angeles.

Pasta-loving little ones can claim their shot at gratis, gourmet cooking lessons on the Amalfi coast by entering Cooking Vacations’ (www.cooking- vacations.com) Piccolo Chef contest. The annual competition is open to youngsters, 10 and under, who enjoy dabbling in the kitchen. To qualify for the free trip, entrants must submit an essay of 250 words or less detailing why they want to be a chef and their culinary inspiration.

The winner will receive a six-day stay (good through 2008) at the “Secret Garden” bed and breakfast in Positano, a scenic town located on Italy’s central coast, due south of Napoli. A comparable eight-day children’s cooking package includes activities like hands-on cooking classes, day trips (boating to Capri, open market visits), instructional outings (farm excursions) and at least three meals a day.—WR

BY CAREN OSTEN GERSZBERG
New York Times
Article Last Updated: 05/17/2007 06:38:04 PM CDT

It seems that a one-week trip to the shore, with days spent digging for clams and nights spent camping under the stars, has long ago ceased to be enough of a diversion for families planning their summer getaways. Now, the options range from cooking lessons in Italy (with even toddlers getting some kitchen time) to marionette-making courses in Prague to "volunteer vacations" that include trips to orphanages in China.

"Family travel continues to grow as more and more parents, particularly those working full time, view vacations as a way to ‘reunite’ the family, more than an occasion for rest and relaxation," said Peter Yesawich, chief executive of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown Russell, a travel marketing firm. According to the 2007 National Leisure Travel Monitor, a yearly report by the company, family travel will be up this summer, as nearly 40 percent of adults plan to take a vacation with children, up from 32 percent five years ago. Here are some of the many choices available for families this summer.

A DOSE OF EDUCATION

Kids may be eager to escape school, but learning something new with Mom and Dad can be a great way to bond as a family. Hands-on culinary skills is what families will get at Cooking Vacations’ new Secret Garden Positano trip to Positano, Italy; 1-800-916-1152; www.cooking-vacations.com. Children as young as 2 are invited to learn to make pizza, pasta, fresh mozzarella, gelato and other Italian treats. Between classes, families will go to Advertisement Ravello to visit a pastry maker and pick lemons, go on a fishing trip and visit Pompeii for a day. The weeklong program costs $2,800 a person (half that for ages 5 to 10; younger are free).

For nature lovers, the recently completed Boatswain’s Beach marine park in Grand Cayman is a chance to see more than 11,000 turtles (the largest weighs close to 600 pounds); 1-345-949-3894; www.boatswainsbeach.ky. Families can also snorkel among 4,000 fish – 29 species – in a freshwater lagoon, see sharks up close in the predator tank and take a walk on Caymanian Heritage street, lined with artisans making crafts. Each afternoon at 1:30, families can send year-old turtles back out to sea.

Exploring dinosaur fossils by flashlight and sleeping under the big blue whale are just a couple of the highlights in the Night at the Museum program at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan; 1-212-769-5570; www.amnh.org. This giant sleepover (400 attend at a time) – designed for families with children ages 8 to 12 – costs $79 a person and includes a cot (but it’s B.Y.O. sleeping bag) and breakfast. Dates for August and the fall will be announced.

Archaeology made fun is the focus of the new family departures (June 24 and July 1) of the Other Canyonlands trip by Southwest Ed-ventures; 1-800-525-4456; www.sw-adventures. org. With the help of an archaeologist, families will explore Utah’s Canyon Country, rock art and ruins. Participants will sleep in tents large enough for a family of four. The six-night trip costs $2,775; $2,275 for ages 6 to 15.

CULTURAL PURSUITS

Experiencing a new culture can be an eye-opener for all generations. Samantha McClure, owner of Small World Travel in Austin, Texas, 1-512-495-9495, which specializes in custom family outings, sees a growing interest in China for many of her clients. "Culturally, China is phenomenal, and parents are looking toward the future and want their children to get to know and understand this evolving country," McClure said.

Seeking a special way for family travelers to see the country, I-to-I Meaningful Travel has introduced a two-week family trip, the China Train Experience, with departures this summer out of Beijing on July 6 and Aug. 3; 1-800-985-4864; www.meaningfultravel.com. Families with children 8 and older will have the opportunity to visit Beijing, Xian and Shanghai, as well as to volunteer in local community projects and orphanages. The trip costs $1,425 a person; accommodations include hotels, home stays, hostels and train berths.

A marionette is a popular souvenir of Prague, so why not create your own while you’re there? The Four Seasons Hotel Prague recently began offering a marionette-making course where guests of all ages spend three hours at the studio of the marionette maker Pavel Truhlar and his wife, Caroline, making a fully functional wooden or plaster marionette; 1-800-819-5053; www.fourseasons.com. For 89 euros (about $124 at $1.39 to the euro) you can choose from 25 different types like court jester, king or witch.

Disney Cruise Line is taking to European waters this season with its first Mediterranean cruise; 1-800-951-3532; www.disneycruise.com. Beginning and ending in Barcelona, the Disney Magic will stop in Spain, Italy and France, allowing passengers to visit cities like Florence, Rome, Pisa and Cannes. The ship features nearly an entire deck devoted to children, with activities designed for different age groups. There are 10- and 11-day itineraries; the 877 family-friendly staterooms start at $1,299 a person in double occupancy.

ADVENTURE

Adventure continues to be a growing trend for family travel. In July, International Expeditions will dedicate three of its 10-day Amazon voyages for families; 1-800-633-4734; www.ietravel.com. After two nights in Lima, Peru, travelers sail aboard a riverboat, with small boats taking guests on daily explorations into the rain forest to look at the rich flora and fauna. Children will visit with a local shaman, fish for piranhas and play with kids from river villages while visiting their school. The trip is $2,898; $2,748 for ages 7 to 16.

For families with children 12 and older, Echo River Trips is launching a new six-day duckie expedition (using inflatable kayaks) down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, and a four-day trip down the Rogue River in Oregon; 1-800-652-3246; www.echotrips.com. Guests paddle their own kayaks for the entire stretch. Other activities include hiking in canyons and visiting archeological sites. Nights are spent camping. Rates for the Salmon River trip (Aug. 12 departure) are $1,545 a person, and for the Rogue River trip (June 26 departure), $665.

Ciclismo Classico now offers multisport trips with an added dose of Italian culture; 1-800-866-7314; www.ciclismoclassico.com. This summer, its new trip to the Apulia region in southern Italy, Once Upon a Time in Triulli Land, will send families on cycling adventures, to cooking classes, on a boat tour along the Adriatic coast and on a grotto exploration. Travelers rest each of the seven nights in a renovated 16th-century farmhouse. Prices, including breakfasts, six dinners and two picnic lunches, airport transfers and activities are $3,395, $2,880 for ages 8 to 16, $2,680 for ages 4 to 7 and $500 for children younger than 4.

For some families, being out in the wilderness together – no computer, no TV – is what it’s all about. This summer, Austin-Lehman Adventures is taking guests (ages 10 and older, with some flexibility) to the Whistler Sky Camp, about 100 miles north of Vancouver in British Columbia; 1-800-575-1540; www.austinlehman.com. Accessible only by floatplane and set on a lake bordered by mountains, the camp offers guests a chance to swim, bike, hike, kayak, canoe, fish and watch wild moose feed. Bedtime is in a luxury safari tent. The five-night adventure costs $2,148 a person, plus $550 for the round-trip floatplane out of Whistler.

