I am helping four friends formulate a plan for their month long, autumn '08 trip to Tuscany. It will be their first time as independent travelers and both couples enjoy cooking.

I have given them names of instructors but two things seem to be troubling - cost and actual time spent in cooking instruction. Divina Cucina comes highly recommended with the caveat that a lot of time is spent shopping in the market, meeting the food vendors and then at lunch at a cafe.

Does anyone have another recommendation or anything to add about their Divina Cucina experience?

Hi J,

Try your question at www.slowtrav.com

We stayed above Apicius in Florence, and some of the drama we overheard from the terrace was very reminiscent of a "Top Chef"-type showdown - quite bitchy and amusing really - but after looking at their website, it appears to be more professional culinary academy than cooking class. I can say that the kitchen time seemed to be very intensive down there.

We loved our tour with accidentaltourist.com

I can highly recommend this company. If you do a search, you can see that others recommend it as well.

Here is a well-regarded school:

www.cucinaconvista.it

Ira, thanks for the suggestion. However, Judy Diva is a popular personality and frequent contributor over on Slow Travel. I need some objective opinions.

I do appreciate the links to Apicius and Accidental Tourist.

..meant to say that the school I mentioned was the subject of an article in Food & Wine magazine recently..they called it the best in Tuscany..

Bookmarking for the 2011 info.

TDudette --

Unclear whether poster suggesting 'Cook Eat Italian' is legit, or thinly veiled promo ...... seems a bit odd their first post on forum is response to a 4-yr old thread. Additionally noticed 'other' newbies responded to an old thread (Affordable Cooking in Florence) suggesting this same company/website. They may be a good company .... but I'd take comments w/ grain of salt from someone whose one/only post re: site.