Thank you all.

I will post here both before and after.

I just got a whole lot more information. The lodging is in a place called Santa Dominica. It's on the ocean with views to Eolian Islands.

I think it is very close to Tropea, because they have free shuttles from the lodging to Tropea.

The daytrips you could take with guide are to Pizzo, Capo Vaticano, full day in Reggio-Calabria (the one day of 5 you don't have cooking lesson 1/2 the day)and there is a Stromboli night possible.

It runs about $762 for the cooking lessons and the lodging per person. The resort has a cooking school classroom and a language school classroom on the property.

Does anyone have any knowledge of Santa Dominica?

Or has anyone used Lamezia Terme Airport?

We stopped at the airport just to look around and it is nice and looks well equiped. I would fly into there w/o a problem.

Sounds like a really great cooking school!

Thanks, SeaUrchin. It would only be coming in, I think. We would have to make at least one connecting flight- maybe two.

I have flown in & out of Lamezia with no problem. I went to Pizzo last summer, they are famous for Tartufo. It was delicious! There's also a castle there to visit. Does the hotel have a website by any chance?

It's not on the brochure- and I think it is a private school/residence and not a hotel. It sounds like they do 8 different lodgers for a language course or cooking lessons at one time.

My friend has attended two language lesson vacations already. But I will post more as planning proceeds.

Looking at the map it is very near Tropea, and directly on the coast. I think I would love it, but I bet my guy would think it way too quiet.

Pizzo Castle was where Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother in law and the King of Naples was captured and executed by a firing squad. He led a very interesting life, you may want to look at his history.

ttp://www.tolentino815.it/paginaeng.aspx?id=2949

I've been to Calabria a couple of times. I have a cousin with the same name as mine in a town near Pizzo, called San Mango D'Aquino (St. Thomas Aquinas), I don't know how, but "Mango" is the Calabrese name for "Thomas." My grandfather left his youngest son in Italy, with the child's mother, came to the US, and never returned to Calabria. Hence, my uncle Biase had a son and named him after Biase's father, the same as my father did. When I went to one of my yearly trips to Naples, I called my cousin, and arranged to meet him at the railroad station in La Mezia. As soon as I got off the train, I spotted him. He's a dead ringer for me! We went WAY up the moutain from La Mezia to the lovely town of San Mango. My cousin, who is a schoolteacher in the town, and is known to the whole town, went about introducing his American cousin with the same name. He really had a ball. The town is located on the edge of The Sila, which is a huge forested area in Calabria. We spent lots of time there, it is very lovely, full of pine, and oak trees. The region of Calabria is pristine, and I hope they keep it that way for future generations.