Many families are combining their vacation with community service. Thompson Family Adventures’ 360 Degrees, a 14-day trip to Tanzania, includes three days of community service; 1-800-262-6255; www.familyadventures.com. In addition to the wildlife viewing in Tarangire National Park and in the Serengeti, participants will spend time in the Ngorongoro Highlands, where they may paint school buildings, help build desks or a playground or read to children. Guests stay in nyumbas, canvas structures with beds and private bathrooms. The trip costs $4,990-$5,490 per person.

JUST PLAIN FUN

There is still something to be said for taking a family trip and simply relaxing. At the 89-room Solage Calistoga, opening in July in the Napa Valley in California, guests will have the use of bikes, and families can swim in the children’s pool, choose from the in-room game menu (choices will include Chutes and Ladders, Sorry and Monopoly) or play on the hopscotch court; 1-866-942-7442; www.solagecalistoga.com. Room rates will start at $325.

At Twin Farms, a luxury resort in Barnard, Vt., there will be a Family Experience weekend Aug. 6 to 8, when, for the first time, children under 18 will be invited to stay at the resort; 1-800-894-6327, www. twinfarms.com. Families can bike, hike, canoe and sit around a campfire making s’mores. Cottage and room rates are $1,100 to $2,750 a night and include meals, wine, liquor and on-site activities; $339 per child per night will include meals and activities.

New water attractions adorn resorts looking for ways to entertain families. At the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, the new 63-acre Aquaventure water park has water slides, river rapids and waterfalls; 1-888-528-7155, www.atlantis.com. Next to the water park is Dolphin Cay, where guests can interact with 20 dolphins and see two newborns. Summer rates (July 8 to Sept. 2) start at $325 for a double room.

A "lazy river" surrounds the new Oasis family complex – 21 casita rooms and two suites – at the Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; 1-800-819-5053; www.fourseasons.com. Guests can drift around on inner tubes, float boards or noodles. Family rates, July through September, are $375 per room per night.

Cooking Vacations (tel. 617/247-4112; www.cooking-vacations.com) specializes in culinary trips in Italy featuring tours and classes in 12 different regions – each including the unique tastes and flavors of the area. Travel to Piedmont, the land of truffles and chocolate, for the "Six-nights at Palazzo Cuneo" vacation. Executive Chef Marc Lanteri invites you to experience the Piedmont’s unique food and wines as he offers his hands-on cooking classes at the prestigious Michelin Star restaurant property in Cuneo. This four star property is a 16th century noble palace, once the playground for the King of France Francis I and Pope Pio VII. Recently refurbished, it is now host to many cooking classes and wine tasting dinners! This complete culinary experience includes wine tastings, a one-hour wine lesson, featuring the wines of the Langhe area, an epicurean guided tour of Cuneo, and instruction on how to prepare several of Northern Italy’s specialty dishes. Included in the $2,625 price is six-nights accommodation, round trip transfers from Turin train station or airport, English speaking guide for excursions to places like Castello di Neive and an excursion to Monte Carlo and the Cote d’Azur, elaborate lunches and dinners daily (sometimes cooked by you) and personalized cooking classes as specified.

Another offer by Cooking Vacations is "Organic Cooking Vacation in Bologna," offering insight into the best produce and recipes of the Emilia Romagna region. Included in the $2,295 price is six-nights accommodation (based on double occupancy) at an estate near the Salvarola spas in the Sassuolo area, breakfast daily, round trip private transfer from Bologna airport, four cooking lessons (three hours each), four lunches or dinners following the class, a half-day guided tour of balsamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese producers, a half-day guided tour to Modena and the market, a half-day tour to a wine cellar near Bologna with tastings and a visit to Vignola Medieval Castle. Single supplement is $250. Both Cooking Vacations tours take place throughout the year.

The classes are designed to be educational and fun. Each child participates with their parents in measuring, mixing, peeling, chopping, dicing and preparing recipes under the supervision of our trained executive chefs.

Whether rolling out pasta dumplings for Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, or learning how to make Pizza Margherita in the colors of the Italian flag, kids will enjoy being an Italian chef for a day!

by Faith Bahadurian

I had a wonderful evening with Fabrizio and Sandra! What a beautiful property, and of course the surrounding countryside was "to die for." Tasting the fresh olive oil and wines was a great experience.

Dinner was excellent – Fabrizio and Sandra were wonderful hosts, we loved making gnocchi with pumpkin sauce.

By Carol Stigger

Rosario D’Esposito, chef at Sorrento’s first official cooking school, has the demeanor of an aunt delighted the family has convened for a typical Neapolitan dinner prepared in the school’s new millennium kitchen. Never mind that a British family walked from their hotel, that three American couples came from a cruise ship where they met a few days ago, and that a Canadian took an early train from Naples after his camera was stolen. The aroma of tomatoes, basil and garlic creates family among strangers who share a certain culinary ignorance.

At the school inside a citrus grove, we gather around a Carrara marble table with 12 rattan stools. Rosario presides behind the marble slab’s gas rings, restaurant-size skillets, and little bowls of ingredients, red, white and green like the Italian flag. "Aluminum skillets," she recommends. They distribute heat more evenly. Helping prepare family dinner is tradition, so aprons are handed around. The men break tradition by staying in the kitchen instead of strutting through the grove comparing yields. Chef’s hats are shelved. Perhaps they remind us of New Year’s Eve party hats. We bundled up that night, and we were cold for months after. Now we do not want to think about sleet, snow, sniffles or any other "s" words but sun, sandals and simmering sauces.

The meal begins with ricotta fritters. "To break your hunger," Rosario explains, followed by gnocchi in tomato sauce, Mediterranean-style fish and the classic Italian dessert, tiramisú. Rosario selects a student to quarter garlic for the fish sauce and cautions him not to dice it. "If dinner guests think they do not like garlic, they will pick out the pieces. You will feel like a thoughtful host." She winks. "The flavor remains." Black olives are scored to their pits for the same reason. Rinsing capers once is not enough, and she sends a student back to the sink to rinse the capers twice more. "To get out all the salt," Rosario says. "When the dish is done, add salt if it needs it, and just enough. You will know by the taste." Students exchange doubtful looks.

Canned tomatoes are a surprise in a country famous for fresh produce. "Peeled, plum tomatoes," says Rosario. "And don’t attack them with knife or masher; squeeze them between your fingers for the right texture." I wish she had not prepared the tomatoes before our arrival. I want to feel juice and seeds slipping between my fingers. Whoever decreed we should not play with our food was not Italian.

Gnocchi tastes as good as it smellsBut soon we are all playing with our food, mixing flour and water with our hands and kneading dough for fritters. "Stand up," says Rosario. "Put your shoulders into it." Pastry is not a sedentary activity, and the stressed-out Canadian applies his strength as if squashing the camera thief. We roll dough on marble from the quarry where Michelangelo selected the blocks he sculpted into the Pieta, David, and Moses. Our dough resembles kindergarten art projects. Rosario guides us until our pastry squares are square and one-quarter of an inch thick.

