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| Padova |
On our way to Lago di Garda, we had an hour’s wait in Padova (“Padua” in English), so we grabbed a coffee and then wandered around a bit. It was market day and we were surrounded by some of the most beautiful food I’ve ever seen in Italy. We regretted not bringing our picnic kit since we had planned to eat in a lakeside restaurant. Continue reading
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| Lago di Garda |
Our trip to northeastern Italy coincided with a heat wave – it was at least 90 degrees the whole time, so we decided to take a day trip to Lago di Garda. Continue reading
Two days is plenty of time to get to get a feel for Venice, so after we got our fill of wandering around, we did a half-day trip to the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello. We had thought that 3½ hours was too much time, but with only about 45 minutes on each island, it turned out to be not enough. Continue reading
The flight from Nice to Venice only took an hour, making us feel like we hadn’t gone very far at all. But once we got into town, it definitely felt like we were in a different country. My husband and I have been to many different parts of Italy, but this was our first visit to the northeast. We spent four nights in a B+B in Mestre, one of the 6 Venetian boroughs. Continue reading
I spent my third and final week in Italy taking private cooking classes at Apicius Culinary Institute. I had spent a long time looking for another group class but just couldn’t find something that appealed to me yet didn’t cost a small fortune, and then I discovered that private classes were fairly competitively priced. For €1,060 I received
The second Italian cooking program I attended in September was Convivio Rome. While it’s not a vegetarian program, I contacted the school ahead of time and they assured me that I would have something vegetarian to cook while the other students cooked meat. For €999, the program included the following:
The first of the three Italian cooking programs I attended in September 2009 was Organic Tuscany. While the school is not vegetarian, it offers week-long vegetarian programs a few times a year. For €1,300 (the price has since gone up), the program included the following:
Participants are required to rent a car to get to the offsite visits, so that is another charge to keep in mind. The director helps arrange car sharing. Continue reading
Six months ago, my husband and I decided to spend most of September in Italy, though for the most part not together. He wanted to take some intensive Italian language classes, and I wanted to add to my Italian cuisine repertoire – specifically, fresh pasta and gnocchi. After a great deal of research, I found three programs that sounded like they would meet my needs (more or less) and that cost no more than 1,300 euros for the week, including lodging. There were a number of other great-sounding programs that cost upwards of €2,000 – and one that was nearly €5,000! Even staying in a 5-star villa, I can’t see how a week of cooking could be worth the better part of a year’s rent. So I chose from the cheaper end of the scale and, for the most part, I was fairly happy with my classes. I’ve written detailed reviews of the three cooking programs to help out anyone else who is considering a culinary vacation. There were some problems and disappointments, but overall, I loved it.
Program 1: Organic Tuscany (Certaldo)
Program 2: Convivio Rome (Toffia)
Program 3: Apicius Culinary Institute (Florence)
