Cooking, Food, Wine & Culture in Baroque
South East Sicily
Tour # LS

Sample Itinerary
Tour dates and prices
To Reserve

Region: Sicily

Setting: The Baroque South East of Sicily

Sicily is a fascinating, beautiful island with layers of history and exotic cuisines coming from its occupiers: the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish and many more.

The south east of Sicily focuses on agriculture, so instead of four star hotels and crowds of tourists, you see small bed and breakfasts, usually family-run, and the restaurants and bars full of locals. You experience the real Sicily, away from touristy spots, where local people live. Your local cooking tour company owners add their intimate knowledge of the place and its hidden corners and have close links with some of the best producers, restaurants, hotel owners and guides.

Ragusa

You visit fascinating Ragusa, ancient and modern. Modern Ragusa was developed from the 18th century on. Ragusa is a treasure full of beautiful palaces and churches and truly merits being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ragusa Ibla is like an open museum of Baroque architecture. The magnificent Duomo di San Giorgio with its rich Baroque facade and a Neoclassic dome on a piazza of aristocratic palazzi will awe you. You can enjoy walking by palaces and churches in a labyrinth of charming narrow and intricate streets in a lively area of excellent restaurants, bars and pubs, small hotels in restored old palaces, and the University of Ragusa which holds many events.

A visit to the modern part of Ragusa includes Piazza San Giovanni and its Baroque Cathedral, more lovely palaces and the Archaeological Museum. Via Roma and Corso Italia are ideal for shopping.

The Ragusa area is famous for vegetables and flowers, cattle breeding and high quality food and wine. The most famous is the "caciocavallo ragusano" cheese, that is still produced with traditional methods along with the ricotta and other food specialties on farms. Ragusa also famous for its honey, olive oil, ricotta, and traditional dishes like u Sfuogghiu, A Jaddina or I Cuosti chini, a Pasta alla Picurara, i scacci and many, many others.

Noto

You'll also visit Noto, one of the magnificent Baroque cities of the Val di Noto, now a UNESCO world heritage site. The beautiful seaside and mountains are another great attraction. Noto is also world famous for the quality of its almonds, "la mandorla di Noto", a local speciality and almond paste, "crema di mandorle" which is used to enrich creams, sauces, tarts, almond milk and other products.

Modica

You'll enjoy visiting Modica, the city of 100 bells and 100 churches, which sits on a gorge with buildings of Upper Modica climbing up the rocks and a maze of narrow streets and steps leading to Lower Modica in a valley. The city's rich cuisine reflects especially its Arab and Spanish invaders with a range of sweet and savoury dishes.

Your Historic House in Modica

The house has three double en-suite, airconditioned rooms with telephone access, wireless internet and flat-panel TVs, and we have access to more double and single rooms in the adjacent building (Casalbergo Garibaldi) whose rooms are also all en-suite as well.

The main living area is divided into a large kitchen (where the courses will take place) and a large living room, with both offering access to the terazza. So you can sit back and enjoy the views with a nice glass of wine from our wide collection.

The house is located right in the centre of Modica, some steps up from the road next to Modica's main theatre. Shops, bars and restaurants as well as the main sites of Modica are within easy reach and from the terrazza of the house you can enjoy the Duomo of San Giorgio with the "scalinata - stairs" that lead from the heart of Modica up to the Duomo.

Tour Directors

Tour company owners, Katia and Ronald lived for many years in the U.K. working as university researchers in ethnic relations and artificial intelligence respectively. They decided that the southeast of Sicily is the place they love and decided to move there. Katia was born in south east Sicily in Modica, and grew up just 20 minutes away in Ispica. Ronald was born and grew up in Limassol, Cyprus, another beautiful Mediterranean island. They got married in Sicily in a beautiful sunny April day in 2003 with Chef Salvatore (your cooking lesson chef) preparing their wonderful wedding banquet dinner.

Your main cooking teacher, Salvatore Guarino was born and lives in Ragusa. Cooking is his passion. He combines an informal approach to introductory Sicilian cooking, based on a solid understanding of the main ingredients and fundamental techniques, with precise attention to detail. That makes him a great teacher for beginner to advanced cooks alike! He trained with some of the best known names in Italy such as Rossano Boscolo, Sergio Mei (Italian Cook of the Year 1998) and Jack Bruno of Palermo. Then he became the manager of his family's catering company, one of the most sought after companies for weddings in the region, and a partner in the Vecchio Mulino restaurant in Ragusa. Salvatore is considered as one of the foremost experts in the cuisine and ingredients of the region of Ragusa. He is a fellow of the Accademia di Arte Culinaria Siciliana as the representative of the region of Ragusa. He was part of the team that prepared the dinner for European Parliament in October 2003 in Brussels, hosted by the Sicily region administration. He also won an honorary mention in the international "EXPOGAST2002" competition in Luxemburg.