Satisfied, we sit down, but Rosario shakes her head. She puts a slice of margarine in the middle of each square and shows us how fold the dough like a hankie. We roll dough to work in the fat. "No butter," she says. "Crisco will work, but margarine is best." When the fat has become one with the flour, we roll dough into squares and make hankie folds again. "The dough must rest fifteen minutes. We kneed, roll, and fold dough a minimum of seven times with at least fifteen minutes rest between. More times are better." Rosario relents. "Today, three times." The marble has become a beach of flour with meandering finger prints, littered with rolling pins.

While our dough relaxes on little china plates, Rosario asks two men to peel potatoes she cooked earlier for the gnocchi. They ask for knives; she shakes her head. Peels detach smoothly under their fingers. Rosario asks for a student with strength. A slim woman says, "I’ve been working out for months just for our cruise." Rosario looks confused over the words "working out" and hands her a ricer. "You can mash, but ricing is finest for gnocchi."

We roll dough again. The Canadian has lost his grimace and works his dough with a grin. When dough is refolded on plates for a second siesta, we gather around Rosario’s skillet to learn the secret of the fish sauce. She puts the quartered garlic, scored olives, thrice-rinsed capers in the middle of the skillet, tears basil and parsley leaves and uses a serrated knife to add little shreds of onion. "To sweeten the garlic," she says. Last, she adds olive oil "Extra virgin, cold press. Add oil last so you have just enough to release the flavors." Over a medium heat, she stirs the ingredients with a wooden spoon and we are transported to ancient Rome. How could Tiberius have thrown guests off a cliff in nearby Capri if dinner smelled so inviting?

After a few minutes of gentle stirring, she explains that the sauce now can be tossed with pasta, but today the sauce is for fish. She adds boneless filets of white fish. Any white fish with firm flesh will work; but the fish is plaice, because it was the best of the dawn’s catch.

"You don’t use wine?" asks the Canadian, who no longer looks like he needs a liter.

"If you like, but after you turn the fish. Wine makes it too sweet for my taste." She holds up a bottle of white wine and raises her eyebrows. We defer to Rosario’s taste. She puts away the wine and adds what looks like too much water. Evidently she has heard the question before, so she explains, "Slow cooking for best taste. The water will steam away. Aromatic steam makes me want to grab a plate and fork, but I am distracted by the word tiramisú. Not my favorite dessert although it has been foisted on me by proud hostesses and insistent waiters from Chicago’s Little Italy to Rome’s Trastevere.

One student layers the Italian version of ladyfingers on a platter and another stirs dollops of Cool Whip into mascarpone. Rosario has dealt with alarmed cries of "not whipped cream?" before. "Too fattening," she says, averting her eyes from a portly student. "And too heavy for tiramisú." To the mascarpone she adds the extras that make this traditional dish her own: vanilla, lemon zest and a teaspoon of coffee. She guides a student in pouring coffee over the ladyfingers. "Espresso," she says emphatically. "Not," she pauses as if seeking a polite description, "brown water." She pauses again. "Terrible!" she cries, sacrificing cultural sensitivity to the goddess of flavor.

After the cream is layered over espresso soaked cakes, Rosario adds shaves of sweet, dark chocolate. Another layer and the dish is almost done. Rosario turns the smoothly iced finish I am so proud of into a gently churning sea "Tiramisú looks homemade," she says, "not pulled out of a box." She sprinkles coco over the dessert and sets it aside.

Rosario is stingy with the flour Making gnocchi is similar to making bread, and we learn how to knead just enough flour into the potatoes. She adds Parmesan cheese and explains it is for nutrition, not taste. She hands each student a half-inch thick slice of gnocchi and instructs us to roll it between our hands into thumb-size sausages. Some slices are too sticky. Rosario doles out flour like gold dust, warning that too much flour will ruin the gnocchi, our lunch, and may disturb Mt. Vesuvius.

The pastry now seems a less intimidating dish. We knead it again, roll it into squares and put teaspoons of ricotta filling on the dough. The filling was white, but now is salmon colored. Rosaria thought the tomato sauce for the gnocchi looked so good that she stirred a little into the ricotta. "Improvise," she says. But she does not improvise on the oil she uses to fry the fritters. It must be one-quarter olive oil and three-quarters peanut oil, no exceptions. After all the work on the pastry, we are heartened to learn that left-over pastry can be frozen, thawed, and kneaded "more is better" times without compromising quality.

She passes the hot fritters around. "Saltimbocca?" she asks. "Jump in mouth?" Whatever those fritters did in my mouth is best described the Italian way. To translate into English would require indecent innuendoes. Fellow students appear to be having similar moments of truth. One picks up a pencil and asks Rosario how to spell saltimbocca.

Rosario adds the gnocchi to boiling water, scoops them out as they rise to the surface, and stirs them into the tomato sauce. We dine with our backs to the mess we made producing our Neapolitan dinner. Each dish is as tasty as it looks and smells. Dessert is a surprise. Rosario’s tiramisú jumps in my mouth. "Saltimbocca," I murmur, amazed that my taste buds could be ravished twice in one meal.

Vacation agendas interfere with the Italian finish to a satisfying meal, a stroll. Only the Canadian and I have an hour to spare. We walk down a winding road to a bench overlooking the water far below. A citrus-scented breeze tempers hot sun. Across an inlet, a villa’s ochre plaster peels to shades of tans and yellows. Unpainted wood shutters hang haphazardly amid the vines. This aging princess of Sorrento commands a cliff that chugs into the bay, exposing roots of tenacious pines hosting choirs of rejoicing birds. Napoli, misty as an old dream, holds out its arms across the bay.

Sorrento cliff chugs into the bayThe Canadian leans over the railing with no hint of tension in his body. After a few minutes he serenely says, "God created Sorrento and thought, ‘It is good.’ She packed her colors, flavors, scents and songs and moved on to Mars."

"Are you a poet," I ask.

He wipes his eyes. "Math professor. Those fritters could turn a dolt into Dante."

Or was it the tiramisú?

Sorrento Cooking School is in a lemon and orange grove that has been making room for a moderately priced resort with swimming pool, bar and restaurant for forty years. Every year, a new bungalow or two sprouts amid the trees. The cooking school is a 2004 inspiration of Rafealla Esprito, resort manager. She noted that while some entrepreneurial women were offering cooking lessons in their homes, none had organized a cooking school in the Sorrento area such as those that dot the Tuscan landscape. She wants to give Neapolitan cooking equal time with her northern neighbor.

For more information on Sorrento Cooking School and other culinary vacation opportunities in Italy, call Cooking Vacations at 1-800-916-1152 or visit their Web site, www.cooking-vacations.com.

Summer Issue 2005

Thank you for having given us the opportunity to stay in such a beautiful villa. My experience at Villa Savarese was probably one of my most pleasant and memorable experiences I’ve had in all my travels. From the accommodations to the people, it was better than staying with family….my only regret was that we only stayed 2 days!

Angela Palmieri
Dolce Vita Magazine
Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

Getting beyond the typical tourist path is also a feature of Cooking Vacations, which offers a variety of quests into Italy arranged by Lauren Scuncio Birmingham. Guests taking the three- to seven-night cooking courses may find their instructors are nonnas (grandmothers), self-taught cooks or Michelin-trained chefs.

“People just love” the courses, Birmingham said from Boston. “Once they go on one, they want to be put on a mailing list so they learn about future trips.”

