Cooking Tours in Northern Italy: Piedmont, Italian Riviera, Emilia-Romagna
Vernazza
You’re in for a treat! These regions give you a dazzling buffet of some of Italy’s best food and wines, breath taking natural beauty and art.
Food lovers flock to Italy’s gastronomic paradise, Emilia-Romagna. See how they make prosciutto, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and traditional balsamic vinegar. Taste these treasures right with the producers.
On the Riviera, savour a range of herb and fish dishes, washed down with crisp, white wines. In Piedmont, Alba’s white truffle fair draws gourmets worldwide. Chocolate appears in desserts like hazelnut and chocolate cake topped with zabaglione.
Wine connoisseurs head to Piedmont for Barolo and Barbaresco, some of Italy’s top reds, ranking with Tuscany’s Brunello.
Nature lovers! Walk in gentle hills blanketed in vineyards and crowned with medieval castles in Piedmont. Explore colourful fishing villages in Cinque Terre on the Riviera.
Love architecture and art? Admire medieval towers in Alba’s historic centre in Piedmont, playful naïf paintings on the Riviera or amazing Byzantine churches in Romagna.
Piedmont
In Piedmont, in Italy’s north west corner, you’ll always remember experiences like:
With a chef in your cooking school class, making a delectable semifreddo dessert with hazelnut nougat and chocolate sauce, and eating it with aromatic Moscato wine.
Visiting a Barolo wine producer, passionate about his wines, who sits down with you to drink them, chat about life and tell you all about Barolo.
Walking paths in vineyard-covered hills, falling at all angles, with incredible views all the way to the Alps.
At a truffle fair, talking with a vendor, buying a truffle and getting it shaved over delicate tagliatelle in a restaurant.
Italian Riviera
The gorgeous Italian Riviera starts at the French border and turns south to the Tuscan border.
Some unforgettable experiences:
In Portovenere, outside in a restaurant by the little fishing port, dining on freshly made pasta with an aromatic basil and pine nut pesto, drinking Cinque Terre white wine and watching the sun go down over the bay.
Walking a pathway of stone steps through peaceful olive trees and coming to a spot with an awesome view down to Vernazza. Its brilliantly coloured homes on terraces nestle around the port and beach.
View available Italian Riviera (Cinque Terre) tours in Piedmont tour section 
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna is north of Tuscany. In the west, Emilia goes from about Piacenza to Bologna. Romagna stretches from Bologna to the Adriatic.
Some experiences you’ll savour:
At the parmesan cheese maker’s, watching the artisans go through all the steps to make the cheese, seeing how the cheeses age and taste young and mature cheeses with the producer. Fascinating!
Visiting a traditional balsamic vinegar producer’s cellars, seeing how they make it in series of ever smaller barrels and tasting 25 year old traditional balsamic vinegar. Like liquid velvet in your throat!
With a professional pasta maker at her 150 year old farmhouse, cook four or five kinds of pasta in a hands-on class in her kitchen.
In Ravenna, marvel at the magnificent Byzantine churches with stunning mosaics covering much of the interiors.