Day 1
Arrive at Catania airport and private transfer to Modica. Enjoy a welcome dinner and a small intro about the plans for your week.

Day 2
After breakfast, straight into the kitchen for our first lesson. The lesson starts around 9am and typically lasts for 3-4 hours with lunch afterwards.

In the afternoon, we visit Mulino Cavallo, where the current owners have maintained the traditional water mill and the old dwellings used up until the beginning of the nineteenth century by their family. We can see how they still use the mill to produce excellent whole meal durum wheat flour.

Then, we go for a walk at the Cava Ispica to visit the archeological site of the Parco Forza and visit an organic winery near the coast to taste their wines.

In the evening we go for dinner at the restaurant-pizzeria for a "giro pizza", literally a "round" of pizzas - going through different kinds of pizza, including the restaurant's trademark seafood pizza.

Day 3

After breakfast, we have our second cooking lesson.

After a rest we take off for an exploration of the coast starting from the Vendicari Nature Reserve visiting the newly restored Tonnara and then move to the fishing village of Marzamemi.

Return to Modica in time for dinner. For dinner you are free in Modica.

Day 4
To really get to know the products of a place a visit to local producers is always very helpful. So we dedicate this day to visit the COS Winery in Acate to understand their wine-making process and their choice of producing organic wines.

Lunch at the winery while enjoying a taste of their wines. After lunch we go to Ragusa Ibla to visit the old Baroque town.

In the evening we can enjoy some of Modica's rustic delicacies such as scacci and arancini as well as a variety of cheese accompanied with some of our favourite wines.

Day 5
Visit the beautiful historical city centre of Siracusa, Ortygia.

There you will be free to wonder around the fish market and explore the city centre where you can see the Temple of Apollo, the Duomo with its magnificent Baroque façade and Doric temple columns, which was originally a Doric temple, the legendary Arethusa Fountain and the Norman Maniace Castle. Ortygia is also a great place to go shopping.

After lunch at a local restaurant, we go back to Modica for an afternoon lesson at the school followed by dinner.

Day 6
Cooking lesson on more rustic dishes, such as `scacci' , a special kind of thin pastry with various fillings very popular in Ragusa.

After lunch and a siesta we pay tribute to one of the most important products of South-East Sicily, chocolate! Modica is famous for its chocolate and chocolate-based sweets, whose routes can be traced back to Mexican traditions brought to Sicily via the Spaniards. We visit the world-famous chocolate lab of Bonajuto, for a private tour and a chance to taste their latest creations. Then there is time for you to explore on your own the beautiful town of Modica and its wonderful shops in the historical city centre.

At night we all sit round the table for a farewell chocolate based dinner.

Day 7
Breakfast and transfer back to Catania.

2008 Dates	2008 Prices Per Person
Sept 7-13 Sept 20-26 Sept 28-Oct 4 Katia and Ronald are happy to run this cooking tour on other dates for a group of at least six booking together. Group Size: 6-10 Type of Class: hands-on	1775 Euros per person - double occupancy. About $2805 U.S. and $2805 Cdn. 1950 Euros per person - single occupancy. About $3081 0 U.S. and $3081 Cdn. Includes: 4 cooking lessons followed by lunch all lunches and dinners with drinks 6 nights accommodation with breakfast all excursions, tastings, entrance fees in the itinerary transport to/from train stations at Catania

To Reserve:

Reservation policy: In order to confirm your space the booking form and deposit must be faxed to us 7 days from when you received it. Otherwise we may cancel your space on the cooking tour. We will only re-confirm your space once we receive your booking form and deposit.

Deposit: 30% of the price at the time of booking.

Balance due: balance due no later than 60 days before the start date. If you are booking 60 days or less from the start date, you must pay the full amount when you book. If payment is not received by the due date, your confirmed reservation is subject to cancellation.

Cancellations and Refunds: If you cancel 60 days before the start date for the course we will return you the deposit but keep an administration fee of £50.

If you cancel between (i) 59 and 31 days the deposit is unfortunately lost, (ii) up to 30 days prior to departure 30% of the price (iii) 29 days to 14 days prior to departure 60% of the price (iv) 13 days or less prior to departure, or on departure date, 100% of the price.

Prices may be affected by international exchange rates fluctuations.

Do you have questions? Just e-mail or call "Mama" Margaret Cowan

E-mail: margaret@italycookingschools.com
Phone: 1-800-557-0370 or 604-681-4074 (Pacific Time)

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