Guests stay in farmhouses, villas and castles near Naples in the south, throughout Tuscany in the north or on the island of Sicily. Organic gardens and groves at each site provide many of the ingredients used in the native dishes, which typically use in-season produce.

Cooking techniques and historical notes are doled out for pizza, pastas, desserts and other dishes. Courses also may include jarring olives, cooking with flowers and baking bread.

As part of their package, guests peruse outdoor marketplaces, the local butcher shop, the cheese shop, the bakery, the wine merchant and the port where fishermen deliver their catch. There are excursions to vineyards, where guests can sample the vintages, to an olive oil maker and to a ceramic maker, where guests might make their own pottery. During free time, travelers can use a spa or explore nearby villages on their own.

Birmingham, who runs Birmingham Associates Communications/ Public Relations Agency in Boston, has traveled often to her family’s homeland. Her desire to share her knowledge of Italy and food and wine inspired her to pursue the culinary travel venture.

“I just started this as a passion, really,” Birmingham said of her 1 1/2-year-old business. Recipes from her great-grandmother Lucia Scuncio are passed down in the classes, which are limited to six to 12 people.

The package prices for the trips to Italy include lodging, meals, excursions and tips. www.cooking-vacations.com

Copyright 2005 al.com. All Rights Reserved.

© Natural Health
May 2004 Issue

Located in a country farmhouse in the hills of Sorrento, this newly opened school focuses on cooking with locally grown organic herbs and vegetables. The vacation program includes daily classes (limited to 10 students), visits with local food artisans, nightly garden dinners and trips to nearby vineyards. $540 for three days; $1,650 for five nights staying at a four-star villa; cooking-vacations.com.

By Carole Kotkin

The village of Follina is a sleepy Treviso hamlet with characteristic views of olive groves, vineyards and crumbling old villas. Villagers sip their morning cappuccino standing up at a counter, and the scent of garlic being sauteed in oil wafts through the air. There aren’t many unspoiled scenes like this in Italy’s tourist hot spots, where visitors sometimes seem to outnumber the locals. In Follina, the few tourists are mostly out of sight—tucked away in the kitchen of Villa Abbazia, learning the difference between al dente and overcooked. Everyone knows you can eat well in Italy. But why stop there when you can spend your vacation digesting the fine art of Italian cuisine? As an alternative to tramping through churches, museums and shops, an increasing numbers of visitors to Italy are instead enjoying culinary tourism by enrolling in cooking classes. Lauren Scuncio Birmingham, whose Boston-based firm, Cooking Vacations International, says her clients want "an authentic experience. And the simplest introduction to a country is through the food." Her passion for food and wine sparked her to pursue the idea of creating this unique cooking vacation adventure. “In my family everyone is always in the kitchen before dinner-helping to prepare the dinner. The preparation and cooking part is just as important as the dinner. The kitchen is the center of conversation, laughter and fun. Italian cooking is a family experience and Cooking Vacations gives everyone the opportunity to experience great food, wine, music, and the feeling of being Italian. As they say in Italy, ‘it is not healthy to eat alone.’

By Susan Van Allen

“I will treasure my visit here in memory as long as I live,” Audrey Hepburn said in Roman Holiday, after escaping her princess duties to have fun in La Citta Eterna. Inspired by Audrey and my immigrant grandmother who instilled in me a love of all things Italian, in 1976 I headed to Rome, checked into a hostel, and had my own magical time. It was a blur of racing through the Forum, standing awestruck in the Sistine Chapel, and tasting my first gelato.

The spell was cast and years later, my frequent visits back to Italy have put me among the ever-growing trend of women lured there. While both sexes enjoy the country’s masterpieces, stunning landscapes, wine, and fabulous food, Italy holds extra appeal for females. There are luxurious spas, shopping to-die-for, and of course handsome men whose flirting styles have been perfected to one of the country’s most entertaining art forms. All that combined with Italy’s slower pace make it a dream destination for women looking for a rejuvenating break from their busy lives.

Lots of single women, girlfriends traveling together, and mother-daughter teams are signing up for Women Only Tours to Italy. Though I’ve always been an independent traveler, I’ve recently jumped on this bandwagon, discovering that group travel has loads of advantages—the expert planners who’ve established relationships with the locals, so I’m taken in as part of la famiglia upon arrival; the long-lasting friendships that I’ve gained by meeting other like-minded gals along the way; the fact that I don’t have to worry about logistical details that are flawlessly taken care of by pros. And in these days of the ever-rising euro, group tours (at least the ones I recommend below) are priced lower than what I’d pay if I was going it solo.

Women’s Travel Club
Whether you want to do All Italy (an eleven-day tour that covers the major cities), explore the Amalfi Coast, or spend Thanksgiving cooking in a Tuscan Villa, this company provides a variety of scheduled tours throughout the year for groups of no more than twenty.

Female-friendly perks include accommodations at four-star boutique hotels that are conveniently located for shopping and a welcoming cocktail party to start the all-gal party flowing.

“We have lots of repeat customers,” says Club president, Allison O’Sullivan. “They’re women who want to give themselves the gift of travel, who want to get to know Italy on a deeper emotional level than they would on other tours, and who keep in touch for years with new friends they’ve made along the way.”

“It was great to have so many sisters to help decide which leather coat to buy,” said Kathy, a repeat visitor, about her trip to Florence.

Renaissance Women
Cooking Vacations International runs this week-long culinary program for small groups (maximum of twelve) in Positano. “Ages range from nineteen to eighty-five—no kidding!,” says President Lauren Birmingham, who lives in Positano, giving the program an insider’s expertise.

The relaxed tone of the program is set immediately by the accommodations, which are in a private estate, surrounded by manicured gardens, a lemon grove, and breathtaking views of the coast. Itineraries include three hands-on cooking classes, lectures about Renaissance women, watercolor and journal writing instruction, as well as visits to markets, gardens, and surrounding spots such as Amalfi and Capri. In addition, there’s flexible free time to simply chill-out on your terrace, take a swim at the nearby private beach, or a hike on The Walk of the Gods in the hills above Positano.

Are you tired of taking the same family vacation each year to the same spot and always doing the same activities? Maybe this is the year that you and a loved one (i.e. friend or spouse) decide to do something out of the ordinary.

It is time to consider a new and exciting learning experience. It is time to look into some cooking vacations. It is a fantastic way to travel to far off regions and enjoy what the local culinary community has to offer. You should check out “Cooking Vacations”.

Do not expect cooking vacations to be the same thing as attending the best culinary schools in the country. You will not earn a diploma and you will not learn every type of cuisine. Sure, you may take an Italian or French tour but you will not be enrolled in French or Italian cooking schools.

You need to think in simpler terms when it comes to what you will learn. You will not come out of the tour as a executive chef, but you will come out with a more appreciative view of preparing food that you love.

Now for what these vacations are and what they mean to you as the vacationer. You can expect several different programs and options when booking one of these vacations. They include: Italian tours, women only tours, Todd English tours, kids programs, corporate tours, couples and French tours.

The website has a listing of each different location that is offered on each particular tour. You may want to visit Southern Italy and feast in the open air kitchens that offer far more than just a scenic view. The one thing in common with all of the programs is that each locale features an organic garden so that you will be cooking seasonal foods and foods indigenous to that particular region.

