Hi,
My husband is teaching in Venice during June and July 2009 and I would like to take some cooking classes while there. I am a reasonably proficient cook and a real foodie. While we will be based in Venice, I haven't ruled out traveling to Florence or elsewhere a truly special course.

All suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Cindi

As you probably know, there is a considerable difference in the local cuisines in Italy -- such that if it's your dream to learn how to cook the perfect polenta, you should look for a class in the Veneto, while Bolognese cooking is quite different, as is Tuscan cooking. And if you want to make the perfect risotto, head over to Lombardia.

In the biggest tourist places (Venice, Florence) , the courses probably reflect tourist expectations, rather than tradition. So you might learn how to cook pizza outside Napoli, or make pesto outside Liguria.

But if you want to be able to come back home and cook your favorite dishes -- or learn how to make pasta -- you need to go to the regions where those things originate.

Fred Plotkin's Guide to Italy for the Gourmet Traveler lists a great many cooking schools, by regional cuisine. In that area, I would be very tempted to look around Friuli (where Lydia Bastianich hails from). But you might prefer someplace else.

PS: In June and July, some places (like Bologna) are going to be hotter than frying pans. You might consider someplace like Portovenere (in Liguria) if you like both pesto and dry sea breezes. Or someplace up in the mountains either north of Venice or in Le Marche.

Thanks, Zeppole. You offer some very good food for thought. I think that I'll have a lot of fun researching this.

Oh -- I just thought of something.

There is this cooking course on the Amalfi that is run by the "food maven" Arthur Schwartz in tandem with some highly regarded Italian lady, and it takes place in her beautiful villa near the sea over some span of time. I believe the classes are in English.

You learn to cook the cuisine of Campania, and you visit mozzerella farms and also the nearby ruins (like Pompeii). In the summer, you can catch a flight to Napoli and take a ferry there. It would just be paradisical.

Fred Plotkin mentions it in his book (enthusiastically) but I bet you can find it online if you google up cooking and Arthur Schwartz and Campania - or some variation.

The only problem would be that the ingredients in Campania are so exquisite, you probably could never really reproduce the dishes at home. But they'd still be delicious!