Why Travel with Mama Margaret & Friends
Cooking Adventures in Italy?

In these frenetic times, what really counts in your life? On our tours, you go back to slower, sweeter times of long ago. You have lots of time to talk, laugh, share experiences with family and friends you love. To eat wonderful, genuine Italian food made of fresh local ingredients. To immerse yourself in beautiful, peaceful nature. You rediscover what your heart really values.

On our tours, many people joyfully celebrate 30th, 40th, 50th or 60th birthdays, or 10th, 20th, 25th, 30th, or 40th wedding anniversaries with those they love.

Through your exclusive cooking lessons and visits, you’ll get to know a long list of local Italian characters one on one: chefs, wine makers, winery owners, food producers, owners of historic hotels and friends of Elio, and Marcello and Raffaella. People you’d never meet otherwise in Italy. As you dine with a balsamic vinegar producer or taste wine in a family’s wine cellar with the father, you’ll feel like a real insider. You feel Italian for a week in places tourists never go.

You join a cosy tour group who love food and wine and Italy as much as you do! You've got lots in common right from the start and in such a small group you get to know each other easily and are laughing together in no time. You feel you’re travelling with friends.

My good Italian friends, Elio, and Raffaella and Marcello and I are small tour operators specializing in food and wine adventures in Italy, so you get high quality, one-on-one service from people who really know and care. Some people cry when they have to leave. We're experts with big hearts who bend over backwards to take care of you so you feel like kings and queens in Italy.

In your small ccoking tour group of two to eight, you bask in all kinds of personal attention from Elio, Elio's guides, Marcello, Raffaella and me. We're all great ones for kidding around, telling silly stories, and laughing at little things...and we love good Italian food and wines too. You'll have lots of fun!!

Unlike the vast majority of tours, with us you cook at different restaurants and homes with many chefs, so you learn a variety of techniques, meet lots of people, experience a variety of kitchens big and small, and enjoy dining in a wide choice of good places. Cooking lessons are mostly hands-on with some demonstrations so you watch the expert, then try yourself.

On our guided tours, we stay in historic hotels in pretty little towns in Italy, so you can relax, feel like you're going back to a quieter time and enjoy country views on the high quality, picturesque hotel property, or take a stroll around town to shop or hang out in the piazza and watch life go by.

On many tours, you can enjoy 45-90 minute (up to you) walks down through vineyards or along scenic country roads and paths. You feel tranquillity seeping into you. Besides that, you go home from Italy weighing the same!

We’re very flexible in catering to your needs and interests. If you want to walk or shop more or less, just tell us and we’ll change the plan of the day for you. If you don’t feel like cooking, just hang out in the kitchen with a glass of wine, or explore on your own and dine with us later.

You’re dealing with knowledgeable, flexible experts who listen to what you want and can translate it to a fabulous, fun filled, Italian experience.

Our guided Italian cooking tours include everything except some wines in some cases, so you just show up, forget about touching your wallet, sit back and let us take care of you! All you have to do is think about enjoying, enjoying!

Our "explore on your own" tours where you follow your set itinerary as you drive in your rented car give you freedom to explore at your pace.

We look forward to sharing some wonderful adventures in Italy with you in 2005!

E-mail me any questions at margaret@italycookingschools.com