The website also offers recipes from the different regions, as well as travel tips and much, much more. If you are a fan of Italian and French cooking, then this may be the vacation that you have dreamed of taking. It is a great opportunity to learn more about the regions and to have the chance to cook in the kitchens of such places as rustic farmhouses or luxurious estates.

Lauren Scuncio Birmingham had a dream and a plan when coming up with her cooking vacations tours. It was a love of food and a way of life that she wanted to share with other people, and was passed down to her through the generations of her family.

She wanted to share that same love and appreciation of authentic Italian and French food with the rest of the world. You can be assured of a fantastic time on her tours. As she says, “la dolce vita is not just a special vacation it is a way of life.”

Enrich your knowledge further about cooking vacations from Mike Selvon portal. We appreciate your feedback at our cooking school blog where a free gift awaits you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Selvon

French cooking schools

It is that time of year again to be planning the family vacation. Perhaps you are more interested in taking a couple’s vacation and leaving the children behind. It can be tough trying to decide what to do and where to go. Have you ever considered cooking vacations? It is a great way to see the world and learn regional dishes from the places you visit. One website to take a look at is www.cooking-vacations.com.

Do not expect cooking vacations to be the same thing as attending the best culinary schools in the country. You will not earn a diploma and you will not learn every type of cuisine. Sure, you may take an Italian or French tour but you will not be enrolled in French or Italian cooking schools. You need to think in simpler terms when it comes to what you will learn. You will not come out of the tour as a executive chef, but you will come out with a more appreciative view of preparing food that you love.

Now for what these vacations are and what they mean to you as the vacationer. You can expect several different programs and options when booking one of these vacations. They include: Italian tours, women only tours, Todd English tours, kids programs, corporate tours, couples and French tours.

The website has a listing of each different location that is offered on each particular tour. You may want to visit Southern Italy and feast in the open air kitchens that offer far more than just a scenic view. The one thing in common with all of the programs is that each locale features an organic garden so that you will be cooking seasonal foods and foods indigenous to that particular region.

The website also offers recipes from the different regions, as well as travel tips and much, much more. If you are a fan of Italian and French cooking, then this may be the vacation that you have dreamed of taking. It is a great opportunity to learn more about the regions and to have the chance to cook in the kitchens of such places as rustic farmhouses or luxurious estates.

Lauren Scuncio Birmingham is the creator of the cooking vacations at www.cooking-vacations.com. Her goal was to share her own and her family’s love of cooking with others. She started the cooking vacation idea as a way to pay homage to her grandmother Donna and has since made quite a big impact on the culinary community. People love the idea of learning simple yet outstanding dishes created by the people who eat them every day. It is that love of cooking that has people returning year after year to take the different tours. You can embrace the love of cooking as well by booking one of her tours. As her website says, “la dolce vita is not just a special vacation it is a way of life.”

By Donna Goodison

8/14/2006

An exotic truffle hunt at the foot of the Maritime Alps in Italy, followed by an afternoon standing elbow to elbow in the kitchen with a tall, handsome chef. Throw in a little olive oil, some wine . . . .

A teaser for a culinary Harlequin romance novel?

Nope, Todd English’s latest venture.

English is partnering with Cooking Vacations International to give foodies a taste of Italy during trips that include three, three-hour sessions nella cucina (in the kitchen) with the Boston chef and restaurateur.

“I love exposing people to the things I love,” said English, who calls Italy one of his “haunts.” “It’s one of those places that for some reason, whenever I’m there, I just find another reason to go back.”

The six cooking vacations to Positano, Sicily, Cuneo, Umbria, Ischia and Puglia will begin in November. Prices start at $10,000 a person, which includes stays at four- and five-star properties, but excludes airfare.

The trips, led by an English-speaking guide, will go beyond typical tourist destinations to give an insider’s view of Italy, according to English. They’ll include visits to olive oil and wine producers, and artisans who adhere to the Slow Food movement.

“You meet Giuseppe the cheese-maker, and you go to his farm and break bread with him and try his wine and olive oil,” English said. “It’s much richer.”

English’s hands-on cooking classes will take place in the kitchens of top-flight restaurants with their executive chefs. Participants will eat what’s prepared at the end of each class, with wine pairings by a sommelier.

“The whole idea of these cooking vacations is to really bring someone into the life of an Italian and the way they cook,” said Lauren Birmingham, the owner of Cooking Vacations International, which she runs from Boston and Positano. “Each class is a one-of-a-kind cooking program, because in each area, the style of cooking and the kitchens are so different.”

The first trip will include a white truffle hunt in Cuneo and a cooking class in which the prized fungi are incorporated into the dishes.

Another trip to Positano, on the Amalfi Coast, will include a morning fish market tour, a private charter for a full day on the island of Capri, and a fishing excursion.

English travels to Italy four or five times a year. He was in Sardinia last week, and this week will spend time with his children at a rented villa on the island of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples.

“Honestly, it’s a place where I really relax,” he said. “For some reason, I get there and my whole thing kind of deflates. We’re just going to hang out, cook and go out to a couple of restaurants, swim in the Tyrrhenian, and just have a good time and be together and watch the world go by.”

English will donate a portion of the cooking vacation proceeds to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in honor of his sister, Wendy English, who died from breast cancer in April.

© Italian Magazine
February 2005 Issue

So much more than just a garnish for your evening tipple, the lemon is hugely popular across Italy with cooks and consumers alike. Rebecca Gooch visits the citrocentric Amalfi Coast to learn more about this distinctive yellow fruit.

To think, I used to assume that lemons were just the colourful half of the ‘ice ‘n’ slice’ that made for a perfect gin and tonic. Don’t let the citriculturalists on the Amalfi coast know this, or they’d throw their hands in the air at the hopelessness of such una scema. But for years I’ve been casually tossing the odd canary yellow waxy specimen, imported from who-knows-where, into my supermarket trolley, then letting it sit forlorn and forgotten in the fridge, wizening and wrinkling as it waited to be summoned into service with the Gordon’s and Schweppes.

But after a week perched above Positano in the bosom of Campania lemon country, this ignorant scema is now una saccente, a smart-ass worthy of the famous black leather Mastermind chair, with the Limone of Costa d’Amalfi as my specialist subject. And the Amalfi lemon, or Sfusato Amalfitan (officially recognized as unique by the PGI, or Protected Geographic Indication, in 2001) is, indeed, special.

Identified by its more prominent ‘nipple’ end, paler yellow colour, impressively high number of oil glands, virtual lack of seeds and weighing at least 100grams, it is the first choice for an authentic limoncello (lemon liqueur). It also cures hiccups, gout, dandruff and halitosis. It gets rid of cabbage smells in the kitchen, and makes your shoes shiny if you wipe it over before the polish. It is a symbol of fidelity in love. It stops the shells from cracking when you’re boiling eggs.

Then there’s the landscape that came about partly because of the lemon’s scurvy-beating Vitamin C content. When the royal Navy made lemon just consumption mandatory for its sailors in 1795, Amalfi lemon cultivation hit the big time. As a result, we have the exquisite, dramatic scenery of ‘The Divine Coast,’ recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997. Yet before 17th-century farmers hacked out the hillside piazzatta, or lemon terraces, which cling like verdant steps along the once harsh, impenetrable strips of cliffs from Sorrento to Salerno, there was nothing but the crash of waves on rocky scrub.

Yellow Fever

By the end of the 1800s this stretch of sea-facing land south of Naples had definitively become the world-renowned coast of lemons, and almost by accident, a photographer’s dream and fashionable tourism magnet, attraction visitors and residents as diverse as Greta Garbo, John Steinbeck, Gore Vidal, Bob Geldof, Sophia Loren and Sting, it also saw the birth of luxury hotels like the sumptuous Le Sirenuse at Positano, where Danny de Vito, the Rolling Stones, U2 and Ingrid Bergman have lain their heads.

However, the Amalfi lemon is not just a fruit of fond nostalgic memory. It’s still at the heart of everything Amalfian, from decorating the cheerful marker signs along cliff-clinging Stat Road 163, to influencing cookery and inspiring the ceramics industry of picturesque Vietri sul Mare.

I was only ten minutes out of Naples airport, heading to Positano for a few days of lemon cookery lessons and exploration,…in Positano,… when I got my first lemon lesson.

Mario, my driver, explained that whenever her was “ndurzato”, “Like my stomach is stuffed like a ship that can take no more cargo,” the best way to quickly cure his malada pancea, or tummy ache, was to boil three to four pieces of lemon rind until the water goes yellow, then add sugar and drink as hot as he could bear it.

“We call it canarino. Like the yellow bird. Three minutes and your indigestione will be gone,” he assured me. “I once ate three types of cheese in one meal ç bah! I was abuffato, stuffed! My Stomach felt like a stone. The only thing that fixed it was canarino.”

As a cure-all and basis for Amalfi cuisine, the lemon should be treated with gentleness and respect, I soon learned. The women who picked them at the turn of the century, lugging huge baskets of sfusato on their shoulders up and down the precipitous steps between the terraces had to clip their nails and wear cotton gloves to avoid damaging the precious merchandise.

“You should squeeze it like you are squeezing a nice girl,” I was quickly instructed by Mamma Agata during a lemon cookery class in her kitchen at Ravello, when I ham-fistedly clutched half a limone and tried to squish the beejayzus out of it.

The embodiment of a twinkly-eyed, ample Italian mamma, Signora Agata is something of a culinary legend on the Amalfi coast, having cooked for celebrity visitors like Humphrey Bogart (a “sweet, quiet person” who like fried anchovies ç and lots of whisky), Jackie Kennedy (very elegant, liked mozzarella and tomato salad) and Fred Astaire.

As she rattled through recipe after recipe, chopping, stirring and whisking, she explained that lemon juice should nearly always be added at the last minute. Too much cooking and it becomes bitter. But when fresh, the Amalfi lemon is one of the sweetest, tastiest lemons in the world, due to the mineral rich volcanic soil it grows in, courtesy of nearby Vesuvius. And it’s not just fondly biased locals who believe it. Studies at Universities of Slerno and Reggio Calabria have shown that it contains twice the amount of flavor-giving oxygenated compounds than other lemons. The researchers concluded that, “it is possible to affirm that the extract from Amalfi Coast lemons has a remarkably superior flavoring power.”

The New York Times – Travel

By Patricia Leigh Brown

COOKING FOR ALL AGES: FROM PIZZA AND PASTA TO MEXICAN CORN PUDDING

Cooking Vacations Kids’ Program On The Amalfi Coast, Italy

The cooking classes at the Villa Azzura, in the Cliffside village of Positano, facing the Tyrrhenian Sea, emphasize the importance of the Amalfi lemon, in local drinks like limoncello, and other seasonal products. Other options include a Neapolitan pizza party; pasta, fish, and chocolate workshops; and a trip to an olive-pressing site. Day trips include Capri, Ravello and Sorrento. Sponsored by the Boston-based company Cooking Vacations, Call 800.916-1152 or www.cooking-vacations.com.

When: All year, except the last 10 days of January. How Long: One week.

By Annie B. Copps

It’s that time of year in New England when, you know, you could stick a fork in us, cuz we are d-o-n-e. That’s not a complaint, but I’m definitely ready for some warm air on my skin. I didn’t get out of town this winter, a must for most of us, so I’ve been taking advantage of local events and a pampering massage every now and again — it’s sort of like a vacation, albeit a brief one.

Olives restaurant in Charlestown, Massachusetts, recently hosted four chefs from Italy’s Campania region (Positano, to be more specific, that fancy harbor village tucked into the cliffs along the Italian Riviera) for a "Taste of Positano" dinner. I signed right up. The afternoon of the dinner, I was still slugging around the house in my jammies (it was a cold, rainy Sunday) and ambivalent about putting proper clothes on. I thought it a better night to stay in, eat pasta, and watch a movie. I gave in and got dressed. Sighed my way downstairs and rushed with an umbrella over my head to get to the car. Second thoughts. It was that yucky, get-in-your-bones wet and cold — the kind you have to soak in a hot tub to get rid of. With windshield wipers slapping away, I neared the restaurant and thought, "I could still turn around — who’ll miss me? I could be back at the house and in those flannels in 10 minutes." But no, as I slowed the car, Luis, the longtime valet at Olives, recognized me and waved me over. In I went.

Almost immediately, I began to warm up… the sexy red dining room and orangy glow of the wood-burning oven, smiling faces, riffs of Italian conversations floating about, and a glass of sparkling rose offered to me on a serving tray. Okay, I figured, this will be okay, I’ll get some pasta either way.

The four chefs worked well with the Olives kitchen crew, and together they created a gorgeous meal of beef carpaccio, perfectly cooked vermicelli noodles in an anchovy and walnut sauce, grilled fish over warm polenta, veal-stuffed cabbage, and a hazelnut semifreddo that I can still taste. I’m glad the chefs didn’t try a warm-weather menu, but instead collaborated and made a traditional southern Italian meal that makes sense for late February. (Even Positano gets a little chilly in winter.)

They also paired the food with some of my favorite varietals, some of the ancient grapes of Italy: two whites that I wish I saw on more menus, Greco di Tufo and Fiano di Avellino, and a red Aglianico. The dessert wine, a "passito" from the island of Pantelleria, was a real treat, made from grapes that stay on the vine until they’re almost raisins-sweet and concentrated with deep flavor.

As I scurried to my car and the almost-frozen rain stung my face, despite the umbrella overhead, I did feel as though I’d had a little vacation. Who needs Boca?

by Susan Van Allen

10/29/2007

I will treasure my visit here in memory as long as I live,” Audrey Hepburn said in “Roman Holiday,” after escaping her princess duties to have fun in La Citta Eterna. Inspired by Audrey and my immigrant grandmother who instilled in me a love of all things Italian, in 1976 I headed to Rome, checked into a hostel and had my own magical experience. It was a blur of racing through the Forum, standing awestruck in the Sistine Chapel and tasting my first gelato.

The spell was cast and years later my frequent visits back to Italy have put me among the ever-growing trend of women lured there. While both sexes enjoy the country’s artistic masterpieces, stunning landscapes, wine and fabulous food, the luxurious spas and wonderful shopping opportunities hold extra appeal as a girlfriend’s getaway. Additionally, the slowed down pace and welcoming natives make it a desired destination for women looking for a rejuvenating break from their busy lives.

Safety may be a concern for women clients. The fact is that crime has dropped, though special attention should still be paid on crowded city buses and in sections of Naples and Palermo. And while 30 years ago on that first trip I did get pinched, nowadays the Italian male’s flirting style is refined to an art form and many visitors (me included) appreciate the special attention. Visit Italy Tours provides excellent FIT assistance for single women or groups in every budget range.

Renaissance Women

Cooking Vacations International runs culinary programs for small groups (maximum of 12) in Positano, with accommodations at a private estate. Ages range from 19 to 85, according to president Lauren Birmingham, who lives in Positano, giving the program an insider’s expertise. Clients looking to immerse themselves in delicious and relaxing surroundings will be well served here.

Itineraries feature three hands-on cooking classes, lectures about Renaissance women, watercolor and journal writing instruction, as well as visits to markets, gardens and surrounding towns.

Kids 10 and under who want to be chefs can write an essay for the Piccolo Chef competition sponsored by Cooking Vacations, a nonprofit, Boston-based group. A trip to Italy is the prize. Find entry information at www.cooking-vacations.com and click on News & Video on the Charities page. Deadline is Monday, Dec. 31.

By Loretto J. Hulse, Herald staff writer

Does our dreary winter weather have you dreaming of warm climates and cozy Italian kitchens? That’s what the organizers of Cooking Vacations Italy, a tour company offering one-of-a-kind getaways, is hoping.

The company, based in Boston, regularly offers cooking vacations to various locations in Europe. This year they’re adding tours called "Cooking For Love" on which couples — to quote the news release — "immerse themselves in romantically designed cooking classes that explore the sensory pleasures of the kitchen rekindling their relationship."

Each class is centered around a romantic location: farmhouses in the countryside, villas and private estates. Each class is limited to the single couple and includes visits to Italian markets, cheese makers and tours to capture the history, culture and flavors of Italy. Couples who enroll will learn authentic Italian recipes for lunch and dinner accompanied by wines from their chosen region — Rome, Positano, Capri, Ravello, Umbria, Tuscany or Lake Cuomo.

For more information — or just to dream a bit on a raw January day — go to

www.cooking-vacations.com.

by Betsy Young

An epicurean’s delight, infusion of local culture, eat your way through Italy and learn their cooking secrets too. The culinary school vacation is one of the best ways to literally taste your way into a region and touch its very soul. Italy with it’s slow food movement and diverse regional fare has the most developed group of highly touted cooking school vacations of any country in the world. These range from one day specialty training to more intense food immersion classes.

Get the whole family involved with the Cooking Vacation’s kid’s tours where children as young as three are invited to participate and five to ten year olds can dive right in. This is just a part of the Secret Garden Positano Cooking School vacation geared to indulge the whole family.

Take it to the top with a ten day multiregional cooking extravaganza hosted by American Chef Todd English. This tour starts in the $1000 a day range and is every Italian Foodies dream trip.

For more trips and information
www.cooking-vacations.com

The official government tourism site www.enit.it

by Ferne Arfin

A cooking school vacation is the gift that keeps on giving. Seniors are learning to cook all over the world these days and the best cooking school vacations combine great locations with loads of opportunity to experience the local culture and food industry. Usually, there are several hands-on classes led by outstanding chefs. Cooking school vacations are as much sociable fun for single seniors as they are for senior couples or groups of senior friends. These 10 tempt me the most.

1) Cooking in New Orleans–Now!

Back in business in The Big Easy, The New Orleans Cooking Experience’s Creole and Cajun cooking school breaks and vacations are held at The House on Bayou Road, a c.1798 "Petite" Plantation that survived Katrina with only some garden damage. Classes feature such noted chefs as James-Beard-Award-winning Frank Brigtsen, Austin Leslie of Pampy’s Creole Kitchen, Kevin Vizard of Café Adelaide, Tory McPhail of Commander’s Palace, Michelle McRaney of Mr. B’s, and Gerard Maras of Ralph’s on the Park. Top Picks: New Orleans Cooking School Experience

2) Gourmet Cooking Weekends in the Napa Valley

Lana Richardson, with her team of guest chefs and instructors, offers gourmet weekend retreats, and longer breaks, in Italian, Mediterranean, Wine Country and Regional American cuisines at her Napa Valley, California, school. On the menu might be Four Cheese Quesadilla with Smoked Chicken, Balsamic Glazed Lamb or Meyer Lemon Cake with Sautéed Berries. The emphasis is on building basic skills you can take with you. Groups of 3 or more may be eligible for 15% discounts. Accommodation is extra. Top Picks: Gourmet Retreats at Casa Lana

3) Cooking School Vacations for Seniors – Seniors Learn to Cook in Positano

Boston-based Cooking Vacations International focuses exclusively on the regions of Italy. Their 7-night, "Lemon Lifestyle" cooking school vacation in Positano, on the Amalfi Coast, includes luxury accommodation at the Villa Azzurra, 3 hands-on classes with famous local cooks, visits to artisan food producers, plus excursions to Ravello, Capri and Sorrento. Senior travelers pick their own lemons in an Amalfi grove before learning to cook an all-lemon menu. It sounds delicious. Can I come? Top Picks: Cooking with Lemons on the Amalfi Coast

4) "Arabian Nights" Cooking School Vacation in Petra

Imagine learning to cook Jordanian food while staying in an 18th century, Bedouin village, near Petra, the famous Rose City — hummus, tabouleh, falafel and baba ghanouj, plus melt in your mouth kebabs, unleavened breads, fragrant rice with nuts and almonds. British company, Holiday on the Menu’s Jordan vacation includes 7 nights luxury accommodation, 4 cooking classes, shopping in the souk, excursions to Petra and the Dead Sea. Book online or through a toll free, US number 1-877-451-0882. Top Picks: Holiday on the Menu in Jordan

5) Cooking School Vacations in Marrakesh – How Exotic Can you Get?

A luxury culinary week at Dar Liqama – The House of Green Mint – a Saharan oasis near Marrakesh, includes guided shopping in the souk of the Medina, camel rides, explorations in the Atlas Mountains and 8 to 9 hands-on cooking classes where seniors learn to cook tagines, couscous, pastilla. Moroccan cuisine, influenced by centuries of traders and invaders from China, India, Spain and Persia and France is among the world’s most sophisticated and exotic. Top Picks: Rhode School of Cuisine in Morocco – Seniors Cook in North Africa

6) Gourmet Mexican Cooking – Senior Cooking Vacation in Conquistador’s Guesthouse

At La Villa Bonita, senior travelers with adventurous palates stay in a 16th century guest house, built by the Conquistador Cortes, in the center of Cuernavaca while learning to cook Mole Colorado, Pork in Pipian sauce,Frijoles Refritos,Arroz Rojo con Verduras and Flan with Chef Ana Isabel Garcia Moreno. Four and seven day programs can be combined with local golf packages. Classes are in English, Spanish or French. Top Picks: La Villa Bonita School of Mexican Cuisine

7) Seniors Cooking Vacation in Mexico – Cooking Classes for Ambitious Senior Cooks

New York based Cocinar Mexicano builds its week-long cooking programs around the Mexican festival seasons. Master classes are held in Tepoztlán,a cobbled town of adobe houses in the shadow of Mexican volcanos Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. You make your own accommodation arrangements (with their help)for these programs, but the outdoor, blue and white tiled kitchen/classroom is one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen. This is a master class program for ambitious and experienced cooks. Top Picks: Cocinar Mexicano — Master Classes in Undiscovered Mexico

8) Cooking classes in Asti — with Senior Fitness from Pilates and Language Lessons

Spend seven days at a beatiful 5-star boutique hotel in Asti and improve yourself in every direction. Seven Piedmont cooking classes, conversational Italian lessons, spa treatments, market and winery visits and, amazingly, as much Pilates studio time as you can take. The stretching exercises are great for a flexible spine and supple body — and as a counter to all that pasta! Top Picks: The International Kitchen – Pilates and Cooking Discovery

9) On the Cooking School Vacation Vangard –Ontario Wine Country for Seniors

Culinary weekends at this winery based cooking school and restaurant in Ontario focus on the relationship between farm and table, with cooking classes alternating with visits to local growers. The refinement of wine country cookery in this region is relatively new so Seniors discover a developing cuisine. Packages with accommodation can be arranged, at special rates, at The Harbour House Hotel and The Riverbend Inn. Come with a group of friends for a private class. Top Picks: Wine Country Cooking School at the Strewn Winery in Ontario

10) Cordon Bleu Cooking School Short Programs at a Loire Chateau

You can’t get more classic — and classy — than Le Cordon Bleu. With a 100 year tradition, this where the world’s greatest chefs get their basic training. So this short program, at the Château des Briottières in the Loire is a real treat for senior travelers touring in France. The break includes two nights at the chateau and two hands-on workshops with a Cordon Bleu Paris chef, followed by dinner (made by the participants) and served in the elegant dining room. Top Picks: Le Cordon Bleu French Regional Discovery

By Carole Kotkin

The village of Follina is a sleepy Treviso hamlet with characteristic views of olive groves, vineyards and crumbling old villas. Villagers sip their morning cappuccino standing up at a counter, and the scent of garlic being sauted in oil wafts through the air. There aren’t many unspoiled scenes like this in Italy’s tourist hot spots, where visitors sometimes seem to outnumber the locals. In Follina, the few tourists are mostly out of sight-tucked away in the kitchen of Villa Abbazia, learning the difference between al dents and overcooked. Everyone knows you can eat well in Italy. But why stop there when you can spend your vacation digesting the fine art of Italian cuisine? As an alternative to tramping through churches, museums and shops, an increasing number of visitors to Italy are instead enjoying culinary tourism by enrolling in cooking classes. Lauren Scuncio Birmingham, whose Boston-based firm, Cooking Vacations International, says her clients want "an authentic experience. And the simplest introduction to a country is through the food." Her passion for food and wine sparked her to pursue the idea of creating this unique cooking vacation adventure. "In my family everyone is always in the kitchen before dinner-helping to prepare the dinner." The preparation and cooking part is just as important as the dinner. The kitchen is the center of conversation, laughter and fun. Italian cooking is a family experience and Cooking Vacations gives everyone the opportunity to experience great food, wine, music, and the feeling of being Italian. As they say in Italy, "it’s not healthy to eat alone."

The greenery of the Venetian pre-Alps surrounds the 17th century Villa Abbazia, a charming Relais and Chateaux hotel. Due to its favorable geographical position, it is not only well connected with the most important centers in the province of Treviso, but also offers the visitors a peaceful and relaxing stay. Chef Roberto Franzin, of the Ristorante La Corte at the Villa Abbazia, teaches the cooking classes. "Cuisine is part of every Italian," Franzin says, "It’s the history they are learning in the kitchen. It’s not just about recipes. The kitchen is filled with memories of life’s experiences. We all remember food we ate as children." As the chef assembled a layered eggplant dish, he said "It’s easy to get people to eat foie gras, but not so easy to get them to eat simple foods like eggplant." He sandwiched fresh mozzarella cheese and garlic infused oven-roasted tomatoes between deep-fried, long, thin slices of eggplant. It was simply delicious. A cooking vacation is also about the countryside where activities include an independent walking tour among the hills in the countryside of Prosecco, home of the Veneto’s sparkling wine; biking among historic villas, churches and castles scattered around the region. Jewel-like Palladium towns are within driving distance; Asolo, Possagno, Treviso, Conegliano, Bassano del Grappa and Venice. The Abbey of Follina, right across the street from the hotel, is one of the best-preserved monuments in Italy and today it is the setting for numerous musical presentations. Trattoria is to Italy what Bistro is to France; an informal neighborhood restaurant serving fresh, home-cooked meals. Just down the road from Villa Abbazia is Osteria al Castelletto, owned by the charming Clemintina. This is the Trattoria of your dreams-bouquets of fresh flowers, a wood-burning grill in the center of the room, and delicious food prepared just for you. In just about an hour’s drive from Venice, you can indulge yourself in the Venetian countryside lifestyle and discover the region’s passion for wine and art. Visit the Canova museum in Possagno, where a variety of expository buildings, and many collections of work by Antonio Canova are housed. Another enchanting possibility for the art lover is to visit the charming Venetian Villas of Palladio. Villa Barbaro in Maser, and Villa Emo Capodilista in Fanzolo di Vedelago.

By Charis Atlas Heelan

For me, every vacation is a culinary experience – the more exotic the location and the more diverse the food the better. The essence of travel is immersing yourself in the local culture, so indulging in its cuisine and delicacies is the perfect place to start. Okay, so I wasn’t too wild about trying guinea pig meat in Peru or even thinking about that morsel of raw horse meat in Japan, but I have had the distinct pleasure of savoring some of the most tantalizing dishes in the world in their places or origin.

If you live to eat, then a culinary vacation seems a sensible and delicious, albeit often pricey option. Most tours are land-only and run at several hundred dollars per day.

Cooking Vacations (tel. 617/247-4112; www.cooking-vacations.com) specializes in culinary trips in Italy featuring tours and classes in 12 different regions – each including the unique tastes and flavors of the area. Travel to Piedmont, the land of truffles and chocolate, for the "Six-nights at Palazzo Cuneo" vacation. Executive Chef Marc Lanteri invites you to experience the Piedmont’s unique food and wines as he offers his hands-on cooking classes at the prestigious Michelin Star restaurant property in Cuneo. This four star property is a 16th century noble palace, once the playground for the King of France Francis I and Pope Pio VII. Recently refurbished, it is now host to many cooking classes and wine tasting dinners! This complete culinary experience includes wine tastings, a one-hour wine lesson, featuring the wines of the Langhe area, an epicurean guided tour of Cuneo, and instruction on how to prepare several of Northern Italy’s specialty dishes. Included in the $2,625 price is six-nights accommodation, round trip transfers from Turin train station or airport, English speaking guide for excursions to places like Castello di Neive and an excursion to Monte Carlo and the Cote d’Azur, elaborate lunches and dinners daily (sometimes cooked by you) and personalized cooking classes as specified.

Another offer by Cooking Vacations is "Organic Cooking Vacation in Bologna," offering insight into the best produce and recipes of the Emilia Romagna region. Included in the $2,295 price is six-nights accommodation (based on double occupancy) at an estate near the Salvarola spas in the Sassuolo area, breakfast daily, round trip private transfer from Bologna airport, four cooking lessons (three hours each), four lunches or dinners following the class, a half-day guided tour of balsamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese producers, a half-day guided tour to Modena and the market, a half-day tour to a wine cellar near Bologna with tastings and a visit to Vignola Medieval Castle. Single supplement is $250. Both Cooking Vacations tours take place throughout the year.